Virginia Nurses Today - May 2022

www.VirginiaNurses.com | Virginia Nurses Today May, June, July 2022 | Page 15
Do you envision yourself continuing to work as a nurse in your current or a
similar practice setting…
Continuing Education/Professional Development. Creating Community trailed at
50.3%, which we believe is due in great part to the limitations of the pandemic.
Survey respondents ranked their needs of the chapters, with professional
development dominating the responses (65%), and government relations (25%),
networking (16%), student nurse mentoring (15%), and social events (8%)
following. We’re working on re-energizing our chapters post-pandemic and
welcome MJ Gearles to the role of Membership Manager, in which capacity she
will focus much of her time on chapter engagement.
• Eighty-eight percent are confident they will be working in their current or
a similar position one year from now, while that confidence drops to 50.5%
in five years. 25.5% of respondents do not believe they will be working as a
nurse in their current or a similar practice setting, while another 24% are
unsure.
• The highest degree earned by responding nurses: 41% have an MSN/MS,
30% earned a BSN, 14.4% earned their DNP and another 5% their PhD,
7.8% have an associate degree, and 1% earned their diploma in nursing.
Survey highlights
People generally join their professional association for one of four reasons:
1. Advocacy, 2. Networking/Community, 3. Education and 4. News and
Information. What can change from year to year – and the reason why this
survey is frequently illuminating – is the way in which members prioritize these
areas. As an organization that hangs its hat on representing the interests of this
state’s approximately 115,000 RNs, it’s exciting to see that 96% of our members
rank advocacy as extremely or very important (and that more than 90% agree
that VNA is the Voice of Nursing in Virginia), while 87% rated Updates on
Nursing Issues as extremely or very important, and 78% gave the same high
level of importance to Continuing Education & Professional Development,
followed at 77% by Creating Community (chapters, networking, online groups…).
When asked how well we are meeting members’ expectations in the above
areas, and recognizing that there is always room for improvement, respondents
gave us generous marks (“excellent” and “very well”) in Updates on Nursing
Issues, which ranked first, followed by Legislative & Regulatory Advocacy, and
Top Issues Members Want VNA to Address
While we haven’t yet sifted through all of the results (and more surveys
continue to be completed), staffing is clearly the front runner. Responses
mentioned frontline nursing support, adequate/safe staffing, staffing ideas
for semi-retired nurses, and ratios. One respondent wrote, “I know this is
VERY difficult to legislate, yet I look at what is happening around Virginia
and elsewhere and wonder what it will take (i.e., another sentinel event) before
hospital and LTC systems realize they cannot work nurses to death.”
Staffing concerns also extended to the faculty shortage and the “need to
better quantify nursing faculty workload with comparable [competitive] pay.”
Retention and the “stabilization of manpower” also ranked high.
A myriad of workplace issues arose; most significantly the need to ensure
a safe workplace for nurses and other healthcare professionals, and to finally
bring an end to the bullying and incivility that has plagued the profession for
far too long.
Top Continuing Education Requested
While staff needs to take more time to thoughtfully review all of the
responses, I wanted to share that Leadership (Development, Resilience,
Mentoring) was a recurring theme in response to professional development
needs. For those of you who may not be aware, the Virginia Nurses Foundation,
in partnership with VNA, recently launched the first cohort of our Nurse
Leadership Academy, with a class of nearly 40 fellows. This year-long program,
which includes six months of virtual didactic learning and six months spent
developing a leadership project with mentor and coaching support, is geared
toward new and emerging nurse leaders. The Academy’s next class will begin
January 2023. Look for more information at VirginiaNursesFoundation.org and
in upcoming issues of VNA News Brief. Registration will open shortly. While this
will not be the only avenue for leadership development programming, you may
find that becoming an Academy fellow is “just what the nurse ordered.”
I’m so thankful for everyone’s input in this survey process, as is our board,
and believe you will be excited to read more in the next issue of Virginia Nurses
Today about how we’re going to respond in order to better meet – and exceed –
your expectations via our new strategic imperatives. Until then, please consider
helping us grow our voice further by joining VNA/ANA if you haven’t already
done so. The larger our numbers, the greater our impact, and at $174/year for
the combined membership, we believe it’s a great value! To learn more, click the
“Join VNA” button at the top of our website, www.virginianurses.com.