V E TE R AN S AFFAI R S & M I LITARY M E D I CI N E O UTLO O K
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS Training Opportunities for VA and Military Nurses By J.R. Wilson
Educational Programs and Support for VA Nurses n THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA) has a long and extensive list of educational programs and support for nurses who serve in VA hospitals throughout the nation. “A brand-new nurse comes into the VA from nursing school as a Nurse 1; although with a bachelor’s degree, they may come in as an N2. They can progress all the way to a Nurse 5,” according to Karen Ott, D.N.P., R.N., director for Policy and Education in the VA Office of Nursing Services. “The career track that allows that, by virtue of education, experience, and other practice qualifications, is based on their abilities to function at the high grades. Nurse 1-3 is based on the individual’s qualifications; for N4-5, the qualification is in the position, not the person. They are generally the supervisors, N1-2 are staffers, N3 are generally mid-level managers. Every registered nurse in the military is an officer; every nurse in the VA is Title 38 civil service, which is not the same as Title 5.” Promotion through those ranks depends on a nurse continuing his or her education after joining the VA. “Senior nurses have to have advanced degrees,” Ott added. “Nurses can have a diploma from a nursing school, an associate degree from a community college, a bachelor’s in nursing, a master’s in nursing, or a doctorate in nursing practice.” The VA also now requires the accreditation for those schools to be Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and the National League for Nursing (NLN). Nurses also are required to have a “full and unrestricted” license from a U.S. state or territory. “In FY 1999, VA proposed new nurse qualifications standards and launched a new education assistance initiative to support it. VA committed $50 million to assist VA nurses seeking baccalaureate degrees in nursing and adopted new performance standards requiring a four-year degree for
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registered nurses by 2005,” added Alan Bernstein, M.S., R.N., deputy chief nursing officer. “Although VA employs all education levels of registered nurses from diploma to doctoral graduates, it strongly supports and encourages higher levels of education.” A significant percentage of VA nurses joins the civilian organization after serving in the military, which Ott said has a different view of nursing. For the VA, the focus is quality of life; for the military, it’s fitness for duty. “The group of nurses who most often sign up with the VA after leaving the military are the certified registered nurse anesthetists [CRNAs]; 28 percent of our CRNAs are veterans, which is the largest group out of 1,023 total,” she said. “Overall, we have 71,286 registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists in the VA; of those, 15 percent are veterans. We also have 15,000 licensed practical nurses [LPNs], of whom 18 percent are vets. So, overall, including LPNs,19 percent of VA nurses are veterans. “The VA and DOD [Department of Defense] are separate agencies with separate missions, so the types of educational programs and availability may differ, although both agencies have scholarships available for nurses. If a nurse in the military has started an academic program, but leaves active duty and comes to the VA before completing it, they would have to ask the VA for funding to continue.” Whether coming to the VA straight out of nursing school, from civilian practice, or the military, VA nurses are offered a wide range of educational programs and support, including: • Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP): EDRP provides student loan reduction payments to employees with qualifying loans who are in health care positions providing direct patient care services and in positions that are considered hard to recruit or retain. The loan must be for the health professional’s education that qualified the applicant for a specific position. • Employee Incentive Scholarship Program (EISP): This program provides funding for Veterans Health Administration
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