Virginia’s new unemployment claims increased by 34.9% last week, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.
For the filing week ending Jan. 8, Virginians filed 2,446 initial claims, an increase of 633 from the week before. Continued claims totaled 7,895, down 3,367 from the previous week.
Compared to last year, increased claims were almost 92% lower than the 28,227 recorded then. Continued claims were 88% lower than the 63,687 from the comparable week last year. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.
The majority of claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: construction; administrative and waste services; accommodation and food services; and health care and social assistance.
Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 230,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. There were 1.08 million initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 419,446.
With an all-time high number of Virginians hospitalized for COVID-19 on Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam issued a 30-day executive order Monday to expand the number of available hospital beds, increase staffing capacity at hospitals and nursing homes, and allow public health agencies greater flexibility.
“It is painful to see the number of COVID cases rising,” Northam said at what he promised to be his final COVID press conference before leaving office Saturday, after conducting more than 70 updates over the past two years.
Although the fast-moving omicron variant of COVID is widely viewed as a less-lethal variety, the vast majority of Virginians hospitalized with the coronavirus are not vaccinated, Northam said, citing current numbers from Ballad Health that 91% of current COVID patients in its hospitals and 97% of those on ventilators have not received shots. There are more positive cases among people who are vaccinated, but in general, their cases are not severe enough to require hospitalization. Northam urged anyone who can to get vaccinated.
Last week, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians urged Northam to declare an emergency to open more testing sites run by the Virginia Department of Health; the governor said nine sites that will be adjacent to vaccination centers will offer PCR tests, and he said a federal plan to provide free rapid tests will help satisfy current demand.
“This virus has shown that it can mutate efficiently, but humans have shown we can fight back. We’re going to have to live with this disease,” Northam said. “Everyone who can needs to be vaccinated.” He said that the decision to declare a state of emergency was made over the weekend following Friday’s single-day high of 3,329 hospitalizations reported by the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. In conversations with health systems around the state, the governor said that hospital administrators said they needed a loosening of state statutes regarding medical practice, allowing more people to be able to work in hospitals in Virginia. Many hospitals around the country are suffering from staff shortages, in part due to COVID and career burnout.
The emergency order directs the state health commissioner to waive normal bed licensing requirements, allows hospitals to increase their licensed bed capacity and mandates increased coordination between hospitals and local medical services agencies.
The order also directs actions intended to boost staff in hospitals and nursing homes. It allows providers with an active out-of-state license to practice in Virginia, authorizes physician assistants with two or more years of clinical experience to practice without a written supervisory agreement, increases provider-to-patient ratios and provides certain liability protections to health care workers acting in good faith.
Additionally, the order makes the transfer of patients to state-operated psychiatric hospitals more flexible.
Cynthia V. Bailey, counsel to the governor, noted that people with out-of-state medical licenses will be able to work in Virginia, for instance, under the state of emergency. Northam said that he has spoken to Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, who takes office at noon Saturday. A Republican, Youngkin has said that he and Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares will challenge President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccination mandates on employers, but Youngkin has also promoted vaccination and getting booster shots six months after the first two doses.
Youngkin, Northam said Monday, “has communicated too with the hospitals. We want this [transition] process to be consistent and be on the same sheet of music.”
As COVID infection rates reach record numbers from the omicron variant, the Virginia Department of Health will open nine new COVID-19 community testing centers across the state to increase testing availability, Gov. Ralph Northam’s office announced Thursday.
The centers will offer polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, considered the most reliable type of COVID-19 test. The initial $5 million in funding will come from VDH, which is seeking FEMA funding to reimburse the expenses and continue testing.
The testing locations will be near or on the same property as existing VDH community vaccination centers in Charlottesville, Chesterfield County, Fairfax County, Fredericksburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Prince William County, Richmond and Roanoke that have been operating since October.
The new centers will administer more than 50,000 tests in January and operate four to six days per week, open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., depending on the location. The first one will open Saturday at the Richmond International Raceway (Gate 7, on Carolina Avenue) with eight additional sites open in the coming weeks.
Results will be sent via text or email.
VDH urges anyone with symptoms or who has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to be tested.
As of Thursday, 1.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Virginia, with more than 15,000 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to VDH. More than 11.3 million Virginians have been tested via PCR tests and the current 7-day positivity rate is 33.6%.
Virginia’s new unemployment claims increased by almost 51% last week, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.
