NOVA’s Education Committee plans and presents webinars each month, including presenting programs as part of the three-year program of webinars on Veteran healthcare topics, the “Caring for Veterans” webinar series. VA nurses do an amazing job in caring for veterans every day and this series of webinars was developed to assist VA nurses in providing that care. The Caring for Veterans webinars are focused on providing information about veterans and veterans’ healthcare to new graduate nurses and nurses new to the VA and to all of the VA nurses who care for veterans every day. These programs provide an excellent foundation for nurses who are caring for veterans, and NOVA recommends that they be included in Nursing Orientation and Transition to Practice programs.

The three-year Caring for Veterans 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 provide a certificate.  Outstanding webinars were presented in 2023 and 2024 in the Caring for Veterans Program and on other topics. Webinars are scheduled at 12:30 pm EST time. Upcoming webinars include A Look into VA Community Care, Substance Use Disorders, Managing Holiday Stress, Polytrauma and Spinal Cord Injury Programs, Military Sexual Trauma/Intimate Partner Violence, and Evaluating Your Self-Assessment for Promotion to Nurse II with an Educational Waiver.

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. Webinars are currently available on the NOVA website here.

NOVA’s Education Committee administers NOVA’s Empower Mentorship Program to help NOVA nurses meet professional goals, including professional advancement within the Department of Veterans Affairs. This program helps guide a mutual relationship between experienced NOVA members who serve as mentors, and mentees who benefit from their expertise and experience. This program provides resources to help meet requirements for advancement related to proficiency, education, evidence-based practice and research, and professional development. NOVA chapters can benefit from mentoring regarding chapter development and potential programs. Should you become a mentor? Have you worked in the VA for a year or more? Do you know things now that you wished somebody told you when you first started in VA? Do you like helping people? Do you want to enrich your time in VA? Do you want to help people navigate the sometimes-confusing routes to promotion and career development in the VA? Do you want to answer questions from VA nurses who would like help with a situation they’re encountering at work? Do you want to help VA nurses start a NOVA chapter or help make a NOVA chapter better? Do you want to make a difference? If you answered yes to any of these questions, sign up to be a mentor here!