Your steps to apply
Registered Nurse- Ambulatory Surgery
Veterans Health Administration · Des Moines, Iowa · Closes in 6 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public, Internal to an agency.
Open to the public and to current federal employees of the hiring agency. You must be a U.S. citizen, national, or someone who owes allegiance to the U.S. Non-citizens may be appointed only when qualified citizens cannot be recruited under VA policy.
Experience: Your experience sets your grade. For example, an Associate Degree or diploma in nursing plus 1 year of specialized nursing experience equivalent to Nurse I, Level 1 qualifies for Nurse I, Level II. Experience is judged on five areas of nursing: practice, veteran and patient driven care, leadership, professional development, and evidence-based practice and research.
Education: You must graduate from a professional nursing school accredited by ACEN or CCNE, or another accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. An Associate Degree or diploma in nursing qualifies for the entry grade. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) qualifies for Nurse I, Level II with no extra nursing experience. A Master's degree in nursing (MSN) qualifies for Nurse I, Level III with no extra nursing experience. Foreign degrees above associate level need a formal equivalency validation to count.
Licenses and certifications:
- Current, full, active, and unrestricted nursing registration (license) in a U.S. state, territory, Puerto Rico, or D.C.
Experience can be paid or unpaid, volunteer work included: if it matches the duties, it counts. The full rules are in the announcement.
2 Resume and documents
Write a federal resume for this job. For each job you held, give the month and year you started and ended, your hours per week and what you did, using the words of the experience the announcement asks for. Many announcements accept resumes of up to 2 pages: check this one.
3 Apply on USAJOBS
Closes in 6 days (November 9, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).
You sign in to USAJOBS with a Login.gov account, answer the questionnaire and upload your documents, then you submit. Answer the questionnaire honestly: your resume must show what you claim.
How they rate you: You will be rated on how well you meet the qualifications through an online occupational questionnaire. Your application, resume, and documents will be verified, and reference checks may be done. Missing information or errors may lower your rating or make you ineligible. Veterans will get preference when qualifications are about equal.
4 After you apply
In USAJOBS, under Applications, you can see where your application stands: received, reviewed, referred to the hiring manager or not, then selected or not. It can take a few weeks.
For the interview, prepare three examples with the STAR method: the Situation, the Task, what you did (Action) and the Result.
If they choose you: a tentative offer, then a background check, then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Submit a long-form resume or CV; the 2-page resume limit does not apply to this job.
- Describe your nursing experience clearly and specifically, including dates and duties, because the agency will verify it and will not assume anything.
- If you claim veterans' preference, attach your DD-214 and an SF-15 if required, and claim the preference in the questionnaire.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.