For the filing week ending Jan. 1, Virginians filed 1,813 new claims, an increase of 609 from the previous week. Continued claims totaled 11,262, an increase of 6,358 claims from the week before.
Compared to last year, initial claims were almost 91% lower than the 19,530 recorded then. Continued claims were 82% lower than the 63,588 reported in the same week last year. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.
The majority of claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: construction; manufacturing; accommodation and food services; and administrative and waste services.
The VEC has been under scrutiny for backlogs of claims during the pandemic. On Wednesday, five legal advocacy groups reached an agreement with the VEC to end a federal lawsuit they had filed against the state for failing to promptly settle claims and pay benefits, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 207,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level. There were 898,610 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 315,469 for the week.
In November 2021, Gov. Ralph Northam sat down for an interview with Virginia Business, looking back at his eventful four-year term. This is a transcript of the full interview, part of which was used in the January 2022 cover story, “A dramatic shift.” The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Virginia Business: What gubernatorial accomplishments are you most proud of?
Gov. Ralph Northam: Just generally speaking, since I took office in 2018, our goal has always been to build a Virginia that works better for everyone — no matter who you are, no matter where you’re from. I’m very proud to say that we’ve done just that. As far as our accomplishments, I could talk a lot about what we’ve been able to do, but I think if you ask the average person on the street, “What’s the most important thing to you?” it’s certainly going to be a job that you can support yourself and your family with.
We’ve really focused on our economy. We’ve reached out to a lot of businesses that were growing here in Virginia and also businesses that want to come to Virginia. I just came back from a trip a few days ago to Europe, a [Nov. 7-12, 2021] trade mission. I talked to over 25 companies from five different countries. The enthusiasm, the excitement of companies wanting to come to Virginia is at a level that I’ve never seen and I don’t really think has ever been present.
They like Virginia for a lot of reasons, but certainly, our talented workforce. I had to talk about that in more detail, but we have invested in our world-class education system and companies recognize that. We’ve done so much good work with transportation. We’ve updated our port, put over a billion dollars in investments to dredge the channels, got deeper to 55 feet, and widened it to accommodate the larger ships coming out of the Panama Canal.
We’ve got billions of dollars in the queue for projects throughout Virginia. Transportation projects, a lot in Northern Virginia with the American Legion bridge and the Long Bridge, which is bringing rail and transit into Virginia more efficiently. The 95 coming down through Fredericksburg with the HOT Lanes and then all of the transportation projects in Hampton Roads, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. I could talk more of the details, as much as you want about that.
We’re expanding I-81, expanding [Route] 58 where Lover’s Leap goes through Patrick County, so a lot of transportation. That’s really important to businesses. The fact that we’re moving toward renewable energy is a big deal with companies. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of solar projects going on in Virginia and now our off-shore wind putting out about 188 more wind turbines. We’ve already got two off the coast. I just had a big announcement with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy in partnership with Dominion.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks July 1, 2021 at the Port of Virginia in Norfolk, with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (left) and Gov. Ralph Northam standing by as Haaland announces the start of the federal government’s review of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project.
We’re going to be able to service off-shore wind for all of the East Coast right out of Hampton Roads. That’s billions of dollars that we have now to pick up jobs, and so that’s a big deal. Then, a couple of other things I’ll just mention that we’ve been able to accomplish, but certainly our investment in broadband, that has been a top priority of mine since I’ve been in office. When we came in, see, Virginia was investing less than $4 million a year in broadband. A combination of what we’ve put into the state, what we got from ARPA and the private sector, we’re over $2 billion.
You contrast $4 million four years ago and now investment over $2 billion, and broadband will be universal in Virginia by 2024, so that’s a big deal. Then, health care, obviously, I’m a physician, but I worked hard to make sure that everybody in Virginia had access to affordable and quality health care. We expanded Medicaid and because of that, over 550,000 Virginians now have access to health care, and especially during a pandemic, that’s been really important.
I would say also, when we talk about what I’m proudest of and I have my background in health care, but we followed the science to keep Virginia safe during COVID-19 all while keeping our businesses open and thriving. In addition to our booming economy and it is booming right now, I’m proud that Virginia has been among the lowest case in death rates in the nation and we’re in the top 10 of all states for COVID-19 vaccination.
