National Certified Nurses Day is March 19th

Certified nurses dedicate their entire careers to helping others and often work long, hard hours. Advanced skills require continuing education, re-certification, and continued knowledge of ever-changing technology. Certified nurses balance clinical needs and patient care. Helping patients meet their healthcare goals in complex and challenging times makes a Certified Nurse’s commitment even more valuable. Nurses study and take certification exams to demonstrate their competency, skill, and knowledge in a field. Board certification is available in a variety of specialties.

Did you know that:

• NOVA members are eligible to receive substantial discounts when pursuing a specialty certification or renewal of your certification?

• VA nurses that obtain a specialty certification might be eligible for a cash award/step increase?

NOVA has established a number of partnerships with various nursing organizations to provide NOVA members with discounts on certifications and recertifications. 

Check out our Certification Partners Page to learn more! 

https://www.vanurse.org/page/certificationpartners

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!

Miriam I. Rogers Holy, MSN, RN, ACM

Miriam Rogers is an inpatient Emergency Department Case Manager at the Baltimore VA Maryland Health Care System (VAMHCS). She has been at the VAMHCS since 2006. Miriam was recruited by a NOVA member to apply for an Emergency Department position where she worked for 10 years prior to accepting her current position. Her past nursing experience has been mainly in the Emergency Department including ambulatory care and home infusion therapy. 

Miriam is certified as an Accredited Case Manager (ACM-RN) through the American Case Managers Association (ACMA) and maintains a local chapter membership. She has maintained ACLS certification and is a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), and Sigma Theta Tau International. Miriam completed the VISN 5 Leadership Development Institute (LDI) in 2009 and was recommended by her peers for the VA Gold Pin Awards.

Miriam participated in a NOVA essay contest during Nurses Week and won the Norman Morse Award. This award included a free one-year NOVA membership. Miriam recognized the value of NOVA and has remained an active member. She is a strong NOVA advocate, educating and encouraging fellow VA nurses to become members. Miriam has participated in NOVA’s annual meetings, volunteered  for the Marine Corps Marathon health tent, and a golf tournament fundraiser. She has been active in local Chapter 218 events, including setting-up a quarterly NOVA information table, cookbook sales, selling of a local NOVA chapter cookbook, maintaining an awareness and information news board. For the past two years, Miriam has been part of the annual meeting planning committee and has attended the yearly NOVA on the Hill Day in Washington, DC. She has held positions on the Chapter 218 Board as Treasurer, Vice President, President and the National Chapter Contact. She has also served as a mentor to new members and maintains a  showcase box in the VAMHCS hallway to inform VA nurses of current events and legislative activities. 

Miriam is originally from Long Beach, NY. She graduated with an Associate Degree in Nursing from Rockland Community College and has been a registered nurse since 1984. Miriam completed her Bachelor’s Degree in 1986 from SUNY College of Technology, Utica/Rome, NY.  She completed her master’s degree in nursing with an Emphasis in Public Health, in 2015 from Grand Canyon University.

Miriam is married to the NOVA member that recruited her to the VA, Michael J. Holy, MSN, RN, Nurse Emeritus. They live in a suburb of Baltimore with their 2 dachshunds - Murphy and Sasha. She has four grown children and one grandchild.

Sarah Paul, BSN, RN, RAC-CT

VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA

NOVA Chapter 226

As healthcare professionals, we have many responsibilities and roles, but one of the most important roles of any healthcare professional is to be an advocate. Now more than ever, advocating for our patients is vital. In these unprecedented times, full of uncertainties, fears, and new norms, healthcare professionals find themselves part of making history and paving new ways. To help reduce exposure, hospitals have put a No Visitor policy in place with few exceptions. While this policy helps protect patients, it also prevents the same patients from receiving support from family. It is now up to the nurses to truly give our patients a voice. During this ongoing global pandemic, it is crucial to come together with care, kindness and willingness to go above and beyond for every patient. It falls into the hands of educators more than ever to make each patient aware of their rights and ensure they all receive equal access to medical treatment. 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as face masks, face shields, goggles, are meant to protect the patients and the staff,but those protections have also added extra barriers. How do we help patients see us beyond the gear? See our smiles under the masks? Feel our warmth under the gloves? We can start with  caring words from our hearts. Little actions like getting them apple juice instead of cranberry because we know that is what they prefer. The small things we do for our patients can have the biggest impact in this new world we currently reside. 

Our days are extra-long, exhausting, physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing and full of worry. We have become a surrogate family to each patient. We want to protect them, our families, and  each other. Our work and dedication can be a sacrifice, but we continue to  fiercely fight for our patients, keep them informed and provide support when needed. 

Patience is needed as we  navigate  new territory. Together, we can learn to show compassion, empathy and caring that transcends the new barriers we face daily. 

If  our patients face their darkest hours here with us, we shall be there to listen, share their last laughs, thoughts and tears. I pledge that our patients will not be isolated and alone. 

The following nurses joined the NOVA family in January 2021. Welcome! Please visit the member benefits page here to see all that NOVA has to offer.

LPN/LVN 

RN

APRN

Nurse Emeritus

Leslie Hodges-Jackson
Nora Krick
Janette Elliot
Laura Minor

*New members that have signed up via payroll deduction in the month of January, should expect a delay. Payroll deduction takes two to three pay periods for a member to appear in the database.