A national recruitment effort for medical professionals will increase access to care for veterans, according to a press release from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We have taken action to get veterans off of wait lists and into clinics in the short term, but in the long term, in order to provide timely access to care, we need to build capacity by hiring more clinicians,” Robert A. McDonald, VA secretary, stated in the release. “We need the best doctors and nurses serving veterans, and that is why I will be out recruiting, leveraging the existing relationships the VA has with many academic institutions, and talking directly with medical professionals about joining us to fulfill our exceptional mission of caring for those who ‘shall have borne the battle.’”
Specific VA actions will include:
- Collaborating on a new nursing partnership (VA Nursing Academic Partnerships) to build a relationship with nursing schools;
- Partnering with Department of Defense Health Affairs, Army, Navy and Air Force to improve recruitment of recently or soon-to-be discharged health care professionals;
- Expanding the pilot program to recruit combat medics and corpsmen as VA clinicians;
- Improving the credentialing process for VA and Department of Defense health care providers;
- Expanding the loan repayment program;
- Considering the revision of pay tables to offer for competitive salaries for VA providers.
For more information, visit www.vacareers.va.gov.