That didn’t happen in the past because, I think, [federal] leadership didn’t follow the science and the data in making decisions that were certainly difficult at times, but certainly keeping in mind that trying to keep Virginians as safe and healthy as we can. Then, hey, the last thing I would mention, and I’ll be quiet if you want, but I will tell you what it’s so important — and I hear it every day — is the fact that Virginia is a welcome state in terms of inclusion. We’ve done a lot to protect women’s health care in Virginia.
We’ve done a lot to prevent discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Companies have recognized that and they will not go to a state that is not inclusive, a state that doesn’t embrace diversity. I have put Virginia in a really good position. Just to sum things up, companies are excited about coming to Virginia.
VB: Is there anything particular that you have learned during your term, and what do you wish you had more time to do?
Northam: It’s a great question. As you know, I’m a child neurologist, so I believe that there’s power in every child, that every right has the right to a world-class education, and so, Pam, my wife, and I have worked very hard to make sure that three- and four-year-olds in Virginia have access to early childhood education. I don’t think the results of that we’ll be seeing this year or next year, but I think in 20 years from now people will look back and say, “Wow, that was really a big accomplishment.”
We’ve put this template, if you will, in place to make sure that all the children have access. We still need to do some funds for that. I’ll plan on doing that in my 2022 budget. There’s still some work to do there, but I think every child should have access to early childhood education. Then the fact that I ran in 2017 on the G3 program [Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead community college initiative], and we’ve been able to put that in place.
That has been very successful. A lot of Virginians just go to our community colleges not having to pay tuition and also have costs wrapped around services to include transportation and child care, so that’s a really good program. Since you’re writing for a business magazine, I’ll tell you something that companies really like is our Talent Accelerator Program.
We actually go on-site and see what the requirements are for their employees, and then come back, and we train those employees. When their business starts, they already have the workforce in place. That is something that [Virginia Economic Development Partnership] along with the Virginia Community College System worked on. This is a model for the rest of this country, so that has been very successful.
There are a couple of community colleges that we have as models, but I would like to see on-site quality child care in all of our community colleges in Virginia. A lot of our students that are being trained and retrained for their jobs, it’s really important as they pursue their education to have access to quality and safe child care. That’s something that we’ll continue to work on.
VB: I wanted to go back to February 2019, when the blackface photo in your yearbook was made public. Obviously, that was a tough time and there was a lot of turmoil. Did you ever consider resigning? If you did, what convinced you to stay in office?
Northam: That was a difficult time for Virginia. I am pleased that Virginia stuck with me. I travel around the commonwealth and listen to a lot of people. I’ve learned a lot. I think people have always heard me say, “The more I know, the more I can do.” What I learned, I was able to turn into action and I think, because of that, Virginia is in a much better place.
We’re a welcoming state. We embrace diversity, and we’re inclusive. I think that it was a difficult time for Virginia, but Virginia stuck with me. We’ve been able to learn and build, and we’re in a much better place. I think that’s reflected in our business environment. Like I said, companies want to come to Virginia because we embrace diversity, and we’re inclusive and we’re welcoming.
VB: Was there one particular person who did support you behind the scenes? Because you say Virginia stuck with you, but there were a lot of people who were calling for you to resign. Was there somebody who said, “I’ve got your back,” or just something that really made you feel like you were doing the right thing in that moment?
Northam: I think there were a lot of people that supported me. I think Virginia — I reached out and they were receptive. They supported me, and I think the rest is history.
VB: What do you think was the most important result of this event? How did it change your priorities with regard to legislation or other policies?
Northam: I’ve always been a listener, and equity has always been very important to me. It’s been a top priority of my administration. When this happened, I sat down with my cabinet secretaries. We said we still have a number of inequities in Virginia, whether it be access to health care, access to world-class education, access to business opportunities, access to voting. I asked my cabinet directly to focus on the work that they were doing, and make sure that equity was a large part of that. That’s what they’ve done, and I think that’s why we’ve been as successful as we have.
VB: I had the pleasure of talking to Janice Underwood, Virginia’s — and the nation’s — first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. How important was it that she came on board?
Northam: She’s done a very good job. I oversee over 100,000 state employees, [and] I think it was obvious that this diversity, equity and inclusion needed to be a part of how we govern Virginia. No state has ever had a Cabinet-level position that deals with DEI. We did a job search, and we had over 30 interviews, and we were very satisfied and pleased with Dr. Underwood’s resume. I met with her a couple times before we offered her a job.
