Perspectives on VA hiring slowdown?

[PsyDr]

Can anyone explain why the VA is a good place to work? I still don't get it. The only benefits I saw were the association with a medical school, maybe the hours, and the haircuts were legit.

Walker study pretty recently, and we have some references from 1 year+ post mTBI in countries with no PI litigation system reporting zero continued concerns, just to name some recent stuff. As for the other side, any compelling cites that suggest that mTBI causes more severe cognitive impairment than someone who needs 24 hour skilled nursing care, yet still manages to drive independently and work a FT job?

1) Yeah, I'm familiar with those. Worth asking experts, like you, for their references.

2) You know how I handle those. If someone doesn't have capacity to enter into contracts, consent to treatment, consent to sexual relationships, etc: we are legally required to report those concerns to APS. If the perpetrator is a licensed professional, we are legally required to file a board/bar complaint against them. If a facility is defrauding Medicare, the SNF licensing agency and CMS should be informed (which you could get a financial reward for, and cut me in as a finders fee).

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[cara susanna]

Can anyone explain why the VA is a good place to work? I still don't get it. The only benefits I saw were the association with a medical school, maybe the hours, and the haircuts were legit.


1) Yeah, I'm familiar with those. Worth asking experts, like you, for their references.

2) You know how I handle those. If someone doesn't have capacity to enter into contracts, consent to treatment, consent to sexual relationships, etc: we are legally required to report those concerns to APS. If the perpetrator is a licensed professional, we are legally required to file a board/bar complaint against them. If a facility is defrauding Medicare, the SNF licensing agency and CMS should be informed (which you could get a financial reward for, and cut me in as a finders fee).

I like the 8 to 4:30 work day, being paid on salary so I still get paid regardless of how many NSes or cancellations I have, the emphasis on evidence-based practice and access to a lot of great research and professional development resources, and (from my understanding) our required clinical contact hours aren't as high as some other places. Not to mention fantastic benefits, federal holidays off, and a good amount of personal and sick leave.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I think for awhile, and I'm not sure it is still true, but the VA seemed like a "soft landing" spot for a lot of newly licensed clinicians. I think those who trained in the VA system will feel like they know the good & bad, so staying for the first few years could be the easiest option. Salary-wise, especially for a generalist and those in a CBOC, I can see the hours & benefits being more conducive for a family.

 

[Sanman]

Can anyone explain why the VA is a good place to work? I still don't get it. The only benefits I saw were the association with a medical school, maybe the hours, and the haircuts were legit.

Depends on the area you are working in. If you work in general mental health clinic/BHIP, I am not sure other than the pay is better vs predatory group practices and no evenings/weekends.

For me, I do a lot more consultation, coordination of care, and non-billable work in geriatrics than would ever make sense in the outside world. I am a low volume provider and my salary could not be justified by fee for service. Mine is a value based care model that does not work in the real world because the VA has to pay for long-term care/nursing homes of service connected veterans. If I left the VA, I would likely leave geriatric work altogether because I can make more money doing other outpatient things or limit it to forensic work with only minimal clinical work.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Can anyone explain why the VA is a good place to work? I still don't get it. The only benefits I saw were the association with a medical school, maybe the hours, and the haircuts were legit.

The workload expectations are typically lower than other salaried settings, especially for psychologists. The whole liability protection thing and job security. Typically easy access to referrals for patients. Not much need to really worry about billing. The pension, although it's obviously taken a hit since its heyday. The pay was decent, then was lower, then was decent to good again, particularly early career. Free, albeit very limited (one year's pay), life insurance. If you're interested in training (and especially having a salaried training position), it's hard to find a better place to work, IMO. If you work there for 5 years before retiring, you can carry health insurance into retirement at your employee rate. And then the whole EDRP and PSLF stuff.

You also get access to the P/X, but I never really bought much through there.

I'd heard some folks say they got through airport security lines faster with VA ID cards, although this was before pre-check really took off. Never tried that myself.

 

[summerbabe]

Can anyone explain why the VA is a good place to work? I still don't get it. The only benefits I saw were the association with a medical school, maybe the hours, and the haircuts were legit.

For a neuropsychologist, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

But I know NPs who stay because their salary goes a long way in a lower CoL area and they have a good setup of research and/or training if those are important parts of career satisfaction.

Especially if you have lots of trainees + psychometry help + higher than community no show rates, you might be sitting pretty workload wise.

Plus, it’s low liability/stress work comparatively speaking and you get to leave work on time and not have to manage any parts of running a small business.

For a generalist therapist like myself, especially with a very generous special salary rates that have/were approved for psychologists specifically, I would probably need to operate a group practice to make significantly more than my current pay.

And I see probably 15-22 patients a week when you factor in no-shows and can keep my stuff within the 40 hr work week it would likely be a ton more work and stress on my part to exceed my current guarantee.

Edit: I also generally really enjoy working with the veteran population so that helps to buffer against the VA admin/bureaucracy/politics of healthcare stuff that's less tasteful

 

[AcronymAllergy]

For a neuropsychologist, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

But I know NPs who stay because their salary goes a long way in a lower CoL area and they have a good setup of research and/or training if those are important parts of career satisfaction.

Especially if you have lots of trainees + psychometry help + higher than community no show rates, you might be sitting pretty workload wise.

Plus, it’s low liability/stress work comparatively speaking and you get to leave work on time and not have to manage any parts of running a small business.

For a generalist therapist like myself, especially with a very generous special salary rates that have/were approved for psychologists specifically, I would probably need to operate a group practice to make significantly more than my current pay.

And I see probably 15-22 patients a week when you factor in no-shows and can keep my stuff within the 40 hr work week it would likely be a ton more work and stress on my part to exceed my current guarantee.

If you can get 4x10's so you could do outside work 1 full day/week (or more), and also land a position that's 50%+ training and 50%- clinical, as a neuropsychologist, there are worse places to be.