Travel nursing through the VA

[luv2shopp85]

Has anyone done travel nursing through the VA? This seems like a pretty good deal to me. Although they say you have to sign on for 3 years. I kind of get the feeling its like being in the military though since you have to do it for 3 years.

Do you get to pick your assignments? Do you get to go anywhere you want?

I would like to hear all kinds of stories from people that are doing this or have done this. Is nursing at the VA the same as basic floor nursing? I've never been to the VA before. I do know its pretty advanced and they use computerized charting and medication scanners, which I LOVE.

[rn1233]

I am interested in hearing more about this too. I've called the 800 # online for the VA Travel Corp several times and continue to get a voice recording that doesn't let you leave a message.

What kind of benefits do the VA Travel Corp nurses receive?

[GalRN]

I did an 18 mo travel contract in Mass- locally so it paid like a regular job w/ none of the tax free. It was originally for a year then extended six more months. I had not done oupatient psych before so I had to brush up on a few skills (like writing my assessments in narrative form), as well as do a ton of research on PTSD as well as specific issues the vets were facing. In the ends the vets taught me more than a book ever could, and the Chief outpt Psychiatrist demanded that I work to the best of my ability. Often times I'd finally get something down pat and he'd make me learn or add something else to my assessments. It really annoyed me that he expected near perfection and insisted on a higher standard of clinical skills than the med students and residents. He made me do more than the other nurses. Then I realized that he was not doing this because he thought I was stupid... he was improving my psych interviewing, diagnostic, and critical thinking abilities.

I learned so much at that job. The follow up psych and addictions program was the best I've ever seen. They do most of the really good PTSD and other psych related research. The extra checklists that I had to do with the pts were screening for TBI and narrowing it down to detect even the mild cases. I read an article recently and found out all the info from that list had been correlated with other risks and behaviors that we had been seeing. Never knew I was participating in research. It's a cool thing.

Don't know squat about the housing of the travel end, just that my recruiter was good, although they kept leaving so I had a new one every 6 mo. They were out of the info loop though, because everything went through a middle man before they got the info. Like no one knew that my contract was not extended.

I miss the VA and will probably try to line up something through MSN when my current contract ends. The inpatient unit was about the same as non VA. The doctors always treat the RN's with respect and positive remarks if we did something particularly good. I was stopped in the hall by an MD b/c she wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed reading my evals. Most staff do not consider everyone to be equal but the VA teams all respected each other and everyone got input with the pts care. The day I finished that contract was really sad.