She’s come in and started the program, One Virginia Plan. It reaches out into our cabinet secretaries. It reaches out into our agencies here, into our colleges [and] universities, and she has just done an amazing job. Again, as I said earlier, Virginia is a better commonwealth, a better state because of her efforts, and because of our initiatives to make that hire.
VB: Was there one particular person or group that you heard from in 2019 that helped you create policies, maybe something that you hadn’t thought about doing, but you decided it was a high priority for you?
Northam: I pretty much went on a listening tour. I traveled around the commonwealth, met with a lot of groups, and just learned a lot and then I was able to bring that back to Richmond and turn it into action. We’ve put a lot of emphasis, for example, on the disparities in maternal and neonatal health, I’m very proud of that. We’ve offered financial aid to undocumented students. We’ve been working on tribal justice.
VB: I wanted to ask you about the past two years’ legislative agenda. As you’ve noted that Virginia has passed some of the most progressive legislation ever in the South, do you think that that led to the Republicans’ wins in November? Do you think this was a reaction by people who just thought this is too much?
Northam: The measures and the legislations that I’ve led and we passed, it’s what the people of Virginia wanted, and we’re in a better place now.
Probably the toughest day of my four years was when I was called and heard that there was a mass shooting in Virginia Beach.
I got in the car and drove very quickly to Virginia Beach. On my way there, the number of the casualties continued to rise as well as those that were injured. We lost 12 Virginians to that tragedy. As a result, I hope you remember this, I called the legislature back to Richmond for a special session. The Republicans took less than 90 minutes and then adjourned. Nothing was done. Virginians said “enough is enough,” and so we brought back the commonsense gun pieces of legislation. They were passed. That’s a result of listening to what Virginia needed.
Another example, look at the disparities with the use of marijuana. People of color and white Virginians use marijuana at the same rate, but people of color, Black Virginians are three times more likely to get arrested and convicted than white folks are. I pushed hard on that to really deal with that disparity. I’m proud of that.
The death penalty is another example. Virginians said it was time after 400 years that we stop the death penalty in Virginia.
There’s been a lot of examples like that: We listened to Virginians, we took action. I think history will show that Virginia’s a better place. I really don’t think a lot of that had anything to do with the recent election.
VB: What do you think was the reason behind the election results, then?
Northam: It’s part of democracy. What happened is that more people voted for Glenn Youngkin against Terry McAuliffe, and so he’s the governor-elect. That’s what makes our democracy strong and again, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to be able to play Monday morning quarterback.
I will say that history will show that these four years that we have been in office here has been probably the most successful administration in Virginia history. That is a testament to the tremendous team that I’ve been able to put together.
VB: Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken over a lot of your term. What was the most difficult part of dealing with that and communicating to Virginians how to stay safe?
Northam: As a doctor, I follow the science in keeping children safe during COVID-19. I followed the data, and Virginia is one of the top states. We have one of the lowest case [rates] and the lowest death rates. I look at the numbers every day,. We’re having around 1,400 to 1,500 new cases a day, and 30 to 35 deaths per day.
I’ll repeat that, 30 to 35 people in Virginia are dying every day because of COVID-19, and it is totally avoidable. We have worked so hard to make sure that we have [personal protective equipment] in Virginia. We’ve worked hard to make sure that we have testing capability. Now, we have three safe and effective vaccines — the Moderna, the J&J and the Pfizer — and we have done everything that we can to make sure that we’ve taken the vaccines to the people of Virginia.
There are a number of individuals that have said, “No, I don’t want to get vaccinated. I don’t want to wear a mask. I don’t want my children wearing masks in school.” That’s been one of my largest frustrations. Virginia has done well, but we probably could have had this pandemic in the rearview mirror if everybody would be part of the solution, if everybody would look at this like a biological war, which is really what it is.
It’s not between people, it’s between us and a virus, and the science is clear. People need to roll up their sleeves and get the shot, and then we can put this behind us. That’s been a frustration for me.
Gov. Ralph Northam receives his Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at the Virginia Executive Mansion on March 15, 2021. Credit: Jack Mayer/governor’s office
VB: You’ve talked about your own COVID case from September 2020 and not being able to smell or taste. Is that still the case? Do you think those senses are ever going to come back?
Northam: Yes. [laughs] If I had a crystal ball, maybe it would be helpful.
It’s a little bit more complicated than “can’t smell and can’t taste.” I can smell a little bit, but it’s not normal. I don’t want to get into all those medical reasons for that. Now, my taste has been affected as well. The bottom line is that I’m still alive, thankfully. It could have been a lot worse. I’m dealing with that, it’s not a big problem.
