VA proficiency

Dawnsearlelite · Dec 22, 2022

Talk to your RN board. If they decline you, then go to your supervisor then HR.

Targeted · Jan 16, 2023

Interesting I started with a level 11 with a BSN. Around 6 yrs experiance. The VA I was was different. For my level 111 I listed all my accomplishements. This included all my graduate papers related to that facility! Gets better!

The day before the board hearing I discovered my name wasn't listed! So I went to HR and spoke with the HR employee who took my degree out of the sealed envelope from the university! Oh was she ticked! My degree copy disapeared ! So I took a photo and sent it to the facilities DN. Well I got level 3. Retired level 3 step 8. I never flaunted it but with retention pay, shift diff, holiday pay I was making more than my manager, probably more than her boss!

Certain why they worked so hard to push me out besides whistle blowing numerous times! Don't go to eeoc! Hope my experience whelps! "Management do not have to follow policies". At some VA places they are a mockery!

kathy48 · Jan 20, 2023

I'm having similar issue with going for my nurse 3. I have developed an SOP for our nurses to carry Narcan to home visits. I have developed an entire dept Roles and responsibility/ Masters in nursing education and 30 years experience in nursing. my friend who is ON THE Board! even said she's not going for her nurse 3 because now they mandate continuous improvement in the nurses role taking additional job duties incentive and continuous quality improvement policy and expectations and 8f you don't they can not allow you to stay at nurse 3.

scott bump, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2023

here's an idea that might help? Frankly where I was didn't but maybe where you are?   make an appointment with your Manager, and both you and him or her complete an IDP   then have the Manager sign it!

    when performance September reviews come around hopefully you get a mid review, I didn't   I actually brought it up the 2nd low satisfactory review and the manager said "I've never heard of that" uhm? it's in the AFGE Master Agreement.   (hopefully you have a supportive Union) mine wasn't , I corrected their errors on the annual reviews but they were not willing to change it and my union was not supportive, actually they supported management! but maybe the local you have?

not a Union member? get a hold of their bi laws! they are expected to support you if you are a member or not     I had to write my own grievances due to how mine was....     hope anything I mentioned helps! I realize it's just as negative as positive.    At least the Accountability Act is on hold    I had to deal with that also when management turned it upside down!! 3 Adverse Actions in one year! cleared every one of them completely!!

Colton Blanco · Jan 27, 2023

It is ridiculous the way they do people. I think you could cure cancer and they still wouldn't give it to you. It should be illegal to keep someone with a MSN at anything other than a nurse 3.

Targeted · Jan 27, 2023

Thanks for Validating Colton. "Disgraceful" the 2nd low satisfactory annual review I gave them a spiral bound book correcting it. Discovered later the 2nd level Manager disposed of it! All that time I put correcting their errors, substantiating my claims....ugh! at the very least she should have included the corrections with my personal file!! She might not have known that? or? they wanted me out...

I was making just as much if not more then her and a significant amount more then my Nurse Manager. I never flaunted that.... Yep they like to push out the old in Canandaigua VA corrupt through out that pathetic/ mockery policy place!! it's true! And I can prove it!

RT2RN15, MSN · Feb 22, 2023

Initially you can review the boards evaluation with your manager and then you can see where you were labeled deficient by the board, rewrite it and resubmit. If they still reject it, you can appeal to VACO. VACO takes it away from the facility and takes an objective look at it. The VA wonders why they have recruitment and retention issues yet strives hard to pigeonhole their high performing employees by refusing to promote them accordingly.

penny186, ADN, BSN, CNA, RN · Jun 12, 2023

I started with my associates and obtained my BSN as well as wrote an in depth proficiency. My manager said there was no doubt I would get promoted. The response I got back Was lack of education. I rewrote it literally 6 times and my manager kept telling me the wrong way to carry out a rebuttal 6 times. Intentional or not, they don't want you to get a nurse 2. Although I function as charge nurse every night and go above and beyond while there are people who literally sleep for 6 or more hours per night and don't even do their proficiency and they get it.

Arr-tistRN · Jun 13, 2023

The board rates you based on strict criteria it's like grading school essays, the nurse needs to answer each question correctly to be promoted. Contrary to belief, the board can promote you even if your manager rates you "just satisfactory", the two bodies are not connected. You should request the grading sheet or rubric for nurse 2 from your board this with tell you exactly what criteria you need to have written in your proficiency for promotion. Without meeting these you cannot be promoted. These standards are set by national.

