Teresa Morris, Director, Advocacy & Government Relations

Greetings NOVA Members –

I hope many of you were able to join Dr. Nancy Claflin and me for our January Webinar “Congress 101 – Who and What you need to know to Advocate for VA Nursing.”  The Webinar  provided an in-depth overview of how congress works, who controls legislation that affects the VA, new members of congress, and tools to help you to be the best advocate for your nursing profession. Click Here

As I write this, the 117th Congress is still organizing the  Committees and chairmanships. The Democrats control the  House, but it gets a bit complicated in the Senate since there  is a 50/50 split between the parties. When there is a 50/50 split Senate leaders often adopt a power-sharing deal – this includes splitting committee memberships evenly and mandating that both leaders seek to attain an equal balance of the two parties’ interests when scheduling and debating legislative and executive business. As a reminder, Vice President Kamala Harris holds the deciding vote as VP of the Senate.

NOVA will continue our legislative advocacy and has finalized the 2021 Legislative Priority Goals. We identified the following areas that need attention to continue providing the best care for our Nation’s Veterans. They include:

Budget

• Provide a strong budget to ensure all VISNs and Medical Facilities can care and deliver services to its Veteran population.

• Recruit and retain a highly qualified nursing workforce with a budget to support modern staffing models. 

• Support appropriate funding for Community Care that does not impede internal medical care accounts.

• Optimize all VA resources to affect and achieve value in models of care.

Staffing/HR/Recruitment & Retention

• Ensure sufficient PPE and resources to promote best practices and support staff safety at all times  especially during the pandemic.

• Review and refine processes used during COVID-19 Pandemic to expedite hiring and on-boarding of essential staff. 

• Revise Pay Caps to end compression between all Grade Levels.

• Provide opportunity for career advancement and professional development at all levels of nursing to retain a highly qualified nursing workforce within VA.

• Ensure HR has necessary staff in order to review and streamline policies and procedures to improve the efficiency and speed of the hiring process.

• Mandate training for HR personnel on use of locality pay, and congressional authorizations to improve and streamline entire hiring processes.

• Review effectiveness of HR Modernization and reposition HR staff back at the Medical Centers.

• Monitor any/all development of professional standards for nurses and other healthcare providers.

• Continue providing ongoing training for VHA staff - to include protected hours for optimal learning - and require training for all community providers to improve the coordination of care, understanding of military culture and health care needs across networks.

The goals are available for your  review on the NOVA website and I encourage all  members to familiarize themselves and to share  them with your Members of Congress (House & Senate).

In the meantime, if you have not taken a look at our activity from 2020 – the Advocacy Year in Review is available on the NOVA website.

I thank and welcome the 2021 Legislative Committee Co-Chairs Ceci McVey and Steven Powell along with the entire Legislative Committee as we advocate for VA nurses and our Nation’s Veterans. We welcome all of you to join us as we educate and mobilize to find the best way to advocate for the VA Nursing community.

Stay Tuned!