I just would encourage everybody else out there, don’t take the chance or you’ll lose your smell or your taste or have other long-term COVID side effects. Or worst-case scenario, you could die.
That would be my encouragement, to get out there and get vaccinated and put this behind us.
VB: Have you gotten your booster?
Northam: I have. My initial shot was the J&J, which you probably know is a one-time shot, and then a couple of weeks ago, when it was available, I got the Moderna booster. I would encourage all parents to have their children, 5 and above, vaccinated.
VB: What are your plans after leaving office?
Northam: Back in the late ’90s, I co-founded and I’m a co-owner of a group called Children’s Specialty Group [in Norfolk]. We started with about 30 pediatric sub-specialists, and I’m a child neurologist. We have pulmonologists, cardiologists, hematologists. Now, we’ve grown our group to about 100 pediatric sub-specialists. We employed around 250 people, so I’ll go back to patients. In January, I’ll go back and join my practice.
VB: The presidency of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, your medical school, is open. Have you thought about it?
Northam: Well, I’m focused right now on getting back to my practice. There’s a lot of children out there with neurological issues that hopefully could use my services. I’m looking forward to going back to my practice, working with the children and their families.
VB: We haven’t even touched on Amazon, but HQ2 was a huge deal during your term. What do you think will be the biggest impact of that deal? Are there any other economic development projects that happened during your term that you think will impact business in Virginia in coming decades, maybe something that was lower profile than Amazon?
Gov. Ralph Northam announces that Northern Virginia will be home to a new Amazon headquarters in November 2018. AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Northam: Just two days ago, I was at National Landing Park [in Arlington] to celebrate the three-year anniversary of Amazon choosing Virginia as its next home. They have literally transformed Crystal City, which is now National Landing. It’s just amazing to see what is done for Virginia’s economy. When we negotiated that deal, 70% of the incentive package [for] Amazon goes right back in investment in Virginia.
We knew this was going to be necessary; a lot of it is going back into workforce development. There [will be] 31,000 additional degrees in higher education in computer science and technology, which is the groundbreaking for the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus. To keep that pipeline open between the education system and the business sector is really important. A lot of those individuals will probably work for Amazon, but it’s not required, so they can work in a lot of businesses.
A large part of that 70% investment was in infrastructure in that area and also affordable housing. We have made a lot of progress — and still [have] a lot of work to do — but we made a lot of progress making sure that people have a roof over their heads, especially during COVID-19 with our Rent Relief Program.
When we talk about the site development — the permitting, the utilities, the energy, the transportation, all of those things that go into site development — we really have to continue to focus on affordable housing.
We just had that announcement in Wythe County that we’re adding 2,500 employees to a company that makes nitrile gloves. When you say, “Well, that sounds good, but those people need a place to live,” part of that site development has to be in planning for affordable housing, and I think we have a good recipe for that.
Overall, again, just to summarize things, Virginia is doing very well right now, and I’m proud of this work that we’ve been able to do. When I turn the keys over in January, I can promise you the new government [will have] financial reserves and the largest surplus in history, a booming economy with more job opportunities than ever before, and public housing. This is important; housing policies have made Virginia the most welcome and inclusive state in this country.
VB: What do you think your enduring legacy will be?
Northam: I think, as I said earlier, it’s been my goal to just really build a Virginia that works better for everyone no matter who you are or where you’re from, and so that’s overall what I’m proud of. I’m proud of the team that we put together way back during transition. My cabinet secretaries are so talented. They’ve done so much good work. It’s also the most diverse cabinet in the history of Virginia and a majority of women, so [I’m] very proud of that.
All the other things that we’ve been able to do in Virginia, I don’t know if I’d rank them one higher than the other, but again, just making a Virginia that works better for everyone. That’s what we’re proud of.
VB: I wanted to ask you about VMI and the investigation into racism and sexual harassment there. How are you feeling about that process?
Northam: I think the mission of VMI is [as] important today than it ever has been to train citizen soldiers that embrace integrity and dignity and honor, and, obviously, it’s what gave me the foundation that I’ve built my life on.
I am pleased with the new superintendent, [retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins]. He has tremendous vision. He’s obviously an alumnus, a wonderful military career.
He is working very closely with the Board of Visitors, and they have great vision and realize that the school has to reflect who we serve. They get that, and they are making VMI a more welcoming, more inclusive school, and so I think VMI is better for that. I’m very proud of the work that has been done and will continue to be done.
