Contact Your Legislator in Support of Ensuring Safe Staffing and Promoting Workplace Safety!

The shortage of available healthcare professionals coupled with growing demand makes the importance of safe staffing even more critical. Nurses across all practice settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics, home health, schools, public health, and community-based care, are increasingly being expected to care for more patients than can be managed safely and effectively. Excessive patient assignments contribute to burnout, workforce attrition, and increased risks to patient safety and quality of care. Virginia’s nurses must be empowered and involved in developing and implementing staffing plans that reflect patient acuity, care complexity, and the realities of each practice setting.  

Additionally, stronger policies must be enacted to better ensure healthcare professionals’ safety at work. Healthcare professionals continue to face an elevated risk of workplace violence from patients, visitors, and others; as much as five times higher in hospitals than the national average. These risks extend across the continuum of care and threaten workforce retention, well-being, and patient outcomes. Addressing workplace safety through prevention, reporting, accountability, and support measures is essential to maintaining a strong healthcare workforce and ensuring a safe standard of care for all Virginians.