Working for the VA

[erdoc00]

Anybody have any experience working in the VA? I think I'm done with community ER and looking for something more tolerable. Im tired of worrying about lawsuits, stupid patient satisfaction metrics, and unreasonable administrators. Is the VA a step in the right direction or just more of the same for less pay?

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[erdoc00]

bump to see if anyone has any feedback

 

[survivordo]

I'm rotating there as a resident right now. It's a fairly low volume VA but all the attendings seem happy. The ED physicians are absolutely useless though so I don't know if that is a pervasive theme throughout the system of just our particular VA.

Survivor DO

 

[Daiphon]

I'm rotating there as a resident right now. It's a fairly low volume VA but all the attendings seem happy. The ED physicians are absolutely useless though so I don't know if that is a pervasive theme throughout the system of just our particular VA.

Survivor DO

Depends on the VAMC. Ours is fully staffed with BCEM, but many others use IM/Surg/etc. Pursuant to many threads on this board, if one wants to practice EM, one should be EM trained. I'd hazard a guess that your VA shop isn't EM-trained.

Anybody have any experience working in the VA? I think I'm done with community ER and looking for something more tolerable. Im tired of worrying about lawsuits, stupid patient satisfaction metrics, and unreasonable administrators. Is the VA a step in the right direction or just more of the same for less pay?

It's apples & oranges. In some respects, it's better than the real world - the loss of the malpractice spectre (unless you REALLY screw up) is huge, and being able to practice rational medicine is nice.

However, remember that it's the federal government. Administrators, while reasonable, have clearly defined scopes of action; so dealing with the bureaucracy is still there.

You also won't see kids (unless you're in a combined VAMC/Active Duty Post like Lovell) and very little Ob/Gyn... so those skills will get rusty.

I'm a fan of my shop, but it took a few months before I felt comfortable - longer than other places I've worked - because the "system" is a little convoluted.

Cheers!
-d

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[Brigade4Radiant]

Anybody have any experience working in the VA? I think I'm done with community ER and looking for something more tolerable. Im tired of worrying about lawsuits, stupid patient satisfaction metrics, and unreasonable administrators. Is the VA a step in the right direction or just more of the same for less pay?

So looking back do you think you would have done IM instead?

 

[DeadCactus]

Bumping an old thread. Anyone happen to know roughly how much a BE/BC EM physician can expect to make working at the VA (or IHS, DOD)? Specifically fresh out of residency. USAJobs lists $100k-240k which spans absurd to decent for government/academic job.

Also, any insight into typical shift per month and moonlighting policies?

 

[Daiphon]

Bumping an old thread. Anyone happen to know roughly how much a BE/BC EM physician can expect to make working at the VA (or IHS, DOD)? Specifically fresh out of residency. USAJobs lists $100k-240k which spans absurd to decent for government/academic job.

Also, any insight into typical shift per month and moonlighting policies?

Depends on the location. There's a base of ~180 or something like that, per annum; and then a geographic adjustment factor.

Kinda like locums jobs - the better paying, the less desirable to live (for the most part).

For docs (non-graded employees) the salary is the salary; no difference between a new grad and a 20 year employee unless there's something else the 20 year person is into.

As for the shifts, again depends; mine is set up on 12h shifts, so to hit 40h/week (which the VA is beholden to) = ~12 shifts/month full time (we do get 2h/week for administrative/teaching stuff as we have residents in our ED). Moonlighting isn't a problem, unless it conflicts with your VA responsibilities... then it's a BIG problem.

Cheers!
-d

 

[docdragon]

I enjoyed working per diem/locums in the VA. In general, the full-time docs covered the day shifts, and they tried to cover nights and weekends with moonlighters. If I could see a greater variety, I'd be back in a heartbeat, and would absolutely consider working there part-time as long as something else rounded out the rest of my hours.