Legislation
Spring Workforce: Rally at the state capitol to increase nursing funding
By Joan Tupponce

Video: Nurses Rally Nurses Visit the General Assembly in Richmond, VA • 1 MG (windows media)

Nurses begin their march to the Capitol, February 7, 2007.

They came from across Virginia, traveling in everything from rain to snow to make their way to the Marriott Hotel in Richmond. On Feb. 7, approximately 1,100 nurses formed a sea of support and left a strong message for Gov. Timothy Kaine and the Virginia General Assembly during the 22 nd Annual Nurses Day at the Virginia General Assembly.

By using the question “Who will care for you?” as their message to legislators, the assembled nurses proceeded to talk about important issues surrounding the impending nursing shortage — keeping budget amendments for raising faculty salaries in nursing schools and approving $200,000 of scholarships for nurses returning to school to get advanced degrees and become faculty.

When Gov. Kaine walked into the room to present the Emily Couric Memorial Address, “he was overwhelmed at the number of people and the passion he felt in the room,” recalls Shirley Gibson, president of Virginia Organization of Nurse Executives.

After the speech, the mass of 1,100 took to the streets for a jubilant march to the Bell Tower at the State Capitol before meeting with legislators.

Nurses from across Virginia proceed to the General Assembly Building in Richmond, VA

The move to highlight workforce and education issues began in 1998 with the formation of the Virginia Partnership for Nursing, which brings practice, education, professional organizations and government agencies together to work on nursing shortage issues. The group was able to place nurses in the camps of all three gubernatorial campaigns during the 2005 election, educating the candidates about the nursing shortage and the need for a workforce center.

“We looked at how we could get people involved to move the cause forward,” explains Gibson. “It’s been a journey for us on how to heighten awareness of the nursing shortage and get people engaged.”

The passion that Gov. Kaine witnessed is the innate desire that nurses have to care for others.

“A nurse is the one who is there 24/7,” says Virginia Partnership for Nursing president, JoAnne Henry. “If a nurse is unavailable because of a shortage or staffing inadequacies, there is frustration because he or she can’t provide care. We need advocates to ensure that the nursing workforce supply meets the rising demand.”

The Virginia Nursing Association collaborates with the VPN and is helping others recognize the shortage and the issues that surround it.

“It’s the one thing that keeps our members up at night,” says President Terri Haller. “It causes them to worry about their patients and about getting all their work done. We are limited in raising awareness by ourselves. It’s an issue for the Commonwealth.”

The issue isn’t just confined to medicine. It’s a business issue as well.

“It does have the potential to impact Virginia economically,” Haller says.

Nurses gather to hear speakers before walking up ot the General Assembly Building.

Retired Virginia Commonwealth University professor Judy Collins, a former Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and member of the Kaine Health Policy transition team, sees a definite interest in the business and service communities.

“As the community is educated about the nursing shortage,” she explains, “they learn that by 2020 one out of three people will not have a nurse to care for them and that baby boomers are moving into the time of their life when they will need more care.”

The plan for future health care has to include the workforce issue. That’s where the budget amendment from the governor comes into play. National figures show that nursing schools turn away three qualified applicants for every applicant they accept because of inadequate capacity. Currently, nursing faculty salaries are not competitive with other nursing positions. The new budget amendment would help balance the scales.

“We want to increase faculty salaries by 10 – 15 percent in the public colleges’ nursing faculty,” explains Sallie Eissler, VNA commissioner on government relations.

“We’re hoping to get additional funding so we can increase the numbers of qualified faculty to educate more nurses for the workforce.”

The concerted effort that has gone into this project has helped push it along.

“We haven’t been trying to do this in isolation because there are shortages in other health care professions,” says Collins. “We’ve been able to reach out in a collaborative role and partner with other professional organizations including hospitals, physicians, pharmacists, etc.”

Nurse leaders and representatives from Virginia Nurses Association, Virginia Partnership for Nursing and Virginia Organization of Nurse Executives have met with a variety of officials, including Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Marilyn Tavenner; Senior Advisor to the Governor for Workforce Development, Danny LeBlanc; Deputy Policy Director to the Office of the Governor, Bill Murray; and representatives from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, Medical Society of Virginia, Virginia Pharmacist Association and the Virginia Healthcare Foundation.

“We’ve talked about the need for a nursing workforce center,” says Collins. “However, we’ve now expanded our thinking to an approach for a health workforce center with an initial focus on nursing since we’re starting to see the tip of the iceberg with the nursing shortage.”

To many, the process can seem to creep along.

“This is really policy making and it’s not quick,” says Henry. “It’s approaching 10 years for the VPN in our effort to make the point that we are having a nursing shortage and it is growing. The major emphasis now is to expand the nursing faculty and improve the supply of nurses.

“We’ve made sure that there were nurses at every budget hearing that could put their personal take on the situation,” adds Eissler. “We’re alone at the bedside and we need others to come on this journey.”