VA nurses do an amazing job in caring for veterans every day and NOVA developed a series of webinars to assist VA nurses in providing that care. NOVA is in the second year of our three-year program the “Caring for Veterans” webinar series. These programs are designed to provide specific information about veterans and veterans’ healthcare. The Caring for Veterans webinars are focused on providing information to not only new graduate nurses and nurses who are new to the VA but also to all of the VA nurses who care for veterans every day. These programs provide a wonderful foundation for caring for veterans, and NOVA recommends that they be included in Nursing Orientation and Transition to Practice programs. The three year series includes twelve webinars presented each year. Each webinar provides 1.0 contact hour of Nursing Continuing Professional Development (NCPD) credit, and completion of each 12 month series, and all three series provides a certificate. Outstanding webinars were presented in 2023 and 2024 in the Caring for Veterans Program and on other topics. These webinars are currently available on the NOVA website.  

Webinars are scheduled at 12:30pm Eastern time. Upcoming webinars include:

• “Contacting Congressional Representatives During August Recess” by Teresa Morris BS on July 23
• “Gulf War Illness” by Mercedes Moore CRNP on August 6
• “Visually Impaired and Blind Veterans and Blind Rehabilitation Services” by Amy Wheeler MS OTR CLVT CAPS, Amy Rebovich OTD OTR/L SCLV CLVT, and Heather Solberg CVRT MSW on August 20
  
• “Safe Patient Handling” by Lori Swope RN BSN MHA on September 5
• “Suicide Prevention Strategies” by Samantha McCandless MSN RN CEPC on September 19

As a NOVA member, please register for the current webinars. You can also schedule a room in your facility to view a webinar. Communicate with Nursing Education and Education departments about the upcoming webinar, and send an email from your private email address to VA nurses with information about upcoming webinars. You can also post a flyer in break rooms and/or on educational bulletin boards, etc. with information about the webinar. During the webinar, have people sign an attendance sheet with name and email address, and send that to nova@vanurse.org after the webinar so people who attend can receive an evaluation and a certificate for nursing continuing professional development credits. Share information on NOVA’s webinars including the Caring for Veterans series with your colleagues. The webinars are available on demand on the NOVA website.