Members are discussing the hiring process and potential pay grades for nursing positions at the VA, with some sharing their experiences of long wait times and varying offers. Questions about salary scales, job postings, and negotiation strategies are also being raised, along with inquiries about tuition reimbursement and educational benefits for VA employees.
Hi, I just got accepted into a BSN accelerated program and am interested in working for the VA. I know that they take into account paid/unpaid experience including volunteer work. How do they determine the number of years of experience I have? Do they just calculate the number of hours we have and equate that to years assuming full time work at 40 hours per week? Also, right now I'm an administrative intern at a medical practice but this practice is house calls so I don't have a lot of direct patient contact. Would they still count this as experience? I mostly work on ordering and obtaining labs and medical records, ordering x-rays, answer calls from patients/ POAs, document narcotic scripts and just started learning intake. Thank you!
I'm not an RN yet. I'm getting it through the BSN program. As an undergrad, how would I be able to accumulate a year's worth of Nursing care/experience since I will be going to school full time? I'm planning on volunteering at hospitals and working as a student nurse through the semester and summer. But this will only be like half a year of experience. Do they not consider administrative healthcare work? Any suggestions or advice from everyone would be great. Normally I'm young so I wouldn't rush in trying to start entry level RN with good money but my parents are 70s and 80s so I need the money to care for them. According to the website, BSN with at least 1 year of experience starts around 65,000-68,000. I wanna try to reach that ballpark. Thanks.
Nursing school and administrative healthcare will not count for experience or working as a student nurse. The pay scale for a BSN will depend on where you are working at. I will be working at a VA in North Carolina and I will be making appox. 10K more a year than the VA I worked at in PA.
The experience you mention is good for getting interviews and offers but as noted above, only RN experience counts when determining where you will fall in the wide range of VA RN salaries. You will start low.
BSN is Nurse 1 Level 2. From a previous post, under the heading that says level 2 it tells you the step the level starts at. For example, in DC level 2 starts at step 3 with no experience. Nurse 1 is Grade 1 on their chart. I hope this helps.
Anyone currently work at the Portland, OR VA as a BSN RN? I just got offered a job and I was told by HR that within a few weeks the pay scale is raising in order to try and keep RN's. The HR rep wasn't able to tell me exactly my starting wage on the phone just yet , as there is still paperwork to process but, she said the new increase will start a new BSN RN at around $70,000/year. I have only three months of RN experience. I will post back when I know more. I am hopeful that this is correct. The other cool thing about the VA is that it qualifies for student loan forgiveness!
The payscale for RN nursing in the VA is based on title 38 (not the GS scales) and is adjusted for local markets. If you can't find clear figures, you're not looking very hard. All the ranges of pay are posted on usajobs.gov which posts all VA positions. Your military service isn't used to determine your pay unless it involves healthcare experience. You can ask the nurse recruiter at that facility to give your the worksheet that explains the 'boarding' process whereby they look at your experience, education, and skills and determine where you start. Nurse 1, 2, or 3 and at what 'step.' You'll get paid on the lower side of the middle. So if the pay scale in Tampa is 60-100k, you'll probably end up making around 70k. But raises are pretty much guaranteed if you work there for years, as long as you're not doing anything incompetent.
Specializes in Care Coordination, General Surgery, Oncology.
They still haven't posted the new salary levels, but we have been approved for a locality adjustment raise. I haven't gotten mine yet, but I have been getting a 10% retention bonus since being there for 90 days. Once the new locality adjustment goes through, I'll stop getting the bonus.
The percentage of the raise varies from the type of nurse and where you are in the state; what you heard from the HR rep is correct according to my calculations, but that's assuming you start at RN I, Level 2, Step 3 at the Portland campus. Once you're boarded, obviously they'll tell you your salary, but you'll also know what level/step you're at so you can look at the locality pay tables online to compare.
Also, as far as loan forgiveness goes, you have to be in a public service position full-time for 10 years making your payments on time every month before your loans will be forgiven. However, depending on what department you'll be in, there are some loan repayment options offered by the VA in exchange for 2-3 years of service. At the Portland VA, those funds are limited and usually only available to their critical shortage areas, like ICU, ED, OR, etc. Where will you be?
Congratulations on your employment! I have been working here since August as a new grad on one of the med-surg units and I'm enjoying it.
nursing#101, BSN
182 Posts
Hi, I just got accepted into a BSN accelerated program and am interested in working for the VA. I know that they take into account paid/unpaid experience including volunteer work. How do they determine the number of years of experience I have? Do they just calculate the number of hours we have and equate that to years assuming full time work at 40 hours per week? Also, right now I'm an administrative intern at a medical practice but this practice is house calls so I don't have a lot of direct patient contact. Would they still count this as experience? I mostly work on ordering and obtaining labs and medical records, ordering x-rays, answer calls from patients/ POAs, document narcotic scripts and just started learning intake. Thank you!