NOVA hosted a Town Hall meeting with Dr. Steve Lieberman, Acting Undersecretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Dr. Beth Taylor, Assistant Undersecretary of Health for Patient Care Services/ Chief Nursing Officer.

The meeting was recorded at the Department of Veterans Affairs Office in Washington, D.C.

NOVA Leadership present at the meeting included Kelly Skinner, Immediate Past President, Cathy Giasson, President-Elect and Ruth Holmes, Secretary/Treasurer.

Dr. Taylor reported that ONS is moving towards having a Chief Nursing Officer position at all of the VISNs so that nursing leadership is present at all levels of VHA.  She also discussed an update on the National Standards of Practice.

Dr. Lieberman thanked the nursing workforce and mentioned the challenging times all have faced. He spoke of how proud he is of VA nurses and the great work they do.

He discussed recruitment /retention, finding ways to hire needed staff, measures to combat burnout, and efforts to achieve a work life balance.

Both Dr. Lieberman and Dr .Taylor endorsed the importance of listening to the nursing workforce to forge a strong partnership with staff to better meet their needs.

NOVA leadership asked questions posed from its membership and noted that its 2022 legislative priority goals reflect many of the issues discussed during the meeting.

View the recorded session

Heard on the Hill 


Teresa Morris, NOVA Director, Advocacy & Government Relations

Greetings NOVA Members –

Our advocacy efforts are paying off – the House VA Committee voted to move H.R. 5575, the VA Nurse and Physician Assistant RAISE Act out of Committee on February 2. 

The bill will increase pay for Title 38 RNs, APRNs, PAs, and Podiatrists working at VA. This is a priority for NOVA, and we have been advocating and working hard to get it passed.

The bill could potentially move to the House floor, as a standalone bill, but more than likely it will be added to a larger veteran package or omnibus bill.

I ask all of you to watch your email closely as we may be asking you again to contact your members when it hits the House and Senate floor.

In other news, NOVA released its 2022 Legislative Priority Goals. Key priorities include HR Modernization, staffing/ recruitment, retention of nursing professionals, and an on-time budget that supports modern staffing models for a highly-qualified nursing workforce. We  will be monitoring the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission as this may  have long-term effects on staffing and how the VA provides healthcare in the future.

The link to the 2022 Legislative Priority Goals can be found on the NOVA website: -2022_nova_legislative_priori.pdf (ymaws.com)

The AIR Act was included as part of the MISSION Act (Section II of PL:115-182) and requires the VA to develop criteria to determine which  facilities will be modernized, expanded, realigned, reduced, and/or potentially closed. The final guidelines/report has been delayed due to COVID. The report will include a list of recommendations of all VA facilities based on market assessments considering the capacity of VA and non-VA providers to meet the demand of enrolled veterans for health care. A nine-member panel (Commission) will have a year to review that plan, conduct  hearings, investigations, make  proposals and send them to the White House - this should be finished by 2023.

I encourage all of you to remain engaged with your members of congress about our legislative priorities, H.R. 5575,  the need for more staffing, stronger HR, and critical incentives to hire healthcare professionals within VA. Also  pay attention to what is reported with respect to the AIR Commission. These processes will be critical to strengthening VA healthcare and services to Veterans.

I look forward to continuing our advocacy this year and working with all of you to ensure that VA nurse voices are heard in Washington. What you do is and continues to be critical to the health and well-being of our Veterans.

Stay tuned!

By Thelma Roach-Serry, BSN, RN, NE-BC, NOVA News Editorial Committee Member

Regina Mays Gilliam, LPN 

Telehealth Clinical Technician 

Her pursuit of becoming a nurse began at Hopewell High School where she completed a nursing assistant class while working a 5:00am to 10:00am shift at John Randolph Hospital before school.  After graduating from high school, She continued working as a certified nursing assistant in long term care until 1998 when she enrolled in the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program at Chesterfield Technical Center.  She completed the program in 2000.  