Barnaby12 · Jun 15, 2023

My wife recently became an RN. A little over a year ago. We are non-traditional students. In our late 30's. She has 3 Degrees: BS Business, BSN, MBA in Healthcare Management. She currently works in the ICU at a local hospital, Critical Care RN. she has over 1 year now of Nursing experience.

She earned her BSN after her MBA because she got tired of working for $15 an hour with a Masters. Couldn't find work. The hospital she did clinicals at hired her before she graduated straight into critical care.

based on a USA jobs advertisement we were led to believe that she could obtain a reasonable raise due to her Masters degree. Talking about 30k. Which would certainly help with those student loans.

she recently applied for and was selected to interview for an RN Critical Care - ICU position at a local VA hospital. the entire application and interview process was absolutely horrible. Took forever. She had to write a paper - apparently this is what is used to determine your salary.

it's interesting how her current hospital needed none of this, and the interview process was professional and straightforward. HR was communicative and informative.

based on the information shared on the USA jobs posting we felt she qualified for Nurse 2 having over 1 year of experience and a Masters in a healthcare related field. Then Nurse 3 upon 2 + years of experience.

turns out that information is not correct the posting is wrong it's lacking a lot of information. The N2 & N3 pay grades are essentially irrelevant to the job she applied for.

N2 requires Unit level leadership & management experience plus education

N3 requires organizational leadership & management experience plus education

So the way we understand it:

N2= Charge Nurse

N3: Unit Manager or ICU manager

so... no one with N2 or N3 level experience is ever going to apply to be a floor staff RN... isn't going to happen.

Thats like being a general manager of an entire Walmart then applying to be the person stocking the shelves. Makes no sense.

Anyway they offered her N1 Level 3 Step 6 which currently is 75k where we live. Technically this is 10k higher than my wife's current base salary, until next month when she is slotted for an annual raise then in October they will be renegotiating their Nursing contract at her hospital. Most likely the pay gap will be much less if any at all in a few months compared to N1 L3 Step 6.

here's the issue: apparently this VA requires her to take a two week training course and then sit for two exams. It's our understanding if she doesn't pass these exams the offer could be rescinded. If she does pass it's 8+ weeks with a preceptor. WTH A huge risk with zero guarantee of a job at the end for most likely a couple thousand dollars in the end. Not to mention the VA requires 40 hours per week or 4 days. Her current job is only 3 days for full time.

so my wife is furious. Her VA recruiter could care less, yet the Nurse manager in her interview complained that they can't hire Nurses and that they are short staffed! No wonder!

Not to mention her recruiters signature said MSN, BSN... OK why is a Masters level Nurse sitting at home recruiting when your Nurse manager is complaining about being short staffed?

An MSN is a clinical degree! Recruiting is not part of the program. That recruiter needs to get back to doing her day job and get HR to handle recruiting.

needles to say my wife told them to forget it. A wasted 3+ month process. What a terrible waste of taxpayer money and my wife's time only to be insulted numerous times throughout the whole ordeal when the hospital she's working at delivers her patients to her bed via helicopter at times, and the VA doesn't even have a heliport!

my wife and I visited this VA hospital on a Saturday prior to her interview to get an idea on location and driving times. We were shocked to not see anyone! We drove in, parked, walked into the main atrium and there was nobody to be seen. No police, no employees, no one.

my wife's current hospital is busy 24/7 7 days a week. She jokes that if a patient arrives via helicopter they would never know what day it is by looking at the inside of the hospital as it is always the same.

If the VA is having staffing issues it's their own fault. It is their ridiculous pay scale that is the problem. The pay scale pushes Nurses off the floor if they want a raise! Otherwise, if you actually, you know do the career you went to school for? Be a Nurse? You'll be stuck at N1 for 20 years, due to their ridiculous requirements and pay scale.

Stay away from the VA, until they figure out their ridiculous system is broken. Maybe when some of the Chiefs have no choice but to work the floor and you know, be a Nurse, they will get their act together so they can start hiring Indians again.

boywithacoin, BSN · Jun 17, 2023

Barnaby12 said:

Stay away from the VA, until they figure out their ridiculous system is broken. Maybe when some of the Chiefs have no choice but to work the floor and you know, be a Nurse, they will get their act together so they can start hiring Indians again.

All your other points aside, would appreciate if you found other ways to express yourself than appropriating indigenous roles and using the term "Indian" for indigenous peoples.