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There is a saying in the VA -- if you've been to one VA, you've been to one VA. In other words, it depends entirely on the hospital in question. I work on a med/surg/tele unit and love it. We have a great team. The ICU is the plum job at our hospital, with the bulk of the nurses there having 20+ years seniority. The cath lab and PACU seem to be well-loved by the employees, while our MPU has a pretty high turnover. The most common complaint from former coworkers who have gone from floor nursing to other departments is the drop in pay. Not only is the base pay lower, but you miss out on the night/weekend differential. On the other hand, many of those positions are M-F, 730-1600, and I can certainly see the appeal of that.
I don't know much about how PRN shifts work other places, but we have a couple intermittent RNs. They don't have a set tour, although actually one of them does do nights only. Now that our unit is fully staffed, they usually only get scheduled one or maaaaybe two shifts every month. No idea if that information helps you!
OUxPhys, BSN, RN
1,203 Posts
HI all. Ive been interested in working at the VA in my city. I don't want to work the floors but I was thinking about OR, cath/EP lab etc. I feel like the floors are bad but the non-floor areas aren't as bad. Is this true with a lot of the VAs?
Just curious. Any feedback would be appreciated!