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.

anyone can send me info on how to approach management on 72/80 would be greatly appreciated [email protected] 

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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!!

Please send me anything you have to help us get this started at the Fayetteville, AR VA. Our management says it costs too much and we don't have a retention problem. But then also say that we have so many vacancies at this time that it wouldn't work to have staff work 8 less hours. We also can't get our leadership to keep our pay comparable with local hospitals. They say we don't have the funds to pay our nurses what local hospitals pay. So they give us half of the difference, promise to give the rest the next year, then sorry, new leadership decided against it. They know we love our job here and use it against us by not giving us the raises we deserve. Many of our staff are having to get 2nd jobs. They also refuse all education waivers. We all assume their bonuses correlate to how much $$ they don't give us.

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Specializes in ICU.

Send me an email and I will give all I have. 

1
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Specializes in ICU.
Rza said:

Send me an email and I will give all I have. 

Here is my email address. I'm new on here so I guess I can't send messages yet?  [email protected]

Thank you so much!

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Specializes in OB.

My facility is looking to implement the 72-80 as well. Is anyone willing to share what they have so far? 

 

[email protected] 

 

 

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So we here in LA have started the 72/80 AWS. FMLA burns faster and because of just for system or time keeping purposes, it doesn't give you a full 480 hrs!  You only get 432 hrs which is the amount for part time employees.  I found out the hard way. So I just took it to the union. And waiting to find out further information,  This shouldn't be the case because we are full time.  Has anybody had any experience with this?

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Rza said:

Send me an email and I will give all I have. 

Can you please email me the power point for 72/80 AWS and any other info gathered to help support our case!  TYIA! 

tre27 said:

Can you please email me the power point for 72/80 AWS and any other info gathered to help support our case!  TYIA!  [email protected]

 

 

NeNe said:

@Senchen

Can you please email me the power point for 72/80 AWS and any other info gathered to help support our case!  TYIA!  [email protected]

 

 

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NeNe said:

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

 

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!!

Hello! We are also trying to re-implement in San Francisco too, although it has been difficult to get management to listen or be open minded. We are the only VA that has 72/80 revoked! Please email me at [email protected] with any PPT or any info you could help us with.  Our 72/80 was revoked when they gave us a pay raise and now they are saying it is unfair unless ALL nurses, bedside, office, outpatient, LVN's etc get the 72/80.

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Rza said:

Send me an email and I will give all I have. 

hello, please list your email and then we can contact you. You can use a throwaway account if you don't want your email public. If you could, please email me any info you have on this, we are trying to re-implement the 72/80 here. [email protected]

 

More VA's need to get on this schedule to prevent nurse burnout at bedside

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Specializes in ICU.

I'll have to dig through my emails to find my info. We did not get anything implemented here. Even though the option is available, very few VA hospitals want to implement it. The excuses: "no money, not enough staff, not fiscally doable, other VA's are reversing course on it. " I was put off for a year. Now we had a bunch of people leave so it's not a good time for us to revisit it yet. But I will look and wish u luck 

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The 72/80 is a very cool plan but good luck getting it in a time of fiscal restraint since the VA has been in spending reduction mode. I know of several VAs in the country that implemented it but it represents an increase in cost for them. It also isn't always implemented in every unit of a hospital but sometimes in just one or a few units.

With the 72/80 plan, you basically work 8 hours less and receive a 10% increase in your hourly rate of pay so that your overall yearly salary remains the same. It does affect your leave accrual so that you still have the same percentage of time off from work but you do accrue the overall rate of leave at a slightly lower rate. In addition, I believe it impacts your retirement calculation as well. You also only get paid for federal holidays if you work on the holiday. No longer will you receive federal holiday pay as "in-lieu of holidays" even if you don't work the holiday.

But overall it's a great plan. You get an extra day off every pay period and your rate of pay goes up 10% to account for that loss of 8 hours. 

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Specializes in ICU.

You are correct in most of what you have written. However, it does not affect anything with retirement since the employee is considered, for intensive purposes, full time. U are also correct that u do not accrue as much time, however, u don't need to use as much time since u can manipulate your schedule to your benefit. Lastly, yes. Initially the hospital will lose money, but in the long run, it's been proven to cost less. It's also a huge recruitment and retention tool. 

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