VA 72/80 schedule

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I work for the VA ER in Las Vegas, and our unit is considering the 72/80 schedule. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, do you like it? What are some of the pros and cons?

Also, how does the AL and SL work when you take leave?

Do you still accumulate leave and retirement at the same rate?

Thanks. Any information will be helpful.

I am a nurse at VA Phoenix. we are working to see if we can implement the 72/80. Any recommendation?  

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

I was just looking up information to help implementation of policy for the 72/80 here at the VA in Wilmington, DE. I and another coworker collaborated and researched to have the 72/80 implemented. I am proud to state that it was approved and the medical-surgical unit began it 6/5/2022 to eventually be implemented hospital-wide. If anyone would like more information on how to get buy-in from their nursing leadership team, please feel free to comment and I will send you my personal information to help this implementation be done at your VA. Thanks and trust me with support from your units, it can happen. Basically, we still get paid (we actually got an increase) the same as if we were 80. In order to trade off, we had to state that we all agreed that unless we work the holiday, we will not get paid for it. This was fine with most of us as we came from the private sector and that is what is done with them. I noted that one of the hospitals within VISN 4 (Lebanon) had implemented the 72, and reached out to their HR and eventually got in touch with the nurse managers. They assisted me through the process and myself and my coworker first presented it to the Nurse Practice Council who then supported to be presented to our Clinical Leadership. Again, I am willing to assist and help anyone who wants to get together to present the idea to get everyone onboard. There is no way that we all should not be doing 3 12-hour shifts a week, especially nurses that work on inpatient nursing units. The VA has to make themselves competitive with the private sector because it is a great place to work!!

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.
On 5/26/2022 at 8:24 PM, Januc BNS RN said:

I am a nurse at VA Phoenix. we are working to see if we can implement the 72/80. Any recommendation?  

Hi! I collaborated with a coworker and was able to get the 72/80 implemented. I can give you some information to  help with the buy-in process with your leadership team. How can I reach out to you? 

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I am trying to do the 72/80 in the Phoenix VA. Please email me your results at [email protected] thank you

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nurse/Addiction Nurse.
On 7/7/2022 at 12:14 AM, NeNe said:

I was just looking up information to help implementation of policy for the 72/80 here at the VA in Wilmington, DE. I and another coworker collaborated and researched to have the 72/80 implemented. I am proud to state that it was approved and the medical-surgical unit began it 6/5/2022 to eventually be implemented hospital-wide. If anyone would like more information on how to get buy-in from their nursing leadership team, please feel free to comment and I will send you my personal information to help this implementation be done at your VA. Thanks and trust me with support from your units, it can happen. Basically, we still get paid (we actually got an increase) the same as if we were 80. In order to trade off, we had to state that we all agreed that unless we work the holiday, we will not get paid for it. This was fine with most of us as we came from the private sector and that is what is done with them. I noted that one of the hospitals within VISN 4 (Lebanon) had implemented the 72, and reached out to their HR and eventually got in touch with the nurse managers. They assisted me through the process and myself and my coworker first presented it to the Nurse Practice Council who then supported to be presented to our Clinical Leadership. Again, I am willing to assist and help anyone who wants to get together to present the idea to get everyone onboard. There is no way that we all should not be doing 3 12-hour shifts a week, especially nurses that work on inpatient nursing units. The VA has to make themselves competitive with the private sector because it is a great place to work!!

Please help me with this. I have sent you a message as well with my contact information. 

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Hi! My apologies...Where did you send your information to? 

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Nevermind, I see your email address. Would you like me to send you a copy of my presentation? I don't have everything with me but I believe I have this in my email

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Specializes in ER.

Hi, I would like to know of any emergency departments are doing the 72/80 schedule

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Specializes in Cardiology.

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 procedural areas). 

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Specializes in ER.

So far our argument to support such change include the following. Straight 12s would make scheduling much less of a headache. Improvement in retention and recruitment. Increase employee satisfaction. Increase in veteran continuity. of care. Less call outs as people are working 1 less shift every 2 weeks. We will be staffing the same number of beds with almost 2 less FTEs as each employee would now only count as 0.9 FTE. The VA will save money by not having to pay holiday to to those who are not actually working.

I would love to look at your presentation. We are in the process of trying to implement this also

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Hi, Kelly!

Yes that is what my presentation was on as well. We also included that if you don't work the holiday, you won't get paid and this saves the company money bc everybody isn't getting paid regardless if they work it or not. I'll send it over. I might have it in my home folder but for sure at work. I also created a mock schedule

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Specializes in Med surg.

Hello,

Nurses in the VA in Georgia are interested in implementing 72/80 as well. For those who have accomplished this, would you please provide any updates on how the process is going? Are you experiencing any pay Issues with HR? How were you able to convince management? I appreciate any assistance that you can provide. We are losing a lot of ot of nurses and I am hoping that the AWS can help with retention. Thank you. 

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