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What are the perks of working at the VA versus group practice for a early career psychologist.
VA or group practice
- Thread starter psychrat
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VA has a high floor salary-wise and good benefits for an early career psychologist. Group practice has a lower floor but a higher ceiling long-term for salary, depending on a variety of factors.
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VA may also provide additional CE (including EBP training/certification), multidisciplinary/interprofessional consultation, and training opportunities (depending on what's available at the group practice). And typically access to an IRB, if you want to do research.
Folks don't always stick around indefinitely, but there are worse places to start out.
Folks don't always stick around indefinitely, but there are worse places to start out.
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Just as an FYI, the VA system is currently undergoing a revolution/meltdown/'transformation' with respect to mental health services right now in which everyone's roles are getting re-evaluated, expanded upon, and 'enhanced.' Bottom line is that front-line providers' (I can speak of psychotherapists/psychologists, in any case) duties and caseloads are getting added to continuously (with nothing being taken away) and, therefore, the quality of life of the average provider is steadily decreasing and burnout is getting worse and worse over time (at least that's been my observation). Not sure how insulated psychiatrist practitioners in the VA are, but I thought I'd at least put it out there. Also, psychiatry, psychology, and social work have all been consolidated (administratively) under the 'Mental Health' line such that (at least at my facility) we have a 'Director' of MH services (social worker) and 'Assoc Director' of MH services (another social worker) who are administratively 'over' all the psychiatrists and psychologists as well as the social workers. So, unfortunately, the constant additional rules/policies/procedures/forms/templates all tend to be bureaucratically and politically-driven rather than being clinically salient (and streamlined) to support good standard of care/practice within the MH field. Just my 2 cents.
