NATIONAL NURSES WEEK AND VETERANS AFFAIRS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
by Hans Petersen, VA Staff Writer
Monday, May 6, 2013
This is National Nurses Week.


The American Nurses Association has designated this year’s National Nurses Week theme: "Delivering Quality and Innovation in Patient Care."

Join us in celebrating the men and women who serve this country by caring for its Veterans.

80,000 Nurses Caring for America’s Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs has one of the largest nursing staffs of any health care system in the world.

Numbering more than 80,000 nationwide, the VA integrated nursing team provides comprehensive, complex, and compassionate care to our nation’s Veterans.


VA’s nurses are a dynamic, diverse group of honored, respected, and compassionate professionals. VA is the leader in the creation of an organizational culture where excellence in nursing is valued as essential for quality health care to those who served America.

"VA nursing is at the center of generating value-based innovation. Their work is a demonstration of integrity, commitment, respect and excellence as we shape efforts to ensure access to personalized, proactive health care for Veterans," according to Cathy Rick, VA’s Chief Nursing Officer.

She adds, "I am extremely proud to call myself a VA nurse."

National Nurses Week: Every year — May 6th through May 12. May 12 is Florence Nightingale’s birthday.

The VA nursing team is composed of registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs), nursing assistants, and intermediate care technicians.

VA nursing provides the largest clinical training and cooperative education opportunities in association with undergraduate and graduate programs at numerous colleges and universities.

In the 1990s, VA provided clinical experience to one out of every four professional nursing students in the country. VA nurses are highly valued members and leaders of the health care team, contributing their knowledge and expertise to the care of patients.

In addition to clinical care, VA nursing is also a significant part of advancing research in VA and keeping up with the latest technological innovations. Nurse researchers help to promote inclusion of evidence into practice to provide quality care for Veterans.

Components of VA Nursing

Professional nursing supports the mission of the VA health care system by providing state-of-the-art, cost-effective care to patients and families as they respond to illness and health issues.

In addition to medical, surgical and psychiatric units, VA nurses work in intensive care, spinal cord injury, geriatric, dialysis, blind rehabilitation, specialty care (such as diabetes clinics), hospice, domiciliary, oncology, and organ transplant units.

VA nurses provide care across a variety of settings including primary, ambulatory, acute, geriatrics, rehabilitation, and extended care settings.

They work in outpatient clinics, community living centers, and home-based primary care programs.

VA nurses also play a considerable role in emergency planning, preparedness, response, and recovery.

VA nurses proudly serve America’s heroes by practicing the art and science of nursing in order to provide holistic, evidence-based, high quality care.

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SEC. OF HHS SEBELIUS TALKS ABOUT NURSING DURING NATIONAL NURSES WEEK

Secretary Sebelius Statement in Honor of National Nurses Week 2012

During National Nurses Week, we recognize the tremendous contributions that nurses make to keeping America healthy. As passionate advocates, leaders and innovators for better health, America’s nurses have demonstrated their commitment to meeting the public’s health care needs.

The health initiatives called for by the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, would not be possible without our nation’s nurses. By expanding investments in primary and preventive care programs in which nurses play a vital role, the Affordable Care Act strengthens the focus on keeping people healthy and managing chronic conditions. Through the law and other efforts, the Department of Health and Human Services is working to ensure that nurses get the support and training they deserve and need to do their job.

Since the beginning of the administration, the number of mostly uninsured or under-insured patients getting care at community health centers has grown by 2.4 million people, primarily due to funding by the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act. About 16,000 nurses now work at community health centers, an expansion of about 3,000 nursing positions. With continued support from the Affordable Care Act through fiscal 2014, the number of nurses at health centers will continue to grow.

More nurses are getting assistance in securing needed training or repaying educational loans, partly through an expansion of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), under the Health Resources and Services Administration, which ensures that primary care providers practice in  underserved areas in exchange for receiving scholarship support or loan repayment. The Affordable Care Act allocated $1.5 billion over five years to expand the NHSC.

And recognizing that better training and support for nurses will mean higher quality care for seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced a four-year, $200 million Affordable Care Act demonstration partnering certain hospitals with nursing schools and non-hospital community-based care settings to provide advance practice registered nurses with clinical training to help strengthen primary care across the country.  

Please join me during this National Nurses Week in thanking our nation’s nurses for the critical work they do in bringing better care and better health to all Americans.