VB: Do you think that the students and alumni have bought into it?
Northam: No question.
VB: Is there anything else you want to talk about?
Northam: I’ve already spoken to this just a little bit, but I think this administration is probably, in the history of Virginia, the most progressive and also the most successful in Virginia history. At the same time, our economy is doing better than it has ever done. It’s proof that you can have both. We can have a progressive plan and administration, and we can have an economy that’s doing excessively well. I think that would be the legacy that I’ll leave behind.
VB: Is there anything that you wish to say to Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, any advice that you want to give him?
Northam: I’ve had a couple of really productive meetings with Gov.-elect Youngkin, and I’m really not one to give advice. I answer and I listen, answer the questions, but I’m confident that he will lead Virginia well.
Four years ago, no one would have guessed Gov. Ralph Northam would lead the most progressive Virginia administration in modern memory.
A native of Onancock on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, as well as a pediatric neurologist and Army veteran, Virginia’s 73rd governor was eyed by some Democrats with suspicion after acknowledging he’d voted twice for President George W. Bush and had been courted by Republicans to switch parties while serving in the Virginia Senate.
As Northam prepares to hand over the Executive Mansion’s keys to Republican Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin on Jan. 15, he leaves behind a legacy of governing amid a deadly global pandemic and perhaps the most racially tumultuous period in decades.
And his tenure as governor almost ended barely a year into his term.
The date everything changed was Feb. 1, 2019. In the middle of the General Assembly session, a photo from Northam’s 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook pages depicting a person in blackface and a second person wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe first appeared on a right-wing website. Northam quickly apologized in a video statement, acknowledging he was in the photo, although he did not specify which person was him.
State and national news media crowded into the marble halls of the Virginia State Capitol, waiting for the governor to resign in disgrace. State lawmakers issued statements condemning the photo. Former Democratic Govs. Terry McAuliffe, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner all called for Northam’s resignation. Rumors flew among state government workers and politicos that the governor would be stepping down imminently.
The day after his first statement, however, Northam held a press conference, this time denying he was in the yearbook photo but acknowledging a separate occasion during which he wore blackface dressed as Michael Jackson for a party. First lady Pamela Northam prevented the governor from demonstrating his moonwalking skills for the assembled media.
Amid the political pressure, it didn’t appear there was any path forward for Northam to remain in office — but stay he did, due to a confluence of events.
“I am pleased that Virginia stuck with me,” Northam says.
But it wasn’t as simple as that. Without a separate set of circumstances, Northam would likely have been a goner.
Pressure continued to mount for Northam to resign, which would have seen Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax ascend to governor. However, in the days that followed, two women made sexual assault accusations against Fairfax, charges he denies. As it looked like Fairfax too might resign, the chaos surrounding Virginia’s top Democrats continued. Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface at a University of Virginia Halloween party in the 1980s.
That bought Northam extra time.
He turned to Black clergy members and other community members, meeting with them in private to listen and learn over the next couple of months.
“I reached out, and they were receptive,” Northam says. “They supported me, and I think the rest is history.”
Depending on one’s political point of view, Northam either went on to earn Virginia a reputation as the most liberal state in the South through a sincere effort to make amends, or he made a dramatic, two-year effort to rescue his political career and authored his own party’s losses in November 2021.
Cheryl Ivey Green, the executive minister of the First Baptist Church of South Richmond, recalls meeting with Northam during that early period as part of a clergy group. Northam was “refreshingly honest about what happened,” she recalls. “What he made was a commitment to make it right and do right.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, gestures as his wife, Pam, listens during a press conference in the Governors Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. At the time, Northam was under fire for a racist photo that appeared in his college yearbook. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Green is the chair of the Virginia African American Advisory Board, which Northam created in March 2019 to advise him on areas of interest to Black Virginians, particularly education, health care, public safety, criminal justice and issues impacting small, Black-owned businesses. Green says she doesn’t know if the governor would have focused as much attention on Black concerns if not for the scandal — possibly because as a white man, he had not encountered racism on a personal level.
“When God opens a window because of an issue called ‘blackface’ or whatever, it’s used to open doors for things people like me have been fighting for for years,” Green says. “I’m just grateful he used that, but it took great courage to say, ‘I want to do right.’”
In May 2019, Northam created the nation’s first state cabinet-level post to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion within state government, tapping Janice Underwood in September 2019 as the state’s inaugural chief diversity officer, a position now preserved in Virginia code.
