Your steps to apply
Registered Nurse – Critical Care
Veterans Health Administration · Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania · Closes in 2 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: Internal to an agency, The public.
The job is open to the public. You must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or someone who owes allegiance to the U.S. The page also lists an internal option, but the agency clarified that the job is open to the public.
Experience: Experience is matched to Nurse I, Level II or III levels rather than GS grades. For example, Nurse I, Level III requires an ADN plus 2 years of professional nursing, with one year at the Nurse I, Level 2 level. Critical care experience is preferred. Volunteer and unpaid experience also counts.
Education: You must have graduated from a nursing school accredited by ACEN or CCNE, or meet the foreign school rules listed in the announcement. A bachelor's (BSN) or master's (MSN) degree in nursing can qualify you at higher levels. Degrees from foreign schools are not counted as related degrees. Education must come from schools recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to count.
Licenses and certifications:
- Current, full, active, and unrestricted RN license in a U.S. state, territory, Puerto Rico, or DC
- Current Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification
- Current Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) certification
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 2 days (November 5, 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 are rated on how well you meet the qualifications, based on your online questionnaire and documents. Experience is checked against five areas: Practice, Veteran/Patient Driven Care, Leadership, Professional Development, and Evidence-Based Practice/Research. Missing required information can lead to an ineligible rating or a lower score, and the VA may check references.
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:
- Use a long-form resume or CV that shows dates, hours per week, and specific nursing duties for each job. The two-page resume limit does not apply here.
- If you claim veterans' preference, select it in the questionnaire and upload your DD-214 and any SF-15 form.
- Submit the full application package, including required documents, by 11:59 PM ET on 11/05/2026.
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