The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing one of its steepest staffing challenges in years, with thousands of front-line positions going unfilled as doctors, nurses, and support staff leave faster than they can be replaced.
Internal records obtained by ProPublica show the VA has lost more than 600 doctors and nearly 1,900 nurses in 2025 alone. Across the system, more than 7,500 veteran-facing positions have been vacated since the start of the fiscal year — and remain unfilled. Those losses include registered nurses, physicians, mental health providers, social workers, and claims examiners.
The staffing drop comes as the Trump administration and VA Secretary Doug Collins push for workforce reductions while pledging to improve care. In March, the VA announced plans to cut 70,000 jobs, later revising the target to 30,000, citing voluntary departures that made mass layoffs unnecessary. Collins has insisted that front-line care hasn’t been compromised. But inside VA hospitals, the picture looks different.
Recruitment is faltering. Four in ten doctors offered positions between January and March turned them down — quadruple last year’s rate. Many cite uncertainty about the agency’s direction, hiring freezes in certain areas, and a lack of trust in senior leadership. In some regions, administrators have reported dozens of rejected job offers due to “the uncertainty of reorganization” and low morale among current staff.
The shortages are already showing up in patient care. Wait times for new patients seeking outpatient surgery now average 41 days nationally, above the VA’s own 28-day target. In Augusta, Maine, veterans face a two-month wait for primary care — triple the goal and 38 days longer than last year. A disabled Marine’s wife told ProPublica her husband has gone months without a primary care doctor since his last physician left over the winter. “It was never like this before,” she said. “There’s a lack of staff, empty rooms, locked doors. It feels like something that’s not healthy.”
Some facilities are also seeing critical support roles go unfilled. In Dayton, Ohio, missing purchasing agents delayed the delivery of hundreds of prosthetics. In Florida’s rural areas, VA officials say they can’t hire enough mental health providers, with several candidates rejecting job offers outright.
Adding to the problem is a sharp reduction in the use of recruitment and retention incentives — bonuses that once helped the VA compete with private-sector pay. Under President Biden, nearly 20,000 staffers received retention bonuses in 2024; so far this year, that number is closer to 7,000. Recruitment bonuses have also fallen dramatically.
Critics like Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., argue the cuts are part of a long-term plan to weaken the VA and push more care to private providers. Collins rejects that claim, but congressional oversight hearings have underscored fears that veterans are already feeling the effects.
For Anthony Martinez, a retired Army captain in Texas, those effects are personal. Lost medical records, longer waits, and fewer available appointments have become routine. “It’s not just me,” he said. “Many vets are having bad experiences.”
Whether the VA can reverse the trend — and restore trust among both patients and staff — may depend on how quickly it can stabilize its workforce. Right now, that stability feels far away.