Tragedy, and a shift
Northam did not reemerge publicly in a prominent way until Memorial Day weekend 2019, when a gunman shot 16 people, killing 12, at the Virginia Beach municipal building. Police shot and killed DeWayne Craddock in a prolonged gunfight 35 minutes after the first shots were fired.
That was probably “the toughest day of my four years,” recounts the governor. “I got in the car and drove very quickly to Virginia Beach. On my way there, the numbers of the casualties continued to rise, as well as those that were injured.”
In assuming the familiar role of comforter-in-chief, Northam was able to place his blackface scandal on the back burner. He quickly called the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democratic-controlled state Senate back to Richmond for a special session to enact gun control legislation.
“The Republicans took less than 90 minutes and then adjourned,” Northam says matter-of-factly. “Nothing was done.”
In November 2019, in what Northam attributes to voters saying, “enough is enough,” Democrats won control of the state House for the first time in nearly three decades — although the victory also was likely a reaction to the deeply scorned Trump White House and demographic shifts toward younger, more liberal and racially diverse populations in Northern Virginia.
Led by a previously moderate governor who was indebted to Black leaders who had supported him following the scandal, Democrats in the General Assembly had the power to pass a slate of the most progressive legislation ever seen in Virginia.
Within two years, personal possession of marijuana was legalized, the death penalty was banned, the state created its own voting rights act, minimum hourly wages rose, and abortion restrictions were rolled back. Northam also declared he would remove the state-owned monument to Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, calling it a relic of the Jim Crow era and a symbol of white supremacy. He also launched a state investigation into racist incidents at his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, following investigative news reports in 2020.
Republican Del. Todd Gilbert, who will become speaker of the House this month after two years of Democratic control, says Northam and state Democrats overreached with their agenda, contributing to Republicans’ dramatic statewide sweep in the November 2021 elections.
A “very cordial” relationship between Republicans and Democrats at the start of Northam’s term “abruptly ended on that day when the revelations of the blackface [photo] occurred, and I don’t know that I’ve spoken to [Northam] since,” Gilbert says.
“There were things that I would never [have] thought that a more middle-of-the-road Gov. Northam would have signed into law, that he was more than willing to sign into law to try and rehabilitate his image,” Gilbert adds. “Pretty much anything that the progressive left was feeding to him, he was putting pen to paper and making it the law of Virginia.”
Northam, predictably, takes a different view, declining to analyze the reasons behind his party’s losses.
“It’s part of democracy,” he says. “More people voted for Glenn Youngkin against Terry McAuliffe, and so he’s the governor-elect. I’ve had a couple of really productive meetings with Gov.-elect Youngkin. I’m confident that he will lead Virginia well.”
Shutdown in Virginia
It’s possible that Northam and state Democrats would have made even more progressive strides if not for the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic crisis. In March 2020, when Virginia recorded its first coronavirus cases, Northam took on a new role as public health leader.
In daily news conferences, Northam reported the commonwealth’s latest case numbers and death statistics and issued a series of executive orders aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. Social distancing and mask mandates encountered some pushback, typically from Republicans following the lead of President Donald Trump, who had declared the country would be back to normal by Easter 2020. By contrast, Northam was cautious, ordering broad shutdowns of schools and “nonessential” businesses through early June.
In September 2020, Northam and first lady Pam Northam contracted COVID-19. The governor says his sense of smell has returned a “little bit, but it’s not normal,” and his sense of taste is still dulled. “The bottom line … is that I’m still alive, thankfully. It could have been a lot worse.”
Although vaccines received federal approval in fall 2020, and vaccination of frontline medical workers started in December 2020, Virginia and other states hit a severe vaccine bottleneck in January 2021. Northam had just declared that doses would be made available to everyone age 65 or older, relying on a promised federal stockpile of vaccine doses that did not materialize. The governor unexpectedly found Virginia ranked last in the nation in vaccine administration efficiency.
“We were really supply-constrained,” recalls Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator.
In early January 2021, Northam “called us into the situation room” to discuss the problem, Avula recalls. The Virginia Department of Health “was not going to solve this on its own but needed the breadth of government.” Avula remembers the governor saying that “this had to be an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
By March 2021, the supply problem eased, only to be replaced with a growing unwillingness of some people to get vaccinated.
