OUxPhys BSN, RN

Hello! VA nurse here. Just wondering if any VA's have offered any bonuses or premium pay due to being critically short staffed.

I think both are great choices. I don't think it matters which one you get first. Maybe CV-BC and then RCIS?

I work cath and EP and EP is what I prefer. I like seeing all the different types of ablations. The device cases can also be cool depending on what they are getting implanted and what's going on with their rhythms. It is more interesting than cath (a...

Man Im jealous reading some of these posts. When I was working bedside we never had a free charge. We were expected to do charge while juggling a full assignment. Granted, it was lower acuity but still.

Im guessing it's because they aren't as selective as traditional NP schools. The sole purpose of them is to make money, not churn out quality NPs.

I paid for parking at my old job. I can't remember what it was but it wasn't $100. Maybe it was $25-35 a pay? What's funny is a satellite hospital in the same system didn't charge employees or visitors for parking. I work at the VA now so paying for ...

My VA we got a 7% increase. $26/hr is horrible, especially for all the responsibilities put on a nurse.

Hello all, I work at a VA cath/ep lab. We are under medicine service, not nursing. As a result we are missing out on a lot of the things nursing is offering the nurses under Nursing Service. Just curious what the setup is like at other VA's (not...

Good Morning! I have recently completed my orientation in cath lab and have started my orientation on the EP side. I have books for the cath lab side but was wondering if there were any EP lab books out there worth checking out?

I have Kern's Cardiac Catheterization Handbook and Fast Facts for the Cath Lab Nurse. Also have a book titled Pathophysiology of Heart Disease.

CCF is using some travel nurses. They certainly have raised the pay rates from the time I was working there. As for housing it really depends. Some people rent. Some people buy. Most either live downtown or the eastside or westside. Westside has bett...

I enjoy my M-F schedule. Less stress. If I need a day off during the week it's almost always never a problem. Sure it's nice to work only 3 days a week but I was getting physically and mentally exhausted. I think the one downside is having to deal wi...

Unfortunately with the VA you have to meet all the criteria to move up from Nurse 1 to nurse 2, etc. It doesn't matter what education level you are (for the most part). Sure, they more than likely won't give you nurse 2 if you have an ADN (due to the...

At my VA they are trialing the 72/80 as a retention/recruiting incentive. It will roll out on the outpatient side first (CLC, blind rehab, dementia floors, psych, etc) and then the inpatient side (mainly the wards and units; doubt it extends to the p...

Still in the hospital but now in the cath/ep lab. Much less stress.

True. My nursing school friend moved to Arizona last November and took a travel contract. They eventually started cutting travel pay so he took a travel contract back in Ohio because they still paid high contracts.

I can see them freezing salaries or holding off on any pay raises while still paying agencies $150/hr for travel nurses all while claiming "there is no money", thus worsening the problem they helped create.

Prior to covid most hospitals wanted BSN for the MAGNET certification. Now that has gone to the wayside. I hope they realized (although I don't have faith in the suits) the mistake they made requiring BSN only nurses. Perhaps MAGNET will change their...

I work at a VA cath lab and I am not aware of specialty pay. How much is it at your VA?

I work VA and I make more than the private sector hospitals around me. The one downside to VA is that depending where your VA is at you may not get to see things very often that are seen everyday at a private sector hospital. The acuity is also proba...

I still read the label before drawing or administering the med. Im just that paranoid.

VA is notorious for lowballing. I know with RNs they can appeal, not sure about NPs. I do know though that initially they start out low but in the long run make really good money.

It's usually a recruiting tool but can also be used as a retention tool. Just about everyone has some form of college debt now so it's not unusual for hospitals to offer it as an incentive to stay or join. My VA offers it for new job postings and sev...

This and the hospitals are also responsible with their obsession of obtaining magnet status and removing LPNs. This is all self-inflicted, not from lack of people entering the work force.

The problem at my facility is that the only union there is AFGE and as you stated they do a better job of retaining less than stellar employees more than anything. However I was surprised to find that some VAs have both the AFGE and ANA for nurses (A...