When I began my nursing career 20 years ago, I could not have imagined where my work would lead me. My passion for education and continuous learning have allowed me to serve my patients, my community and the NP profession. May celebrates two of my professional passions - Mental Health Awareness Month and National Nurses Week. As NPs, we are fortunate to be able to combine many of our interests to advance health care in Virginia through our “day jobs” and volunteer roles.

As we continue to promote NP-delivered care, it’s important that we share our successes. So many of you are doing incredible things at work and in your communities – and we want to hear about it! For example, do you serve on a Community Service Board or Task Force? Have you recently defended your dissertation? Have you been recognized at work? Please share your news with us so we can celebrate you!

It’s graduation time! If you’re graduating or earning a certification this spring, let us celebrate you! Please send your name, credentials, a photo and your program info. Congratulations to all our grads!

Have you checked your member profile lately? Be sure you’re affiliated with the correct region to ensure you receive region-specific communications AND send your region a portion of your membership dues to support local programming. 

To check your profile, log in to your member account and go to "My Account" then select "Update my Info". While you’re there, you can -

• Confirm you’re listed with your current region.
• Add a mobile number to receive urgent text alerts.
• Sign up to be a preceptor.
• Add a practice specialty to allow other members to search for you by specialty.
• Opt-in to be included on the public ‘Find an NP’ database (at the bottom of the employment info).
• Opt-in to auto-renewal and have one less thing to do!

The Virginia Department of Health has established a surveillance system to better characterize the burden and impact of adverse events due to THC and CBD consumption in children. Providers are asked to report events requiring hospitalization and clusters of adverse events to their local health department.