As a physician assistant (PA) at VA, you’ll find purpose in serving Veterans. You’ll come to work each day knowing that you’re helping those who have served the nation on their path to whole health.
As one of only three disciplines in VA that can diagnose, treat and prescribe, PAs provide high-quality, Veteran-centric care across all areas, including primary care, surgery, mental health or other specialties. With your training, you can find a path to leadership roles at the local, regional and national levels, as well.
VA also has education support opportunities available for those who have been accepted into PA school. The Educational Assistance for Certain Former Members of the Armed Forces (EACFMAF) scholarship is a perfect path to a career at VA, because encouraging Veterans to serve those who have also served is an important part of what we do at VA.
Work at VA
Our PAs know that working at VA offers a sense of satisfaction you can’t find anywhere else. Find the first step on your path to a brighter future at VA Careers now.
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Seems that I have an interest here, How can I be of help, I am an EMT, MST, and LPN .. . let me know if I can be of assistance. Curtis H. Brittle
I would like to complete my college education with my degree in Early Childhood Education, but too old to play major league baseball again..?
I was drafted August 1968.
I was attending City College of San Francisco. I was scheduled to drafted and graduated into the league but, I received a letter to join United States ?? Armed Forces for service. In 1970, I returned to CCSF to complete my studies but was unable to attend due to my lack of experience in military service, military training, military experience in Viet Nam. I had difficult times inside classes and on the baseball the sounds of airplanes ✈️ flying overhead were not very good. I would like to complete my degree for Early Childhood Education. I only needed a few classes to graduate.
TBC
I had two tours of duty as a Vietnam Era physician assistant. I served veterans in the emergency room of the VA Medical Center in Syracuse, New York from September 1974 to December 1979. The other tour was at the Lyons New Jersey VA. I was hired to provide medical support for 750 psychiatric patients from April 1985 to May 90.
My first tour in Syracuse was a learning experience because I had just graduated from PA school in September 1973 from Long Island University. I met some great PAs and some great staff physicians and a few not-so-great interns and residents that believed that somehow they were better than us. There were 10 of us who worked in that emergency room and as a group, we had to retrain such residents had to think otherwise.
My tour of duty at the VAMC in Lyons, New Jersey was another learning experience. I was hired to provide medical support to those psychiatric patients who became medically ill. I did their annual exams; I covered for part-time positions, physicians on vacations; and I did some admin support to the chief of psychiatry when her admin assistant took sick.
There is much to gain from working at the VA. PAs have greater latitude than PAs in civilian population because you’re in a federal facility. The VA provides much in continuing medical education; the only major problem working with the VA is there’s a lot of “admin noise” that you must contend with as a provider.
After may 1990 I joined the USPHS on active duty and served in federal prison that contained a psychiatric forensic unit. From 2000 to 2012. I worked in various settings that included emergent psychiatry, inpatient and outpatient psychiatry.
There’s nothing like unsolicited comments from patients regarding how well they feel because of what I did with them.