Nearly 80 percent of VBA respondents said they faced unrealistic work quotas. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffChronic understaffing is taking a toll on VA employees, with nearly four tenths saying they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their jobs and nearly two-thirds saying they are considering leaving in the next few years, a survey sponsored by the AFGE union found.
In the poll of more than 2,000 employees conducted last year, nearly all of respondents in the Veterans Health Administration, 96 percent, said their facility needs more clinical staff, while three fourths said it needs more administrative staff, and two-thirds “reported that beds, units, or programs have been closed in their facility due to staffing and budget shortages, even when there is patient demand for such services.”
Further, 55 percent of VHA employees “said they have less time to deliver direct patient care and support services than they did four years ago,” in part because they are spending more time coordinating VA care with outside providers, according to a summary.
Similarly, in the Veterans Benefits Administration “employees reported job dissatisfaction and burnout, due mostly to understaffing and unrealistic performance standards. Nearly 80 percent of VBA respondents said they faced work quotas, which in their comments, they described as entirely unrealistic.”
The VA has longstanding issues with high vacancy rates, especially in healthcare fields, leading to a number of recent changes in law designed to boost salaries and incentive payments for some positions.
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