The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the Department of Veterans Affairs to waive a section of federal law and ask retired medical personnel to come back to work, and the Office of Personnel Management approved that request March 19, the VA announced in a statement.
The VA will now be able to more easily rehire VA health care workers who retired in order to provide additional support in fighting the coronavirus.
The VA plans to start hiring this week, and noted that they were looking for retired medical personnel of all kinds: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, and anyone else in the medical profession. If interested, you can register online.
The VA will also allow retirees to be hired at full salary, rather than have it reduced to reflect the retirement annuity they are receiving as is normally the case.
This waiver will expire in a year.
“This action helps give the department surge capacity as needed,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie in the statement. “On behalf of all the Veterans we serve, I thank OPM for its quick action and invite our retired health care workers to consider coming back to VA during this crucial time.”
ABOVE: PACIFIC OCEAN (March 25, 2020) Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Gladys Koroma, from Bartlett, Tenn., practices administering an IV needle during a venipuncture training aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), March 25, 2020. Mercy deployed in support of the nation’s COVID-19 response efforts, and will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals. This allows shore base hospitals to focus their efforts on COVID-19 cases. One of the Department of Defense’s missions is Defense Support of Civil Authorities. DoD is supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead federal agency, as well as state, local and public health authorities in helping protect the health and safety of the American people. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Abigayle Lutz/Released)
