• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Association for Academic Surgery (AAS)

  • Home
  • About
    • AAS Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Foundation
  • Membership
    • Apply For Membership
    • New Member List
    • Membership Directory
    • Check Dues Balance / Pay Dues
  • Jobs
    • AAS Job Board
    • Post a Job
  • Resources
    • Assistant Professor Playbook
    • Partners
    • AAS Resources
    • Resident Research Funding Primer
  • Grants/Awards
    • AAS/AASF Fall Courses Award
    • AAS/AASF Research Awards
      • Basic Science/Translational Research Award
      • Clinical Outcomes/Health Services Research Award
      • Trainee Research Fellowship Award in Education
      • Global Surgery Research Fellowship Award
      • Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award
    • Travel Awards
      • AAS/AASF Student Diversity Travel Award
      • Senior Medical Student Travel Award
      • Visiting Professorships
    • Awards FAQ’s
  • Meetings
    • Academic Surgical Congress
    • Surgical Investigators’ Course
    • AAS Fall Courses
    • International Courses
      • Fundamentals of Surgical Research Course and Scientific Writing Workshop
    • Resident Research Funding Primer
  • Publications
  • Webinars
    • Fireside Chat – Maintaining Balance & Control
    • Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Series
      • Allyship
      • PRIDE: The LGBTQ+ Community in Academic Surgery
      • Racial Discrimination in Academic Surgery
    • Academic Surgery in the Time of COVID-19 Series
      • How to Optimize your Research During the Pandemic
      • How to Optimize Educational Experiences During the Pandemic
      • Virtual Interviews
    • The Transition to Practice – Presented by Intuitive
  • Leadership
    • Current AAS Leadership
    • AAS Past Presidents
    • How to Chair
    • Committee Missions & Objectives
    • AAS Officer Descriptions
  • Blog
    • Submit a Post
  • Log In

July 13, 2021 by Edward Jones, MD, MS, FACS

My First Job – The VA, Army Reserve and Finding the Best Fit for Your Family

629th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Team (FRST) Camp setup near Ogden, Utah during weekend drill in May. (2021)

At the beginning of fellowship, my wife (also a General Surgeon) and I began looking for jobs near my family in rural Montana. There were many potential benefits: good salary, 3-year guarantee, no non-compete… this, of course, was in exchange for a 1:4 ‘home’ call schedule that typically required in-house consultations and overnight cases. I had also joined the Army Reserves during fellowship (a lifelong goal of mine) and asked about potential time-off for deployments or drill. I could take all the time I needed as vacation but would be responsible for ‘making up’ the missed call to make sure that everyone had roughly the same number of call days per year. At the time, the deployment schedule was roughly q24 months for general surgeons. That meant that every 2 years I would be mobilized and deployed for roughly 4 months – not an impossible schedule but definitely a challenge as not only would I have to make-up the call I missed; but also my wife’s call increases (she would be in the same call pool). Lastly, after the first 3-years, our salary would become RVU-based and likely take a significant cut during deployments.

We then received a call from the Chief of Surgery at the VA where we had done our residency. Up until then, we had not considered working at the VA and didn’t know much about being a government employee. As the discussions began, we quickly began to wonder – is this deal too good to be true?

To begin with – in the past, VA physician salaries have been considered “low.” However, in Denver (and many competitive localities where a lot of surgeons compete over few spots which drives down salaries), the VA can easily achieve the MDMA average. On top of that, the benefits are where the value of being a federal employee exceeds nearly all other academic (and most community) positions – 1) Thrift Savings Plan (401(k) equivalent) matches contributions up to 5% of salary with the lowest administrative fees of any investment portfolio; 2) Pension/Retirement – the VA offers one of the few remaining ‘pensions’ on top of your TSP contributions; 3) Health Insurance – the VA pays, on average, up to 70% of health care premiums with a wide range of options from high deductible plans through Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, etc. to Kaiser and so on. (https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/plan-information/compare-plans/)

There are also significant benefits to those who are in – or were in – the military. There is annual military leave up to 15 days on top of your 26 days of annual (vacation) leave. You can also ‘buy back’ your active duty military time to count towards a VA retirement – allowing you to retire earlier and still receive a full pension.

Teresa Jones MD, MS FACS and I avoiding burn out and taking vacation together – even though we are in the SAME call pool – because we have such excellent colleagues.

Beyond the salary and benefits, we were lucky to join a team of like-minded individuals. This, I think is the single most important piece of advice I would give those looking for their first (or second… or 3rd) job. Your daily satisfaction and burn-out will be directly related to who you work with. If your potential partners are ornery, don’t offer to help each other out and have dissimilar goals – then you’ll likely stay at the job for a couple years and rapidly move in. But if you can find a group of people who work well with each other, are willing to help each other out and “put the team in front of the individual” then it could end up being your first… and only job. So take extra time to get to know your potential colleagues as best you can before making that decision.

The last topic regarding the VA is the concern regarding productivity: there is a persistent myth that everything shuts down by 2-3pm; no cases happen on the weekend and there are long wait lines for everything. While this may be true elsewhere, ‘your’ VA can be whatever you make it. In Denver, for Gen Surg, we commonly see patients and get them to the OR within 2-3 weeks of presentation – very nice continuity of care for our rotating residents and students and significantly faster than the wait times in the community and nearby academic centers. We also run our ORs to 5PM and operate on the weekends. This was driven by our Chief of Surgery who recruited likeminded individuals (such as my wife and I) who slowly changed the paradigm over the course of 5 years.

In sum – the VA offers a competitive salary and numerous benefits, especially to those who are current or former military members. But more important than finding a VA is finding partners who have similar interests and work ethic so that your first job could be your last job.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
Edward Jones, MD, MS, FACS

Edward Jones, MD, MS, FACS

Edward Jones @edwardljonesii is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado and the Director of Surgical Endoscopy at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center. He completed his General Surgery training at the University of Colorado as well as his fellowship in MIS/Flexible Endoscopy at the Ohio State University. He specializes in foregut surgery and endoscopy, including ERCP, and performs both clinical and health services research. He works alongside his wife, Teresa Jones @TShyrJones, who completed her fellowship in Surgical Critical Care at the Ohio State University.
Edward Jones, MD, MS, FACS

Latest posts by Edward Jones, MD, MS, FACS (see all)

  • My First Job – The VA, Army Reserve and Finding the Best Fit for Your Family - July 13, 2021

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Other Posts from The Academic Surgeon:

Entrustable Professional Activities for Research: Are EPARs on the horizon?
Request for self-nominations for JSR Associate Editor for Surgical Education and Career Development

Primary Sidebar

Log In

  • Lost your password?

AAS Commitment to Diversity in Academic Surgery

Save the Date: 2023 Academic Surgical Congress

Save the date for the 18th ASC!
February 7-9, 2023
Hilton Americas-Houston
Houston, TX
More information coming soon.  Learn more>>

2023 AAS Fall Courses

Save the Date! Saturday, October 21, 2023 Boston , MA Courses will take place immediately prior to the ACS Clinical … More Information » about Fall Courses

Footer

Association for Academic Surgery
11300 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Phone: (310) 437-1606
Email: [email protected]

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

© 2023 · AAS - Association for Academic Surgery