Summary

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific eligibility requirements per VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) & eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply.

Duties

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VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. VHA Physician Total Rewards.

Recruitment/Relocation Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): May be approved for highly qualified candidate.

Education Debt Reduction Program (Student Loan Repayment): Learn more.

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact Gloria.Whitfield-Devonish@va.go, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance

Pay: Competitive salary, annual performance bonus, regular salary increases

Paid Time Off: 50-55 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year and possible 5 day paid absence for CME)

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)



Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory

CME: Possible $1,000 per year reimbursement (must be full-time with board certification)

Malpractice: Free liability protection with tail coverage provided

Contract: No Physician Employment Contract and no significant restriction on moonlighting

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Performs clinical work that evaluates the human mental state and behavior and describes the clinical phenomena and behavior, develops formulations to explain clinical presentation and history and determine a differential diagnosis, and develops treatment plans to predict or modify the clinical condition as indicated.
• Performs psychiatric evaluations, risk assessments, and treatment of patients with mental illnesses and/or problems of personality, behavior, or emotional adjustment.
• Based on data gathered through primary or adjunctive assessments or tests, plans or recommends appropriate clinical treatment based on precedent and standards of the profession.
• Develops and implements individualized treatment plans that incorporate pharmacologic, other somatic, and psychotherapeutic modalities for a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses and behavioral presentations. Develops comprehensive treatment plans specific to the patient. The patients assigned often have multiple complicating factors (i.e., physical disabilities, lack of support or resources) or other external or environment considerations that complicate treatment.
• Oversees other professionals and/or works as a key team member providing comprehensive psychiatric and medical care for a group of individuals.
• Provides or recommends medication treatments, somatic interventions (e.g., rTMS, ECT), psychotherapy (e.g., individual, group and/or family), and wellness or psychosocial options (e.g., Whole Health Programming) and uses recognized therapeutic techniques to address complex psychiatric conditions.
• Promotes, supervises, and/or performs psychotherapy with patients. Uses therapeutic techniques.
• Demonstrates skill in formulating differential diagnoses and in modifying treatment based on clinical response or evolving presentation.
• Provides consultation and specialty psychiatric expertise to other medical center programs and staff, both within and outside the HUD-VASH team, on a wide variety of clinical issues.
• Presents and discusses treatment plans with multidisciplinary teams and collaboratively adjusts care as needed, particularly in the context of complex medical or social comorbidities (e.g., physical disabilities, lack of resources, legal barriers).
• Promotes a supportive and therapeutic clinical environment and psychotherapeutic culture within the team and among colleagues.
• Supervises and oversees the clinical care provided by trainees, including psychiatry residents and medical students, offering instruction on diagnostic formulation and treatment progression.
• Provides oversight into the clinical activities of non-licensed personnel and clinical consultation to other clinical staff; ensures team adherence to clinical protocols and standards of care.
• Participates in the training of health care providers and staff, as needed, on mental health practices and preventive care principles. Oversees the treatment performed by medical students, and psychiatry residents, and other trainees and instructs them regarding the presentations, treatment, and course of psychiatric illnesses.
• Identifies characteristics of progress and adjustments to treatment that are typical in certain circumstances.
• Ensures timely and accurate completion of all clinical documentation and administrative records in accordance with VA and medical center policies.
• Practices and promotes safety and infection control measures and contributes to a culture of continuous quality improvement.
• Engages in and initiates quality improvement initiatives
  
  

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 40-hour work week; weekend call

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
  
  

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, you must meet the basic requirements as well as any additional requirements (if applicable) listed in the job announcement. Applicants pending the completion of training or license requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Currently employed physician(s) in VA who met the requirements for appointment under the previous qualification standard at the time of their initial appointment are deemed to have met the basic requirements of the occupation.

Basic Requirements:

• 
  
  United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Degree of doctor of medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in medicine or osteopathic medicine. The degree must have been obtained from one of the schools approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the year in which the course of study was completed.
• Current, full and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or in the District of Columbia.
• Residency Training: Physicians must have completed residency training, approved by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in an accredited core specialty training program leading to eligibility for board certification. (
  
  NOTE: VA physicians involved in academic training programs may be required to be board certified for faculty status.) Approved residencies are: (1) Those approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), b) OR [(2) Those approved by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA),OR
• Other residencies (non-US residency training programs followed by a minimum of five years of verified practice in the United States), which the local Medical Staff Executive Committee deems to have provided the applicant with appropriate professional training and believes has exposed the physician to an appropriate range of patient care experiences.
  
  

Residents currently enrolled in ACGME/AOA accredited residency training programs and who would otherwise meet the basic requirements for appointment are eligible to be appointed as "Physician Resident Providers" (PRPs). PRPs must be fully licensed physicians (i.e., not a training license) and may only be appointed on an intermittent or fee-basis. PRPs are not considered independent practitioners and will not be privileged; rather, they are to have a "scope of practice" that allows them to perform certain restricted duties under supervision. Additionally, surgery residents in gap years may also be appointed as PRPs.

• Proficiency in spoken and written English.
  
  

Preferred Experience:

• Board certified in Psychiatry or board eligibility
• Ability to provide psychiatric evaluations and treatment of patients with complex psychiatric, medical, and psychosocial conditions while leading and coordinating care of individual patients with an interdisciplinary treatment team and provide psychiatric care along its continuum
• Medical and behavioral management of individuals with psychiatric disorders, including evidence-based treatments and collaborative psychiatric care with inter-professional clinical teams that include academic trainees
• Ability to participate as faculty in clinical training programs or clinical research protocols is welcome. Experience, including fellowship training, with special populations such as Homelessness, Addiction Psychiatry, Geriatric Psychiatry, or Serious Mental Illnesses
• Supervising psychiatric trainees and students in the context of clinical care and
  
  

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.



Physical Requirements:

The work is primarily sedentary, but it may require periods of mobility (e.g., walking, bending, or climbing) and employee may carry light items such as books, instruments, laptops and other similar materials. The work requires emotionally stability, working closely with others emotional stability, mental stability, and working alone. Requires the incumbent to possess or develop an understanding of particular needs of Veterans. Sensitivity to the special needs of all patients in reference to age, developmental requirements, and culturally related factors must be consistently achieved.

Functional Requirements

Light lifting, under 15 pounds

Walking 1 hour

Standing 1 hour

Hearing (aid may be permitted)

Environmental Factors

Working closely with others

Working alone

Education

Degree of Doctor of Medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in allopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine. The degree must have been obtained from an institution whose accreditation was in place for the year in which the course of study was completed. Approved schools are:

• Schools of medicine accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for the year in which the degree was granted, or
• Schools of osteopathic medicine approved by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation of the American Osteopathic Association for the year in which the degree was granted.
• For foreign medical graduates not covered in (1) or (2) above, facility officials must verify with the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) that the applicant has met requirements for certification, and must obtain a copy of the ECFMG certificate, if claimed by the applicant. [If the applicant does not claim an ECFMG certificate, facility officials must still confirm that the medical school meets (or met) ECFMG eligibility requirements for the year the candidate graduated.]
  
  
  
  

NOTE: The Under Secretary of Health or designee in the VHA Central Office may approve the appointment under authority of 38 U.S.C. 7405 of a physician graduate of a school of medicine not covered above if the candidate is to be assigned to a research, academic, or administrative position with no patient care responsibilities. The appointment will be made only in exceptional circumstances where the candidate's credentials clearly demonstrate high professional attainment or expertise in the specialty area.

Additional information

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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