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| General Assembly Session |
2025 General Assembly SessionHere you'll find information on VNA's legislative priorities for the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session as well as resources on nurse advocacy and navigating session. 2025 Virginia General Assembly SessionThe 2025 General Assembly session runs from January 8 to February 22. For more information on the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session, visit their official website: https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/. When nurses speak, leaders listen! Thanks to the tireless advocacy of the Virginia Nurses Association and our dedicated members, major victories were secured—including passage of groundbreaking legislation to address workplace violence, expand nursing education opportunities, and secure independent practice authority for certified midwives. We fought for smarter investments in the nursing workforce, secured critical tuition assistance, and protected hard-won advances in equitable care. These wins didn’t happen by chance—they happened because VNA members showed up, spoke out, and led the charge. If your passionate about advancing nursing, now is the time to join the movement. #StandWithUs We seek the following commitments from the commonwealth on behalf of Virginia’s more than 123,000 registered nurses. Strengthening the Nursing Workforce Ensuring Safe Staffing and Promoting Workplace Safety The shortage of available healthcare professionals coupled with growing demand makes the importance of safe staffing even more critical. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are working longer hours and being assigned too many patients. To protect the resilience of the workforce and maintain the highest quality care for patients, Virginia’s nurses must be empowered and involved in creating appropriate staffing plans. Additionally, policies must be enacted to better ensure healthcare professionals’ safety at work. Healthcare professionals continue to face an elevated risk of workplace violence from patients and other individuals; as much as five times higher in hospitals than the national average. Policymakers should ensure reporting of workplace violence incidents and make it easier to restrict threatening individuals’ access to facilities. Other workplace hazards need to be addressed to protect our workforce, enable healthcare professionals to provide optimal care, and to ensure patient outcomes are not jeopardized. Click here to contact your legislator about this issue!
Investing in Nursing Programs and Growing the Workforce Virginia continues to experience an alarming shortage of healthcare professionals, especially in the nursing profession, while large numbers of nursing school applicants are being denied admission based not on merit, but rather on a lack of faculty and available clinical sites. It’s crucial that the commonwealth continue to invest in growing nursing education programs to increase enrollment and eliminate the staffing shortage. We should continue growing support for nursing faculty, clinical preceptors, and the recently created Earn While You Learn program. Investments should also support greater diversity in faculty and admissions to ensure a future workforce that is truly reflective of our communities. Click here to contact your legislator about this issue! Increasing Access to Care Supporting the Health and Wellbeing of All Virginia Communities To ensure the optimal health of all Virginians, wellness must always be factored into our policy decisions. All Virginia communities deserve the opportunity to live in a state of well-being and have equal access to safe and affordable healthcare. To eliminate health disparities, we must advance legislative solutions that promote a culture of health and reduce barriers to wellness, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity. This includes safeguarding patient autonomy and protecting privacy within the patient-provider relationship. Finally, climate health poses a significant threat to human health, and its impacts are magnified for the most vulnerable among us. Environmental initiatives must be prioritized to protect the health and well-being of Virginia communities, now and in the future. Click here to contact your legislator about this issue!
A Nurse in Every Virginia School Every student, and every school, deserves a nurse. Thanks to newly authorized Medicaid reimbursements for many school health services, the goal of having a nurse in every Virginia school is within reach - but only if policymakers ensure that our schools have adequate resources and support. School nurses are front line healthcare providers, serving as the bridge between the healthcare and education systems. They serve as public health sentinels, overseeing the physical and mental health of all students. For many children living in or near poverty, the school nurse is the only healthcare professional they see. School nurses are essential in communicable disease surveillance, identification, and intervention. Above all else, access to a school nurse is a student health equity issue. Click here to contact your legislator about this issue! Click here to download data from the Virginia Department of Education on School Nurses & Health Advancing Full Practice Authority Parity in Practice and Payment Unnecessary practice restrictions and disparate insurance reimbursement rates for clinicians limit access to care for Virginians, particularly those in rural and underserved areas. It’s essential that we acknowledge the capabilities of all qualified clinicians to foster efficient and effective patient care and promote a collaborative and equitable healthcare environment in which licensing and regulatory authority belongs to the experts in each discipline. To accomplish this, clinicians must be licensed to practice to the full extent of their education and training, and accountable to the Board of Nursing, rather than a Joint Board. Furthermore, hospitals must be empowered to grant practice privileges to clinicians and seek equitable reimbursement for their services. Parity in practice and payment will help Virginia recruit and retain highly skilled clinicians and improve access to care in health professional shortage areas, and we call upon policymakers to act. Click here to contact your legislator about this issue! Download or print a copy of VNA's 2025 Public Policy Platform here!
Check back soon! Reach Out to Your Legislators Stay Up to Date
Show Up for Nursing & Have Your Voice Heard Sign Up to Testify at the General Assembly Connect & Amplify Address 201 North 9th, Richmond, Virginia 23219 (New building Overview & Floor Directory) Parking VPAP General Assembly App Have questions about the 2025 General Assembly session? Contact VNA Communications & Advocacy Manager Elle Buck at ebuck@virginianurses.com.
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11/14/2025 » 11/15/2025
2025 Fall Conference: Nurse Staffing Summit
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