Nurses are at the center of all VA care. With more than 110,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants on our team, VA is the largest employer of nurses in the nation, and we could not provide the patient-centered, high-quality health care our Veterans deserve without these invaluable medical professionals.
But why do nurses love working at VA? A quick look at reviews from members of our team will tell you everything you need to know about what we offer nurses that makes VA so popular.
Unrestricted licensing and relocation
Under a review titled simply “Love This Place,” an RN in California shared one of the pros of employment was the “ability to transfer to any VA in the country with just one license!”
With an active U.S. nursing license, our RNs and LPNs can work anywhere in the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and Guam. If the time comes for you to move on, you’ll be eligible to work at any of our 1,300 facilities, and you won’t typically lose any benefits, accumulated paid leave, or pay when you transfer from another VA facility.
Education opportunities
As an RN from Arizona noted, “This employer encourages and supports continuing education.”
From the start, VA offers generous nursing education scholarship opportunities, tuition reimbursement programs and educational opportunities that support virtual or face-to-face continuing education. For those nurses who have already completed their training, VA employees with federal student loans may be eligible for the national public service loan forgiveness program.
Competitive salaries
Would you say that the pay where you work is “amazing?” One of our registered nurses did.
We offer our employees strong starting salaries based on education, training and experience. We also offer steady growth, with periodic pay raises that address inflation and local market changes.
Flexible schedules
Among the many things an RN in New Hampshire cited was our scheduling and vacation days, which can help achieve the work/life balance that is so crucial for employees.
Our employees receive 13 to 26 paid vacation/personal days, as well as 13 sick days annually with no limit on accumulation, and we celebrate 11 paid federal holidays each year.
Serving those who served
Our LPNs frequently cited the mission as one of the most positives things about working at VA. Whether it is the “sense of purpose serving Veterans,” or simply that the Veterans we serve are “heroes,” we know what we do at VA matters to those who have served our country and their families.
Work at VA
There are many reasons nurses love working at VA. We think you will too.
- EXPLORE VA nursing careers.
- READ more reasons why our nurses love working here (PDF).
- LEARN about the benefits of a VA career.
- SEARCH for your nursing career at www.VAcareers.va.gov.
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My wife was working for the VA hospital in Durham North Carolina for almost 4 years and we decided to moved to Florida, she has applied for several positions at the Lake Nona VA medical center and for some reason they do not want to hired her, wich I don’t understand because she was already at the system plus she got priority being married to me a 100% Veteran ! Can anyone helps me out with this , all we want to know us why they don’t want to hired her . She already have the necessary experience so why hired a new nurse?
Dear God what a load the CBOC I go to has been horribly understaffed on Nurses for 5 years. The pay in this market isn’t competitive. The LPNs can’t advance past GS6 ( ridiculous as any civilian clinic doesn’t seperate out RNs and LPNs)( yes I know GS7 LPNs exist but not in our CBOC). Instead of reducing patient loads they continue to increase them the LPNs at our clinic have between 1,500 and 1,700 patients each, and 3 to 4 providers ( most civilian clinics have one nurse per one provider) add in vacation and sick days and often they are juggling well over 2k patients and 6 providers. The VA constantly adds new responsibilities without new staff putting higher and higher loads on the Nurses. The Nurse supervisors are in charge of multiple CBOCs they are not even around 90% of the time so have zero idea what the LPNs are actually required to do. The LPNs are the clinical backbone yet none of the Nurse supervisors are LPNs. Since RNs and LPNs have very different duties in the clinic ( even though in a clinical setting they dont need to be separated), so even when the supervisors are there they have zero understanding of what the job entails to begin with. The LPNs jobs haven’t been audited in over ten years and they are way outside of recomended patient hours and the job descriptions they were hired under. MAs and CNAs make more money working the front desk so any of the good ones transfer to reception. There is no advancement opportunities for LPNs and because staffing is so short no opportunity to take advantage of the training other than what’s required by VA. Lets also add that it doesn’t matter if you are amazing or just above getting fired you get paid the same ( well except for a possible bonus of a whole 500 dollars a year…what a joke). They will reorganize what providers you’re assigned to all the time so you can’t form those deep provider nurse relationships that are so vital to a well functioning clinic. If you are a nurse my advice would be, to stay as far away from the VA as possible.