For Dr. Nisha Mehta, finding the right balance between work and life has been critical in her career. It’s a balance she says she was able to find at VA, and for other physicians who may be struggling with finding that same balance, she encourages them to consider a place on our team.
“VA is a jewel that I don’t think a lot of physicians consider heavily enough in their job searches,” said Mehta, a VA radiologist working out of our Charlotte Health Care Center in North Carolina.
Early experiences with VA
Mehta has been working at VA for almost 9 years, but her ties to the VA community go back even further, all the way back to her medical school training at University of Pennsylvania. The university offered rotations at local VA facilities, which offered Mehta a chance to learn while caring for Veterans.
“It was a nice place to grow as a physician, with an environment that was conducive to learning,” she shared, and that environment was still available to her when she moved on to her residency at New York University. “I found it was a really great place to work.”
Mehta’s career would soon take her to a position with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as her husband, also a physician, earned a fellowship at Duke. Afterwards, her husband’s job led Mehta’s young family to the Charlotte area.
It was a move that would bring her back to VA full-time.
Finding life/work balance
As her husband pursued a career as a plastic surgeon in Charlotte, Mehta started looking for something she hadn’t yet enjoyed in her career: predictability.
While interviewing for a number of positions throughout the region, she realized she wanted to be in a position that offered her the chance to practice while still carving out time to be an active and engaged mother to the family’s 2 young sons.
“I realized I wanted something with fewer nights, fewer weekends,” she shared. “Something that would still let me be a mom.”
She found it with VA, first working at VA Salisbury, and then at the newly opened VA Health Care Center (HCC) in Charlotte, which reduced her commute and provided even more time with her family.
“In my department, I could work 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., no nights, no weekends,” she said. It was a natural fit for what I needed, and it allowed me to be a mom and still practice medicine. Working at VA provided the lifestyle we wanted.”
“You just get to be a good doctor”
A career at VA also offered Mehta the opportunity to once again interact with Veterans, great patients who were grateful for the care and attention they received. VA offered an environment that was more conducive to providing engaged care and interacting with patients.
“I love listening to Veterans share their stories,” she explained. “VA offers us the ability to get to know patients better, and offers a pace that makes that possible.”
That pace, she added, has allowed her more time to practice medicine at a high level and focus on patient care. Whether that is time to do research on an issue or confer with colleagues to determine the best possible outcome for a Veteran seeking care, she’s found that time at VA.
To ensure we provide Veterans the best care, we allow physicians the chance to focus entirely on the medicine. Rather than dealing with insurance or pursuing authorizations from carriers that frustrate doctors who work in the private sector, VA allows doctors some freedom from the stressors that often contribute to burnout among physicians.
“VA offers the chance to practice medicine how you want,” said Mehta. “You don’t have to worry about the business of medicine, you just get to be a good doctor.”
She continued: “Physician life doesn’t have to be 100 or 0. There are places where you can find a balance. VA is a nice place to land.”
Further flexibility
VA has also offered Mehta the flexibility and support she’s needed to develop and expand her career, from her student days to her work as a resident and an attending. She currently works per diem with the HCC in Charlotte, which provides a new kind of balance as her career takes new turns.
“Working at VA has allowed me to continue practicing medicine on the terms that worked for me and provided me with the balance I needed between work and life,” she said. “It’s allowed me to remain connected to medicine in a way that’s very meaningful for me.”
Work at VA
“VA is a job I can see myself working for the next 30 years,” said Mehta, and she encourages other physicians to consider VA.
- LEARN what VA has to offer physicians.
- HEAR another VA physician discuss her career.
- CONTACT a VA physician recruiter.
- SEARCH for an opportunity near you.
