Working as a VA (Veterans Affairs) Physician?

[prominence]

I was just curious about the following:

1. Does the VA require its physicians to get board certified in their respective specialties?

2. Can anyone comment on the employee benefits of working for the VA as a physician?

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[dragonfly99]

I moonlight at the VA and they haven't required us to be board certified...you must have finished a residency though (i.e. medicine fellows can moonlight there but medicine residents cannnot). That's at our particular VA. I can't comment on others.

Oh, and they will accept any state medical license (i.e. b/c it's a federal facility you could have a Texas license and then practice in any VA throughout the country).

 

[Doowai]

I moonlight at the VA and they haven't required us to be board certified...you must have finished a residency though (i.e. medicine fellows can moonlight there but medicine residents cannnot). That's at our particular VA. I can't comment on others.

Oh, and they will accept any state medical license (i.e. b/c it's a federal facility you could have a Texas license and then practice in any VA throughout the country).

They require you are completely finished or just licensed - if you were in the middle of residency but had a state license, and your residency programpermitted it, could you moonlight in the VA?

 

[dragonfly99]

Our VA doesn't hire residents to work...you have to be finished with residency (i.e. attending level), not just have a license. But I cannot say what the policy is at other VA hospitals. Our moonlighting work is working independently in clinics and as the ER attending, and it likely wouldn't be very safe to have an unsupervised resident working there (well, some clinics would probably be O.K.).

 

[Pilot Doc]

Our VA doesn't hire residents to work...you have to be finished with residency (i.e. attending level), not just have a license. But I cannot say what the policy is at other VA hospitals. Our moonlighting work is working independently in clinics and as the ER attending, and it likely wouldn't be very safe to have an unsupervised resident working there (well, some clinics would probably be O.K.).

At my location, you have to have finished 3 years of GME. No reason a PGY4 surgery resident couldn't do what a PGY4 GI fellow does.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

At my location, you have to have finished 3 years of GME. No reason a PGY4 surgery resident couldn't do what a PGY4 GI fellow does.

I've witnessed medicine chiefs and pgy 4/5 surg and rads residents moonlighting at our local VA.

 

[prominence]

thanks for the above posters' feedback regarding moonlighting at the VA.

Does anyone know if full-time physicians at the VA are required to become board certified in their respective specialities?

Also, does anyone know anything about retirement benefits offered at the VA? Do the offer any pension plans?

thanks again for the feedback.

 

[dragonfly99]

r.e. the post above, "medicine chiefs" by definition have already finished a complete medicine residency (i.e. 3 years) so they are the same as any other IM doc who has completed a residency.

However, perhaps the requirement is just 3 years of GME, rather than having finished a residency...I just know that for all IM docs, you must have finished your IM residency before you can work @our VA. We also don't have any radiology residents moonlighting here, but that again may be site-specific. We have to read our own radiographs in the ER, but the CT scans, MRI, etc. get sent out either to the U hospital or a "night hawk" somewhere else and the results faxed back to us.

I'm sure the VA has good benefits, being a gov't entity, but I don't know the details. I'm sure there is a retirement plan and health insurance provided.
You could google this I'm sure.

 

[gutonc]

There are clearly 2 different conversations going on here. The first is, "can you work at the VA without being BC/BE?" and the answer to this is...it depends. My VA allows any licensed physician to moonlight on the inpatient service assuming they meet the credentialing requirements. In order to be a FT employee however, you need to be BC/BE in the specialty in which you are working.

So...a PGY2 IM or FP resident or a PGY4 Gen Surg resident could moonlight on the IM service but only someone who had completed and IM residency could work as a PCP or hospitalist and only someone who completed a Gen Surg residency could get credentials as a surgeon.

As to the bene's and retirement, the gummint has a pretty sweet retirement gig and your health/life insurance will depend on where you work. Our VA (for example) has 3 tiers of health insurance. You can get VA benefits for free. For something like $25-50/month you can get a regional, closed HMO for you or your whole family. If you want an open Blue Cross style plan you'll pay for it but you can get it. Other VA systems will have different options.

People tend to view the VA as a huge, monolithic system without any variability but when it comes down to day-to-day operations, there's a huge amount of flexibility in the way individual VISN's and VA hospitals operate.

 

[LadyGrey]

There's the possibility of loan forgiveness, also:
http://www.va.gov/JOBS/Job_Benefits/continue_edu.asp

I assume the specifics vary from VA to VA?

I did research at a VA, and met some pretty cool people. Dealing with things like HR sucked and lived down to every stereotype you may have about government bureacracy ("we have to mail this form to Kansas so they can stamp it, then we get it back, but the person who's in charge is out sick and won't be back for two weeks, and no one else can do it while she's gone"), but the clinicians I met seemed pretty dedicated.

 

[Doowai]

There's the possibility of loan forgiveness, also:
http://www.va.gov/JOBS/Job_Benefits/continue_edu.asp

I assume the specifics vary from VA to VA?

I did research at a VA, and met some pretty cool people. Dealing with things like HR sucked and lived down to every stereotype you may have about government bureacracy ("we have to mail this form to Kansas so they can stamp it, then we get it back, but the person who's in charge is out sick and won't be back for two weeks, and no one else can do it while she's gone"), but the clinicians I met seemed pretty dedicated.

I think the loan forgiveness is possible with any of the gummit programs like VA, IHS and Federal prisons.

 

[LadyGrey]

I think the loan forgiveness is possible with any of the gummit programs like VA, IHS and Federal prisons.

True. But VA is a more pleasant option for most people. IHS jobs aren't going to be in major cities or suburbs (AFAIK), and a lot of people don't want to work in a prison.

 

[Doowai]

True. But VA is a more pleasant option for most people. IHS jobs aren't going to be in major cities or suburbs (AFAIK), and a lot of people don't want to work in a prison.

Phoenix has several IHS facilities around the downtown area (as does Tucson and Flagstaff), and I wonder if any of the cities in Texas, New Mexico and So Cal have the same. NY city probably does not - are there still Algonquin in that area?

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Believe it or not, there is actually an IHS clinic in New York City, for all tribal members who have migrated in for work. Otherwise the reservations upstate (the Oneida and Mohawk, for example) are your best bet.

You can look up specific facilities here:
http://www.ihs.gov/GeneralWeb/WebAp...chregion=area&CFID=109103016&CFTOKEN=83689823

But the list of all offices is here:
http://www.ihs.gov/FacilitiesServices/AreaOffices/AreaOffices_index.asp

I worked with on the Zuni reservation (Zuni-Ramah service unit in the Albuquerque area) and had a wonderful experience, but there is a lot of variability as to day-to-day life, tribal receptivity to outsiders, and safety amongst the sites.

 

[Doowai]

I worked with on the Zuni reservation (Zuni-Ramah service unit in the Albuquerque area) and had a wonderful experience, but there is a lot of variability as to day-to-day life, tribal receptivity to outsiders, and safety amongst the sites.

I also did a IHS rotation in med school and really enjoyed it. Mostly Navajo, some Apache , Pima and Yaqui. I thought it was a great experiece.

I am surprised about an IHS center in NY