Why Physicians Should Consider Working for the VA Part 2

7 Reasons Why Doctors Should Work for the VA

Last week we began a series on why physicians should consider working with the VA. You can read the first part of this series here.

Job vacancy data at Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities obtained by USA Today show that about one in six VA positions (nearly 41,000) went unfilled last year. The data also show that more than 5,100 physicians are needed across the VA system. Due largely to physician vacancies, wait times for veterans to see a physician remain long at many VA locations.

Both vacancies and wait times could be reduced if more doctors knew about the benefits of working at one of the nation’s 152 hospitals and 1,400 clinics that treat veterans. These include:

• The resources of academic medicine. A number of larger VA facilities are affiliated with academic medical centers. VA doctors often can refer patients to the best in sub-specialty care and consult with the top specialists in their fields.
• An outstanding retirement plan. The VA offers a retirement plan that is second to none for physicians who have their eyes on their professional exit. After working for the VA for a relatively short period of time (about ten years) physicians are eligible for retirement payments of half their annual salaries for the rest of their lives. The suite of other benefits available to VA physicians, including health insurance, disability, and others, also is first-rate.
• Freedom from malpractice worries. As employees of the federal government, VA physicians cannot be personally targeted in malpractice suits, freeing them from a financial and emotional burden that many doctors in private practice continue to find burdensome.
• Mission-driven medicine. Caring for the veterans of America’s wars can be challenging but also highly rewarding for physicians who want to be a part of something larger than themselves. Some private practice physicians go on medical missions to foreign countries in order to achieve a sense of personal fulfilment, but VA physicians can experience the emotional rewards of medicine every day.

There are, of course, downsides to working for the VA. One is the on-boarding process, which can be protracted and frustrating. For a variety of reasons, VA facilities are slow to respond to physician job applicants, who frequently will move on by the time an offer is made. In addition, physicians are unlikely to earn as much working for the VA as they would in private practice, and this is particularly true for medical specialists. However, once inside the VA system, many physicians find the practice style and the emotional rewards of caring for veterans to be an ideal alternative to the slings and arrows of private practice.