How Healthcare System’s Fail Veterans – A Conversation with Dr. Tayyeb

In the sprawling landscape of American healthcare, a quiet crisis is unfolding in plain sight. It doesn’t involve a new pathogen or a breakthrough drug, but rather a patient population that is both revered and routinely misunderstood: military veterans. While the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system looms large in the public imagination, the reality is starkly different. The vast majority of the nation’s 18 million veterans receive their care not in specialized VA hospitals, but in the same community clinics and civilian medical centers that serve the general public. And according to Dr. Ali R. Tayyeb, a U.S. Navy veteran, registered nurse, and founder of RN-Mentor Consulting, LLC, these systems are fundamentally unprepared to meet their unique needs.

This isn’t a failure of intention, but one of awareness, education, and strategic priority. Civilian health systems, from the C-suite to the exam room, often lack the cultural competency and clinical protocols to effectively care for those who have served.1 The result is a dangerous gap where veterans’ service-related health risks go unscreened, their invaluable skills are overlooked in the workplace, and their transition back to civilian life is made harder by a system that fails to see them for who they are. Drawing from his profound personal and professional experience, Dr. Tayyeb offers a compelling diagnosis of this systemic failure and a clear prescription for how healthcare leaders can—and must—do better.

The Cultural Chasm: From Military Unit to Civilian Life

To understand the challenges veterans face in healthcare, one must first appreciate the profound cultural shift they navigate upon leaving the military. It’s a transition that goes far beyond simply changing jobs or moving to a new city. It’s a complete rewiring of identity, communication, and community. Dr. Tayyeb, who served for a decade as a Navy Corpsman before building a career in nursing leadership, explains that the military is an all-encompassing culture.

“There’s a whole indoctrination that happens for individuals going into the military,” he notes. For an average of four years or more, service members are immersed in a world with its own language, hierarchies, and codes of conduct. They build their identities, networks, and a deep sense of camaraderie within this structured environment.

The Shock of Re-entry

The problem arises when it’s time to leave. Unlike the structured process of joining the military, the exit is often abrupt and lacks a meaningful process for reintegration. “When it’s time to leave that environment that’s been reinforced over a number of years, there is really no enculturation back into the civilian community,” Dr. Tayyeb explains. “We have maybe a couple of weeks that we go through some classes… but not enough for us to say, ‘Okay, now I have taken, I have put aside my 4 years, 8 years, 20 years of service, and now I can easily reintegrate back because it’s a completely culture shift.’”

This cultural whiplash leaves many veterans feeling isolated and misunderstood. The very traits that were assets in the military—directness, a mission-focused mindset, a dark sense of humor forged in high-stress environments—can be misinterpreted in a civilian workplace. This disconnect is exacerbated by what experts call the “civilian-military divide.” With less than one percent of the U.S. population currently serving on active duty, the number of civilians with direct exposure to military life is at an all-time low. As Dr. Tayyeb points out, this isn’t about a lack of respect; it’s a profound lack of familiarity that breeds misunderstanding and allows stereotypes to flourish.

The Veteran in the Workplace: An Untapped Asset

This cultural divide manifests acutely within the walls of healthcare organizations. While many systems proudly proclaim they hire veterans—and often receive incentives for doing so—the support frequently ends at the point of hire. Dr. Tayyeb identifies this superficial engagement with a poignant term: the “badge buddy effect.”

Beyond the Badge Buddy Effect

A badge buddy is a small card that hangs behind an employee’s ID, often used to display their role (RN, MD) or special certifications.2 Some hospitals give veterans badge buddies that identify their branch of service. While a well-intentioned gesture of recognition, Dr. Tayyeb argues it often represents the beginning and end of an organization’s veteran support strategy.

“I call it the badge buddy effect,” he says. “You get that veteran into organizations, you slap on a badge buddy. Thank you for your service. And that’s the extent of where they stop engaging with the veteran, right? They’ve hired them. They’ve done their good deed… But what do you do with the veterans afterwards? How are you investing in them?”

This failure to invest is a massive missed opportunity. Veterans bring a portfolio of skills tailor-made for the pressures of healthcare: discipline, resilience under pressure, advanced technical training, and proven leadership experience. Yet, instead of cultivating this talent, organizations often leave veteran employees to navigate a foreign culture on their own.

Dr. Tayyeb shares a personal story of being called into an HR meeting after a colleague felt uncomfortable with his description of his military experience—a conversation the colleague had initiated. His communication style, honed in a predominantly male, high-stakes military environment, was perceived as aggressive in the predominantly female, civilian nursing world. The burden was placed on him to change, to make others feel “safe” from his experience. This scenario highlights a crucial point: without organizational efforts to bridge the cultural gap through education, the onus of adaptation falls unfairly on the veteran, leading to alienation and stifling their potential contributions.

