Published Mar 19, 2012
Marshall1
1,002 Posts
For nurses working at the VA hospital or a VA clinic..can you tell me what hours the first week of general orienation is? Believe it or not I am unable to get an answer from the HR contact person I am working with...she originally told me 8:30-5, then 8-4:30 then 8 - 3:30...I have contacted her several times as I have not received anything in the mail w/the schedule - where to be etc. I finally got a short answer today telling me where to be but not when and that the packet I was to received should arrive before next week. I emailed and called again. I plan on arriving a little before 8 just to make sure I'm not late. I was told by someone else at the VA the attire is business casual for orienation. The time would not be a big deal except I have to decide whether to stay overnight in a hotel or be able to drive back and forth..a lot of the decision depends on how long the orientation days are.
Am excited to get started soon but getting info. from HR is tough!
Thanks!
BusyMomRN
28 Posts
Hey there, welcome to the VA! I am a recent hire and completed orientation at my facility (Augusta, GA) in January this year. My first 4 days were faciility orientation and the hours were from 8-4:30 (a day or two it was little earlier). The dress was also business-casual or scrubs. The HR at my facility is awful, too, must be a national thing....so sad.
Actually that is exactly where I am going for orientation as well!! The HR person also told me nursing orientation was the 2nd week BUT the clinic I am going to be based out of said no, that the nursing orientation was going to be "crammed" into orientation as well. I live 2 hrs one way - since the latest we would get out is 4:30 I'm going to drive it - Thank you for responding - it has been like pulling teeth from the HR contact.
wife&mommyRN
238 Posts
My orientation was from 7:45- 4:15, but we were always out by 3:30. The time and place to be was in my formal offer letter. My VA made some changes to orientation, nursing orientation was crammed into 2 days & everything else you just learn on the floor. There were a few specific people I wanted to speak with regarding benefits, they arrange that on days we had some gaps in time, but that was only because I kept asking. After my 1st week, I was on the floor on my unit & management was responsible for teaching us everything else. Hope that helps :)
It does help - my offer letter tells me where to report for Monday and for Thursday but nothing for the other days of the week - am assuming Tue and Wed will be a continuation of orientation and Thur and Fri will be nursing orientation...I'm still not sure if the orientation combined is 5 days or 4 - either way I'm going to go w/the flow and just bite the bullet and drive the round trip for the week since I'm still not 100% sure of the plan -
Thanks again!