Boise VA provides unique opportunities for trainees

The Boise VA is doing it all: improving the lives of veterans and their families, providing top-tier medical education, increasing the physician workforce and being recognized by VA employees as the “Best Place to Work” out of all VA hospitals.

Currently, residents in the UW Boise Internal Medicine Residency spend all three years of their training in Boise, highlighting a dedication to training physicians for Idaho and its neighboring states — and the shift seems to be working, with 60% of residents in the program staying in Idaho to practice and 15% practicing in neighboring states.

Statistically, most physicians work close to where they trained, so for states like Idaho with low numbers of physicians to population, it’s especially important.

The opportunities for residents training at the VA are also unique. The VA is a managed care system in which a patient and their clinician can decide what a patient would like to have for their care and then make it happen.

Dr. Moe Hagman is the program director for the Boise Internal Medicine Residency Program.

“About half of the residents’ education is in the VA system where they can test out being a doctor in a system where the patient can get the care they agree upon,” she says. “The other half of their education is in the ‘real world,’ where they can make a plan with a patient, but if the patient or healthcare system can’t pay for the lab test or medication, or if there is no mental health provider in the area with availability, they are testing out what the healthcare system will let them do.”