The Clinical Gap: Failing to Ask the Right Questions

The consequences of this systemic ignorance extend beyond employee relations and into the very core of patient care. The single most significant clinical failure, according to Dr. Tayyeb, is a remarkably simple one: health systems are not consistently asking patients if they have served in the military.

“Most veterans do not receive their healthcare within the veteran’s health system,” he emphasizes. “They’re not getting their care at the VA, they’re getting their care in the civilian communities. However, most of our civilian communities… are not asking the right questions.”

Invisible Wounds and Unseen Exposures

That one unasked question—”Have you ever served in the military?”—is a gateway to a host of critical follow-up assessments. Without it, clinicians are practicing with a blind spot, potentially missing diagnoses directly linked to a patient’s service history. These can include:

• Mental and Behavioral Health: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma (MST), depression, and suicide risk are all significantly more prevalent in the veteran population.
• Environmental Exposures: Service history can reveal exposure to harmful substances like Agent Orange in Vietnam, contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, or toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are linked to specific cancers and respiratory illnesses.3
• Musculoskeletal Injuries: The physical demands of military service often lead to chronic pain, joint issues, and other long-term orthopedic problems.4
• Hearing and Vision Loss: Exposure to high-decibel noise from machinery, aircraft, and weaponry is common, leading to tinnitus and hearing loss.5

When a clinician doesn’t know to screen for these conditions, they miss the opportunity for early intervention and targeted treatment. This clinical gap is widened by an educational deficit in medical and nursing schools, which rarely include veteran-specific health in their core curricula.6 Clinicians enter the workforce without the knowledge base to understand what to ask or, critically, what to do with the information once they have it.

A Path Forward: From Afterthought to Priority

For healthcare leaders feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the problem, Dr. Tayyeb offers a single, powerful directive that reframes the entire approach. It’s not about launching a dozen disparate initiatives, but about making one fundamental strategic shift.

“Make the veteran community a priority within your organization,” he urges. “Not a competing topic with everything else within the healthcare system, but making them a priority… The veteran community can’t be the flavor of the month.”

This means moving beyond Veterans Day platitudes and embedding veteran support into the operational DNA of the organization. It requires treating veteran care and employment not as a niche interest or a DEI checkbox, but as a core component of quality, safety, and workforce strategy.

What Priority Looks Like in Practice

Translating this mandate into action involves a multi-pronged approach:

1. At the Bedside: Mandate the inclusion of military service history in all patient intake processes, both in the EHR and in direct conversation. Train clinical staff on evidence-based screening tools for PTSD, TBI, and exposure-related conditions.
2. In the Workforce: Go beyond the “badge buddy” by creating robust support systems. This includes establishing empowered Veteran Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), offering cultural competency training for all managers and staff, and developing mentorship programs that pair newly hired veterans with established leaders.
3. In Leadership Development: Actively recognize the leadership experience veterans bring. Create clear pathways for them to advance into management roles, translating their military leadership skills into the civilian healthcare context.

Crucially, this work also acknowledges that not all veterans even qualify for VA healthcare services. Many who served for a single term or did not sustain a service-connected disability are entirely reliant on the civilian system. By making veterans a priority, health systems fulfill a societal obligation while simultaneously improving care quality and strengthening their own workforce.

Key Takeaways for Healthcare Leaders

Dr. Tayyeb’s insights provide a clear roadmap for any healthcare leader committed to better serving the veteran community. The journey begins with these actionable steps:

• Mandate the Screen: Implement a universal, mandatory screening question—”Have you or have you ever served in the military?”—at all patient access points. Ensure this data point triggers appropriate clinical decision support and follow-up assessments within the EHR.
• Invest Beyond the Hire: Develop a comprehensive veteran employee strategy that includes cultural competency training for non-veteran staff, mentorship programs, and leadership pipelines designed to leverage the unique skills veterans possess. Move from passive appreciation to active investment.
• Educate and Empower Your Teams: Provide ongoing education (CMEs/CEUs) for clinical staff on veteran-specific health concerns. Equip them not only to ask the right questions but to know how to act on the answers with confidence and empathy.
• Make Veterans a Strategic Priority: Weave veteran care and workforce initiatives into the fabric of your organization’s strategic plan. When veterans are a stated priority from the C-suite, resources and attention will follow, ensuring the effort is sustained rather than temporary.

Conclusion

The failure of civilian healthcare to adequately care for its veterans is not a partisan issue or a niche concern; it is a fundamental gap in the quality and equity of our health system. It is a failure to honor the unique sacrifices of a population that has given so much. Dr. Ali Tayyeb’s message is both a stark warning and a call to action. By shifting veterans from an afterthought to a priority, healthcare leaders can begin to bridge the cultural and clinical divide. It is a complex challenge, but it starts with a simple question and a profound commitment: to see, hear, and serve the veterans who walk through our doors, not just as patients or employees, but as the valued and respected members of our community they have always been.