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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Medical Student Portal

Onboarding at the VA Hospital

Students must start this process a minimum of 30 days, but no more than 60 days before the start date of a clerkship, elective or selective for which you are scheduled to rotate at the VA. Steps 1-8 must be completed before the start of your rotation.

Students who will be in Indianapolis during Phase 2 or 3 for any of the following rotations must complete onboarding:

  • Phase 2: anesthesia, surgery, neurology, psychiatry, internal medicine
  • Phase 3: medicine sub-internship; emergency medicine and critical care selectives; electives in anesthesia, surgery, neurology, psychiatry, internal medicine and emergency medicine

If you do not complete the entire VA onboarding process before you are scheduled to begin a rotation for any of the clerkships or electives that utilize the VA, the completion of your clerkships or electives may be delayed.

Students returning to the VA

If you have previously completed a rotation at the VA or completed onboarding but never did a rotation, you must contact the Education Department a minimum of 20 days prior to your new rotation start date. Please do not wait until the day you start or just a few days before, as it is possible you may not be able to start.

VA point of contact

You must work with the Indianapolis VA Education Office to complete the Onboarding process. The Education Office is your primary point of contact, not the VA IT department or VA personnel in other departments.

Step 1: Email the VA

Email the VA at INDVAAffiliateGroup@va.gov (cc: compreq@iu.edu) and provide them the following information to initiate the onboarding process and so they can guide you through the steps:

  • You will need to complete the onboarding process even if you are only working at an outpatient clinic on occasion during your rotation.
  • Name (First, Middle & Last Name). Please do not use nick names or shortened versions of your name.
  • Class year
  • Phone number
  • Have you rotated through and/or established an account at any VA facility before? If yes, where was this facility located?
  • What Clerkship is this placement?
  • When does your rotation start?

Please ensure that you do not have your IU email account forwarded to another account. Government security protocols will not allow information sent from a government computer to be forwarded. If your email is forwarded, you will not receive the information.

Step 2: Complete the TMS Training Module

The VA Education Office will create your trainee record within the IAM Provisioning system.

  • This will trigger an email notification to your IU email account that action is needed to complete required documentation and TMS modules.
  • Please do not self create a TMS account as this will delay onboarding. Wait for the email to begin the process.

You will receive the VA IAM Invitation Service Guide which will walk you through the required steps.

  • Follow these instructions carefully.
  • You must complete the “initial worksheet” before you can access any other listed documents.

Step 3: Submit your forms

  • Once you have completed all required documents and are ready to submit them to your coordinator, return to the IAM Invitation Service Homepage.
  • Click the green Submit button located on the right side of the row with your Inviter’s name.
  • Once submitted, your coordinator will be notified by the system. You will receive automated emails from IAM Provisioning as to the next step. If there are questions regarding the instructions, send an email (preferably using the same email stream through which you initially contacted the VA) to pose your question.

Step 4: Schedule an appointment for fingerprinting and background check

It can take up to 15 days for fingerprints to be adjudicated. Please plan accordingly in scheduling the fingerprinting appointment. Trainees will not be allowed to begin their VA rotation until all steps of the onboarding process are complete. Failure to complete all steps of the onboarding process may delay the start of your clerkships/electives

For students coming to the Indianapolis VA:

  • Once you have completed and submitted the documents in IAM Provisioning, you will use the link received from the initial email sent by the VA Education Department to schedule your fingerprint appointment. Do not call the PIV office. If you have questions regarding making the appointment, use the email stream started with the VA Education Department and ask your question there.

For students outside of Indianapolis:

  • Students outside of Indianapolis may go to another VA facility.
    • Students must provide the SOI and SON codes below to the VA facility to ensure prints are digitally sent to the VA in Indianapolis.
    • SOI #VAB8 
  • Once the fingerprints are completed, you will receive further information via email. Please be patient and wait for the notifications.

Step 5: Fingerprinting and background check

This step will take approximately 30 minutes. Consider bringing phones/study material in case there are multiple trainees onboarding. To avoid delays and/or unnecessary wait times, arrive no more than 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time.

Email the following:

  • Email current Clerkship/Elective coordinator to ensure proper absence permissions to onboard at the VA. Make sure to include your appointment time and step that you are completing in the process. You should not need to take an entire day off from a clerkship/elective to onboard at the VA.
  • Email the Indianapolis VA Education Office (INDVAAffiliateGroup@va.gov) only if you encounter problems during the process. The Education Office should be your primary point of contact (not the VA IT, PIV Departments or VA personnel in other departments) as there may be certain legal or process considerations that only the Education Department is aware of.

You must bring the following documents to the appointment:

  • Two forms of unexpired government-issued ID. (School-issued ID’s are no longer a valid form of ID).

Location for fingerprinting appointment at the VA:

  • You may park along Porto Allegre or in the open lot to the west of the parking garage. Do not park in patient parking.
  • You may opt to park at IU and walk over if you have an IU parking permit.
  • Do not report more than 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time.
  • Indianapolis: VA PIV Office is located in the basement in Room CB066
  • Outside of Indianapolis: See Step 4 for location recommendations.

After appointments are completed, students will wait for the next email notification — please remember it is not instant, so be patient for the email.

Step 6: Obtain PIV badge and computer access

Please do not proceed with the steps below until you've been notified via an Email from USAccess that your badge has arrived.

After all required items above are completed, the system will notify you that your PIV badge has arrived.

  • You must wait at least 48 hours before going to the PIV office to pick up your badge.
  • Once 48 hours has passed, you may return to the PIV Office (Room CB066) to activate and pick up your badge between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. — no appointment necessary. This step takes about ten minutes.
  • Email current clerkship/elective coordinator to ensure proper absence permissions to onboard at the VA. Make sure to include the time you will go to the VA and the step that you are completing in the process. You should not need to take an entire day off from a clerkship/elective/selective to onboard at the VA.

Once you have your activated badge in hand, you will go directly to the Education Department in Room D5018 to receive your access/verify codes and log in to the system. If you skip this step, you will not have access when you arrive for your rotation.

The Education Department (INDVAAffiliateGroup@va.gov) is your first line of contact with any issues regarding access. Always contact them first to avoid delays.

 

Subsequent VA rotations and access

Once all steps are completed your account will be valid for duration of your training program. If you complete a rotation but are returning later within that 365-day window, you must contact the VA Education Department no less than 20 days prior to returning to ensure account access.You may opt to go over to the VA Education Department every 30 days to log into the system, CPRS and VISTA to keep your access active. This will enable you to avoid having your account restored each time you return for a new rotation; however, it is still advised to contact the Education Department prior to a rotation to ensure your access.

Students must take note of the completion date of their TMS training modules because they will complete these modules every year. Otherwise, their VA access will be terminated until modules are completed. This is not optional, and accounts cannot be restored if TMS is non-compliant.