Posted: April 1, 2011

Cynthia Fagan, president of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners.

By Danielle Walker

danielle.walker@insidebiz.com

Virginia joins a host of other states that have launched "regional action coalitions" - networks whose mission is to support the nursing community at state and local levels.

The coalitions were formed out of the "Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action," a committee on health care betterment focused on the roles of nurses. The committee holds national forums on community health, primary care and long-term care and promotes nursing education.

The coalitions are now accepting a second wave of applications, which should expand the network to up to 10 states or regions. The pilot RAC groups, formed in October 2010, were launched in California, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York.

Cynthia Fagan, president of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners in Charlottesville, said the group could help remove barriers to practice for nurses.

"We expect this to improve access and the quality of health care in the state of Virginia," Fagan said.

Virginia's group was selected to represent the national group's interest by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a collaboration started by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and AARP.

Fagan said the state coalition will support development in academia, the health system and legislation for the nursing community.

"We expect a broader reach to accomplish the goals that were in the Institute of Medicine report on the future of nursing," Fagan said. "VCNP will be able to work with the stakeholders and leverage the work, so we could [bring] change in Virginia."

The Institute of Medicine recommended a number of goals for the nursing community, saying that nurses should practice to the full extent of their training, achieve higher levels of education and training, become full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesigning health care in the U.S., and establish effective workforce planning and data collection.

On how these coalitions can benefit the health care system as a whole, Fagan said, "It will serve as a forum to help long-term objectives that were developed," such as the institute's recommendations.

"[It would be] a communications platform for disseminating information across the state. We'll certainly be able to reach a much larger audience with our message," she said.

Last February, VCNP backed legislation that aimed to remove certain physician supervision requirements over nurse practitioners, as well as give the state Board of Nursing more responsibility over licensure and regulation of nurse practitioners.

The proposed legislation, the Nurse Practitioner Scope Expansion Bill, was killed Feb. 11, 2010, by the Senate Education and Health Committee, after being contested by White Coats on Call, and its umbrella organization, the Medical Society of Virginia.

Fagan said that having an organization like Virginia RAC could have made a difference in the outcome of the proposed legislation. With the new group, Fagan said the council of nurse practitioners will have a "broader reach."

Currently, VCNP is still working to bring legislation before lawmakers.

"We are certainly still considering a bill in 2012; we did not put forth anything in 2011," Fagan said. "We are currently in dialogue with the Medical Society of Virginia, to see how we can remove some of the barriers to practice of care. We are kind of in the early [period] of discussions."

Susan Motley, CEO of the Virginia Nurses Association, said that aside from the nurse practitioner bill, she didn't forsee any other legislative action - as of yet.

"I don't think that there's anything that we envision coming about, that would require legislative [action] at this point," Motley said. "Moving forward, that may change."

The nurses' association submitted the application to launch the Virginia RAC in February. A website for the coalition is also up at www.vaifn.org. The goal will be to form a steering committee of nurse groups and associations, and create six work groups focused on major themes brought forth by the Institute of Medicine.

"[If] there's a group that enforces these recommendations in Tidewater, we'll replicate that in Northern Virginia," Motley said as an example.

"One of the reasons [why] Virginia was selected was because we have a lot of initiatives going on, and have demonstrated that nursing groups can work together in health care and outside of health care," she said.

Statewide organizations that support Virginia RAC include: VCNP, the Virginia Nurses Association, AARP Virginia, Virginia Partnership for Nursing, and the Virginia Organization for Nursing Executives and Leaders, in addition to other state groups. nib

Susan Motley, CEO of the Virginia Nurses Association.