VA 72/80 schedule

Specialties Government

Published

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.

Specializes in Med Surg/Mental Health.

 I would like to get in touch with anyone about the 72/80 AWS. We are trying to put a proposal together for the Fayetteville Ark VA. Any information you have will be helpful.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
NeNe said:

Pay rates actually went up because you are being paid for 80 and are working 72. The union is also included in the implementation. We had no problems with HR. Individuals that work float and want to do this would probably have to be under the floor manager instead of the pool manager. We first went through the NPC and then the NPC arranged the presentation/meeting to be done with QUAD which is the clinical leadership board. Depending on how many beds the floor has, the staffing methodology would need to be adjusted. For example, we have 2 sides to our med surg unit, and we currently only have 24 nurses and there is a need for 36 for the unit to be adequately staff. That is next to impossible because what management doesn't realize is nurses get hurt, go out on fmla, etc. I am planning to do my 6-month evaluation to see if doing the 72 has improved or made things worse. Since it is considered a pilot, it can be pulled if it hasn't improved the functioning of the unit. The med-surg unit, which me and my coworker/partner were a part of, did the pilot first and this will be followed by ICU & ED. In my opinion, it has improved because alot of nurses never even looked at the WVAMC b/c it was 80 hours but now the WVAMC can say they are competitive with the 72. I can go over more with you. You can send me your email and I can provide you with our presentation and the step-by-step process more thoroughly to get the buy-in from mgmt

@NeNe I work in Las Vegas VA and looking at 72/80 schedule. Can I please get some information on what you have? Thanks

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical Surgical.

@Senchen

Are you still in need of getting it implemented? So Sorry I am just replying. Been out of work due to surgery. Can you send me your email and I can send you the presentation PowerPoint I presented to the Clinical Leadership Board. 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

It won't allow me to PM you. Maybe because I am new... I posted my email add here originally then I got some spam messages. So I had it removed by the board. Are you able to send me  a message here in allnurses then I will reply to it?

Also, I have been researching about retirement (FERS) I can't seem to find anywhere if it will affect the retirement computation. Do you know? So far, no HR has been able to tell me specifically how FERS will be computed. OPM  website says it will not affect the benefits, but no mention of retirement specifically.

Thank you.

Any help is appreciated.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Mental Health, Hospice-CHPN, Home Care.

@Senchen from what I understand, they take the top three consecutive high earning years. That is not always the last three and it's not a Jan to Dec calendar year. It's the true top three consecutive 36 months. It's more of collect you top three earning years a the SF50s you got during those years, the one you got when you recover a step increase for example. They compute the amount of actual days with the amount you were earning on those days, add it all up, divide by theee, and that's the figure that goes into the calculation for the retirement amount. If you have been here 20 or more years it's a 1.1% and less than 20 it's 1%. They take that number, multiply it by the amount of years you worked, and then divide that by 12 for your monthly pension. Your FEHB and FEGLI will come out of that. 

 


 

 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER.

@Ne Ne I work at the St Louis VA in the ER in we are looking into implementing the 72/80 AWS here as well and I would love to get your presentation to help us get information for our proposal here. Could you email it to me at [email protected]? Thank you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

@AugustRN501

 "They compute the amount of actual days with the amount you were earning on those days, add it all up, divide by theee, and that's the figure that goes into the calculation for the retirement amount. "

This is where it gets blurry in the VA handbook. 'The actual days work"... Since we are proposing 72 AWS, how will FERS be computed? If anybody knows any VA that has some staff that retired on 72AWS  they will be a good resource (I don't know anybody). Our HR so far has not been helpful.

 


 

 

 

Quote

 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.
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!!

I am a nurse at a VA in Wilkes Barre, PA. We are just gathering information to present a power point to implement 72/80. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Please email me: [email protected]. Thanks. 

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency.

Please send me the information you have gathered. We are getting push back from management. 

Do you have onfo on retirement benefits? Everyone is panicking that it will affect retirement.  

Thank you in advance for any help you can give us, 

Sarah

[email protected] 

[email protected] 

Up Vote Up Vote ×

@NeNe does the 72/80 apply to OTC's within your facility? This questions goes out for any VA facility that has implemented the 72/80. I am just wondering if your Off-Tour Coordinators have been included.

thank you

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Nene, can you pleas send me the proposal you guys used for the 72/80 to be approved. We are trying to introduce it here at Temple VA. My email is [email protected]. Thank you so much

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment