Who We Are

The Veteran’s Health Administration, more commonly known as the VA, has the privilege and duty of fulfilling the promise set out by President Lincoln; to care for those who served our country, their families, caregivers, and survivors.

To accomplish this mission, the VA is now this country’s largest integrated healthcare system. The VA provides care to veterans and their families across the U.S. at 1,298 health care facilities, including 171 medical centers and 1,113 outpatient sites. The VA serves 9 million enrolled veterans each year and is consistently ranked among the nation’s top healthcare providers.

Benefits

If you are inspired by the idea of serving those who have served our country, then a VA nursing job as an RN or nursing assistant might be the right career path for you. The Veteran’s Health Administration has jobs for RNs, LPNs and LVNs, CNAs, and nearly all nursing specialties. As a nationwide organization, you can choose your practice location anywhere from Los Angeles to Topeka to New York.

VA nursing jobs include opportunities for full-time work, remote work, and positions for travel nurses as well.

The VA supports work-life balance for its employees and maintains a strong roster of benefits for its nursing professionals. Benefits from a typical VA nursing job include:

• Competitive Compensation: Strong starting salaries, steady growth and incentives, recruitment and relocation bonuses, performance-based increases and accelerated increases for outstanding performance, premium pay rates for overtime, weekend, holiday, on-call, and night work, and incentive awards.
• Work-Life Balance: Paid time off benefits include 13-26 days of paid annual leave, 13 sick days and 11 paid federal holidays, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and up to 15 days of leave for active reservists and National Guard members. 
• Flexibility: Work-from-home options, flexible scheduling, work anywhere in the U.S. with one active license, change locations without losing benefits or salary. 
• Insurance Options: Federal health insurance for life, up to 75% of health premiums paid, group life, flexible health savings accounts, and free medical malpractice insurance. 
• Retirement Support: Eligible for monthly retirement benefits after just 5 years of federal service, tax-deferred Thrift Savings Plan (similar to a 401(k)), long-term disability benefits after 18 months of service, may add VA benefits to a full military retirement pay or pension. 

These benefits are just one way the VA commits to caring for its nurses as they care for those who have served.

Why the VA?

If working for a mission-driven organization is crucial to your career path as a nursing professional, then the VA is an excellent choice. To gain insight into what the VA is searching for in a candidate, check out some sample VA interview questions you might be asked and how you could answer them in a way reflects the organization’s values. The mission at the VA is just this:

At VA, we put Veterans at the heart of everything we do. We recognize that it is up to all of us to make sure Veterans can enjoy the health and happiness they deserve. That’s why we’re constantly pushing ourselves to develop more advanced treatments, enhance support services, and expand access to our state-of-the-art facilities.

To find out more, this video can help you understand why becoming a VA nurse or nursing professional is a great choice for your career and your life.