Dr. Robin Hurley says the litmus test for VA affiliations with national medical colleges is in the care provided to Veterans.  Hurley is the associate chief of staff for research and academic affairs at the Salisbury VA Medical Center in North Carolina.  She coordinates and oversees training and education programs of VA residents and students through the VA’s affiliation with the Wake Forest School of Medicine in nearby Winston-Salem.

Hurley began her VA career at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, where she first worked in the training of young professionals in that facility’s affiliation with the Baylor College of Medicine.

She shared some of her thoughts on the tremendous impact that VA partnerships with U.S. medical schools have had on health care for Veterans and medicine in general.

Affiliating with U.S. medical colleges was a key piece of the puzzle in building a health-care system that could care for the millions of Veterans coming home after from World War II. The growth of these partnerships continues to train health-care providers to meet ever-increasing needs.  Training doctors and nurses by the thousands and establishing research agreements with the nation’s medical schools would result in the largest health-care training program in the United States

Want to learn more? Watch this video highlighting the beginning of this 70th celebration. Or read more on how VA and its collegiate partners continue to meet the challenge of providing a vital workforce to provide world class care for Veterans while training each new generation of physicians and nurses.

Look for more testimonials between now and Jan. 30, the day in 1946 that Policy Memorandum #2 was issued, creating the association between VA and medical schools and America’s biggest health-care training program.

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One Comment

  1. DannyG December 16, 2015 at 11:26

    Even I am growing weary of hearing the VETERANS Administration blow it’s own horn! It seems to me, & most vets, that PA & PHOTO OPS are more important than we are. More money is being spent on salaries, catered meetings, & inefficient equipment, than on ensuring VETERANS are treated respectfully & correctly!
    I am happy at “My VA”, but am apalled by the overall accepted mentality & daily operating procedures of the VETERANS Administration. I still support my brother, Robert McDonald, but his boss, & the other politicians will soon HATE the day they slighted the U.S. military, & America’s Veterans! We all know that the enemy is ON OUR SOIL, & soon, WE will have to protect our country again. To coin an old phrase, I ask them: WHO ‘YA GONNA CALL ?

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