VA training program helps address critical doctor shortage in Nevada

By Brittany Sheehan

Nevada News and Views

The Department of Veterans Affairs is doing something smart in Nevada: training more doctors right where they’re needed most.

Through partnerships with local universities, the VA is helping solve a real problem of not having enough doctors to go around.

Nevada ranks 45th out of 50 states for doctors per capita. That means if you live there, it’s harder to find a doctor when you need one. Wait times get longer. Emergency rooms get crowded. People drive hours just to see a specialist.

The VA partnered with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Touro University of Nevada to train medical residents at VA facilities. So far, they’ve placed 40 medical residents at Southern Nevada VA, and 13 Touro graduates now work there full-time.

Why This Makes Sense for Conservatives

This program shows government doing what it should do: solving real problems efficiently without creating new bureaucracy. The VA already has the hospitals, the patients, and the experienced doctors. They’re just opening their doors to train the next generation of physicians.

It’s a smart use of existing resources. Instead of building new government programs from scratch, they’re using what we already have. The medical students get world-class training. Veterans get better care from eager young doctors learning their craft. And local communities get more doctors who stick around after they finish training.

Dr. Wolfgang Gilliar from Touro University says the feedback has been “absolutely positive.” Students find the training rigorous but rewarding. That’s exactly what we want — high standards that produce excellent doctors.

This isn’t about growing government for government’s sake. It’s about using what we’ve already paid for to solve a problem that hurts families across Nevada.

The Market Wasn’t Solving This Problem

Some might ask why private medical schools didn’t fix Nevada’s doctor shortage on their own. The honest answer is that training doctors is expensive and takes years. Rural and less populated states often struggle to attract medical professionals because the economics don’t work out.

Young doctors graduate with huge student loans. They naturally gravitate toward cities where they can make more money and pay off their debts faster. States like Nevada get left behind, even though families there need doctors just as much as anyone else.

The VA program helps break that cycle. Students get excellent training without the crushing debt load. They form connections with local communities. Many decide to stay and practice where they trained.

Looking at the Numbers

The VA trains more than 122,000 health professionals each year through partnerships with over 1,450 academic institutions nationwide. That’s the largest health professions education program in the United States.

These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. Each of those trainees represents a future doctor, nurse, or specialist who will care for patients somewhere in America. Many will work in underserved areas that desperately need them.

For Nevada specifically, going from 45th to even 35th in doctors per capita would mean thousands more families could find a doctor when they need one. That’s worth supporting.

What Comes Next

This program will likely expand to other states facing similar shortages. That’s good news for rural America and smaller states that have been left behind. The VA has the infrastructure and expertise to make this work on a larger scale.

We might see specialized programs for training doctors in areas with the biggest shortages: rural family medicine, geriatrics, or mental health. The VA sees patients with all these conditions, so they can train doctors to handle them well.

Dr. Kate Martin from UNLV, who trained at the VA herself, remembers how grateful veterans were for their care. She realized she was “a part of something important and special” and wanted to contribute to that mission.

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Brittany Sheehan is a Las Vegas-based mother, policy advocate and grassroots leader. She is active in local politics, successful in campaign work and passionate about liberty.