Federal Government Healthcare Jobs at the VA

If you want to work in healthcare for the federal government, look no further than the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

The hospital and clinics, housed in a sprawling building in Minneapolis and in nine outside clinics in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, employ more than 3,000 workers. Most patients are veterans of the Vietnam War and the Korean conflict, as well as peacetime veterans and newly returned vets from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The medical center is hiring for several positions, including medical support assistants, medical technologists, medical/surgical technicians, nurses, occupational therapists, physicians, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, psychologists and social workers, according to Kathy Besser, supervisory human resources specialist at the Minneapolis VA.

Most of the VA's nursing staff of 950 is located on campus. Nurses also work with veterans' groups in the community, in research and in home care, according to Pamela Snyder, a nurse recruiter.

Competitive salaries

"We do a survey of the local area here and we try to compete with what they're getting (paid) in private industry," Besser says. VA employees receive federal government health and life insurance benefits, and retirement benefits if they are permanent employees. Lower-income workers with children up to age 13, or disabled and under 18, may qualify for a child-care subsidy.

Go to jobsearch.usajobs.gov, where you can search jobs by location, job category, salary range, pay grade and keyword. Tips on searching keywords are available at jobsearch.usajobs.gov. Job seekers may also select a more refined search from the specialty search options.

Hiring advantages

Veterans who have served in war or who are receiving disability compensation from the VA may have preference in landing jobs at the VA if the job is open to the general public. "We do have an initiative from our veteran office in Washington to hire a certain percentage of veterans every year," says Besser. "When we have two well-qualified candidates it does make a difference if one is a veteran."

Besser advises job-seekers to carefully read the vacancy announcement and "how to apply" procedures on the USAJOBS website. "The first time you do it, it's probably a little bit overwhelming," she says. Each job listing includes a contact person.

"It's a good place to work," Besser says of the VA. "You get to do something to help the country. That feels good. It's a well-oiled machine that works. A lot of people start here and work here for 40 years and retire with a great retirement."