In 2011, Regina was hired at the Central Virginia VA Health Care System working in geriatrics. A year later, she accepted a LPN position in the Women’s Health Clinic.  Providing education, care and comfort to female Veterans became her passion. She proudly served this group of Veterans for 9 years.

During her nursing career, Ms. Gilliam was appointed the to the Virginia Board of Nursing.  She served as LPN Board vice president in 2004. She was also selected as member of the certification board for Nursing Assistants.  She shared “One of my greatest achievements was being selected by Governor Terry McAuliffe in 2006 as one of only two LPN appointees to the Virginia Board of Nursing”.

Regina works in Telehealth as a telehealth clinical technician (TCT).  Her duties as a TCT include preparing medical and telecommunication equipment for clinical examination and treatment, monitors and maintains schedules of rooms, patients, technologies, clinical providers and presenters as needed to ensure efficient telehealth operations, configures and installs, troubleshoots, cleans and performs routine maintenance of assigned telehealth technology and assist Veterans and providers with telehealth in troubleshooting telehealth equipment.

Telehealth has been an essential component in providing safe, competent and timely care to Veterans during the COVID pandemic.  With the establishment of VA Video Connect, virtual video visits allow Veterans and their caregivers to quickly and easily meet with the VA health care providers and staff. Using various forms of technology including laptops, smartphones, personal computers or tablets (government issued by providers), Veterans can see their provider without leaving the comforts of their homes and preventing the spread of the virus.

Thanks to the efforts of Regina and other nurses telehealth is improving care delivery to Veterans throughout the VA.

Happy New Year!

My first month as NOVA President has already been quite the adventure. For my first message, I want to share an experience from this adventure.

Remember your first day showing up for nursing school clinicals, where you were excited and terrified at the same time? I had the pleasure of experiencing that all over again. With the Omicron surge, many of us have had to make adjustments in our work. This round of surge is different and impacting staff on a new level. Labor pools are activating to make sure there are enough staff to take care of our Veterans.

Nearly 2 years ago, when COVID-19 joined us, I bought new scrubs in case I was pulled to help. I received the call last week that those scrubs would need to be deployed. I was being sent to work on a med-surg unit. Terror set in. I haven’t worked on med-surg since nursing school and even then, I had a preceptor telling me what to do. Before the ink was dry on my nursing license I began working as an RN on the inpatient mental health unit at my local VA. From mental health I went to Quality where I have been for 10 years. What are they going to do with someone like me with nearly zero med-surg experience? The last thing I wanted to do was be in the way of staff who actually know what they are doing. My second greatest fear was having to file a joint patient safety report (JPSR) on myself. (Those are patient incident reports for those not in the know.) The upside is that all JPSRs come through my team, so I am confident in my reporting skills.

I was assigned to night shift, which I was grateful for—fewer people meant being in the way less.  First, I needed to participate in skills training. These are skills I never really had since fate had not placed me on a medical unit as a new nurse. I learned (relearned?) a myriad of basic skills. My confidence was raised slightly. Nursing leadership did a fantastic job of giving labor pool assignees details about where to check in, where to leave our lunch—it’s still “lunch” no matter what time of day or night it is— and who we could reach out to with questions.

I put on those scrubs that had been staring at me from hangers for so long. I was so nervous I showed 30 minutes early to check in. I went to the unit and received a lot of encouragement. I was assigned as a therapeutic companion/sitter. This was definitely in my skill set. The Veteran I sat with chatted with me non-stop until he fell asleep. I was happy to be able to sit with him so that nursing staff on the unit could tend to the needs of other Veterans without worry.

This experience really showed me that no matter our roles at our VA facilities, each of us plays a vital role and brings a unique skill set to what we do to make sure our Veterans receive the best care anywhere. The greatest thing about nursing is that there are so many different paths we can take throughout our careers. I am a proud VA nurse and I am happy to be sharing this crazy time with all of you.

With appreciation,

Taryn-Janae Wilcox-Olson, MHS, RN