Exciting news! Nursing’s 2025 Public Policy Platform is now available! Read on to learn about the legislative, policy and budget initiatives the Virginia Nurses Association (VNA) and other Virginia nursing organizations are pursuing during the 2025 General Assembly session.
Nursing’s Public Policy Platform spotlights about 4-6 priority issues that are agreed upon by the Virginia Legislative Nursing Alliance (VLNA), a convening of leaders from nursing specialty organizations throughout Virginia, which is spearheaded by VNA. VLNA participants meet each summer and fall to discuss legislative priorities and develop the Public Policy Platform for nursing. The number of nursing organizations participating in VLNA has continued to grow and is now recognized by legislators and state policymakers. Collectively, we’ve proven that we can have a far greater impact on the future of nursing and healthcare in the commonwealth.
The purpose of the group is two-fold:
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It’s a great opportunity for all participating organizations discuss their legislative priorities and
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This group identifies the 4-6 priorities that will be included on Nursing’s Public Policy Platform
Nursing’s 2025 Public Policy Platform
**VNA is a nonpartisan organization that focuses on issues, not candidates.**
Strengthening the Nursing Workforce
Ensuring Safe Staffing and Promoting Workplace Safety
The shortage of available healthcare professionals coupled with growing demand makes the importance of safe staffing even more critical. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are working longer hours and being assigned too many patients. To protect the resilience of the workforce and maintain the highest quality care for patients, Virginia’s nurses must be empowered and involved in creating appropriate staffing plans.
Additionally, policies must be enacted to better ensure healthcare professionals’ safety at work. Healthcare professionals continue to face an elevated risk of workplace violence from patients and other individuals; as much as five times higher in hospitals than the national average. Policymakers should ensure reporting of workplace violence incidents and make it easier to restrict threatening individuals’ access to facilities. Other workplace hazards need to be addressed to protect our workforce, enable healthcare professionals to provide optimal care, and to ensure patient outcomes are not jeopardized.
Investing in Nursing Programs and Growing the Workforce
Virginia continues to experience an alarming shortage of healthcare professionals, especially in the nursing profession, while large numbers of nursing school applicants are being denied admission based not on merit, but rather on a lack of faculty and available clinical sites. It’s crucial that the commonwealth continue to invest in growing nursing education programs to increase enrollment and eliminate the staffing shortage. We should continue growing support for nursing faculty, clinical preceptors, and the recently created Earn While You Learn program. Investments should also support greater diversity in faculty and admissions to ensure a future workforce that is truly reflective of our communities.
Protecting the Ability to Report Medical Errors
Our healthcare system relies on the concept of “Just Culture,” that is, it acknowledges that errors occur due to system failures that allow them to occur. When an error is made, healthcare facilities rely on clinicians to voluntarily report the error so that a root cause analysis can be performed, and future errors can be prevented via system changes. Criminally prosecuting those who make unintentional errors endangers patient safety. If clinicians fear criminal prosecution for voluntary disclosure of an error, they will be less likely to report errors, and this will allow system failures to go undetected and uncorrected, ultimately making patients less safe. Such a risk also makes it more difficult to recruit individuals to be healthcare providers. It is vital that we preserve Just Culture to protect patient safety by removing the fear of criminal prosecution for an unintentional error, as was recently enacted in Kentucky.
Increasing Access to Care
Supporting the Health and Wellbeing of All Virginia Communities
To ensure the optimal health of all Virginians, wellness must always be factored into our policy decisions. All Virginia communities deserve the opportunity to live in a state of well-being and have equal access to safe and affordable healthcare. To eliminate health disparities, we must advance legislative solutions that promote a culture of health and reduce barriers to wellness, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity. This includes safeguarding patient autonomy and protecting privacy within the patient-provider relationship. Finally, climate health poses a significant threat to human health, and its impacts are magnified for the most vulnerable among us. Environmental initiatives must be prioritized to protect the health and well-being of Virginia communities, now and in the future.
A Nurse in Every Virginia School
Every student, and every school, deserves a nurse. Thanks to newly authorized Medicaid reimbursements for many school health services, the goal of having a nurse in every Virginia school is within reach - but only if policymakers ensure that our schools have adequate resources and support. School nurses are front line healthcare providers, serving as the bridge between the healthcare and education systems. They serve as public health sentinels, overseeing the physical and mental health of all students. For many children living in or near poverty, the school nurse is the only healthcare professional they see. School nurses are essential in communicable disease surveillance, identification, and intervention. Above all else, access to a school nurse is a student health equity issue.
Advancing Full Practice Authority
Parity in Practice and Payment
Unnecessary practice restrictions and disparate insurance reimbursement rates for clinicians limit access to care for Virginians, particularly those in rural and underserved areas. It’s essential that we acknowledge the capabilities of all qualified clinicians to foster efficient and effective patient care and promote a collaborative and equitable healthcare environment in which licensing and regulatory authority belongs to the experts in each discipline. To accomplish this, clinicians must be licensed to practice to the full extent of their education and training, and accountable to the Board of Nursing, rather than a Joint Board. Furthermore, hospitals must be empowered to grant practice privileges to clinicians and seek equitable reimbursement for their services. Parity in practice and payment will help Virginia recruit and retain highly skilled clinicians and improve access to care in health professional shortage areas, and we call upon policymakers to act.
Take Action
Click here to take action on the issues mentioned above via VNA’s year-round Advocacy Action Center where you can call or email your legislators in just a few clicks. You will be asked to enter your address so that you can be matched to your legislators, and you can customize the prefilled message anyway you’d like!
