Plan to recruit nurses to VA jobs wins backing
House subcommittee approves a measure that would test use of professional recruiters and advertisers.
A House Veterans Affairs panel Thursday approved a plan to test whether professional recruiters and advertisers can lure more nurses to VA jobs.
The Subcommittee on Health also approved more flexible work schedules to attract and keep nurses. The new alternate work schedules would include work weeks of three 12-hour days, seven 10-hour days over two weeks, and full-time for nine months with three months off.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Nurse Recruitment and Retention Act of 2004 (H.R. 4231) is the latest bill over many years aimed at addressing a nationwide nursing shortage and its impact on VA facilities. A substitute amendment was passed by a unanimous voice vote.
The legislation directs the VA secretary to conduct a pilot program using proven private-sector recruitment practices in a region or section of the country particularly affected by the nursing shortage. The practices to be reviewed should include employer branding, Internet technologies and the use of recruitment, advertising and communication agencies.
The bill also includes a controversial provision that bars the VA from requiring registered nurses to have baccalaureate degrees in nursing in order to be hired. The VA says it has no such requirement, but at a May 6 hearing, witnesses said registered nurses without baccalaureate degrees are discouraged from applying for VA jobs.
Subcommittee Chairman Rob Simmons, R-Conn., said the panel wrestled with the issue and made a decision. He said it's possible the degree issue will come up again in the full committee markup next week.
"At a time when there's an urgent need to get more people into nursing, and a shortage of nurses at the VA, why set this arbitrary academic standard which serves as a barrier to admission? That doesn't make any sense to us," Simmons said.
The bill also includes payments to assist state veterans' homes in recruiting and retaining nurses.
The top job at the Veterans Health Administration would no longer need to be a doctor of medicine, under the legislation. Any qualified professional in the health care field could be undersecretary for health.
The legislation does not change how the how the undersecretary for health is chosen, however. The process now requires a formal search commission and can take up to 18 months. At the May 6 hearing, veterans' service organizations objected to a draft bill changing the commission to advisory status.