If there was one thing that rankled the governor publicly, it was outright opposition — primarily on the part of Republicans — to wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Northam saw it as a deadly politicization of a health crisis that has resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 Americans in less than two years.
The usually mild-mannered Northam would sometimes call people who flouted COVID mitigation measures “selfish” during news conferences, saying they were putting health care workers and the general public at risk.
Even in November 2021, when Virginia was ranked No. 10 out of the 50 states for percentage of its population who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Northam was still frustrated that 30 to 35 Virginians were dying per day, a “totally avoidable” toll, he says.
“Virginia has done well, but we probably could have had this pandemic in the rearview mirror if everybody would be part of the solution, if everyone would look at this like a biological war, which is really what it is.”
Economic wins
Even amid the pandemic, the blackface controversy and the Democrats’ progressive agenda, one recent feature of Virginia politics remained steady through Northam’s term: economic development wins.
In November 2018, Amazon.com Inc. announced it would be locating its $2.5 billion-plus East Coast HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, bringing approximately 25,000 jobs. CNBC cited the deal in 2019 while anointing Virginia as its Top State for Business, an achievement Virginia repeated in 2021 after a one-year postponement in the rankings due to the pandemic. A plethora of big deals from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Siemens Gamesa and other major corporations followed.
Stephen Moret, who was president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership from January 2017 through December 2021, says Northam was always willing to meet with business executives to seal economic development deals, and the governor’s cabinet members were particularly accessible.
Northam also invested heavily in workforce training, including the state’s Tech Talent Investment Program to produce more than 31,000 computer engineering and science graduates over 20 years, and VEDP’s Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a collaboration with the Virginia Community College System to provide free job training and assistance for companies locating or expanding in the commonwealth.
“I always found [Northam] to be smart and thoughtful,” Moret says, adding that, unlike some political leaders, Northam was willing to share credit for successes. “Governors love to make the announcements, but a lot of people contribute to these projects. I see his legacy as a combination of commitment to rural Virginia — particularly broadband access — and his support for major advances in talent development.”
Northam, who plans to return to his medical practice in Norfolk after his term ends, takes pride that his administration was “probably, in the history of Virginia, the most progressive and also the most successful. Our economy is doing better than it has ever done. It’s proof that you can have both. I think that would be the legacy that I’ll leave behind.”
The Arlington-based Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is moving forward with its CES consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas in January, despite cancelations from big exhibitors and the surge of COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant.
Formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, CES typically draws thousands of exhibitors and more than 150,000 attendees. The annual trade show — which hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry — has been held for the past 50 years and is one of the largest in the world.
The 2021 CES was fully virtual, but this year’s CES, which is set to be held Jan. 5 to Jan. 8, will feature a hybrid mix of digital and in-person events.
Big-name participants such as Amazon.com Inc., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc. have pulled out of the in-person event, according to The Wall Street Journal. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert was set to offer the keynote speech, but he has withdrawn, and others from his company will not travel to Las Vegas, the mobile communications provider said in a news release.
“We know several major companies have reduced their physical presence at CES 2022 and we understand their concerns,” wrote Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CTA, in a Dec. 24 statement on LinkedIn. “They want to protect their employees from COVID-19 and the risk of having to quarantine in Las Vegas. Our staff raised this issue with me, and I told employees that anyone with concerns would not be required to travel to Las Vegas.”
More than 2,200 exhibitors are confirmed for this year’s CES, according to CTA, which represents more than 2,200 consumer technology companies.
About 42 exhibitors (fewer than 7%) had canceled their plans for CES as of Dec. 22, but more than 60 exhibitors have been added as replacements, CTA said in a news release.
“Our focus remains on convening the tech industry and giving those who cannot attend in person the ability to experience the magic of CES digitally,” the association said in a statement. “CES 2022 will provide an opportunity for companies from around the world, both large and small, to launch products, build brands and form partnerships. Given CES’s comprehensive health measures — vaccination requirement, masking and availability of COVID-19 tests — coupled with lower attendance and social distancing measures, we are confident that attendees and exhibitors can have a socially distanced but worthwhile and productive event in Las Vegas, or while experiencing it online.”
“CES will and must go on,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It will have many more small companies than large ones. It may have big gaps on the show floor. Certainly, it will be different from previous years. It may be messy. But innovation is messy. It is risky and uncomfortable. I view CES as representing the best of our unique American history — a place where those who are different and have big ideas can gather, where success is not based on class or religion or anything but the strength of an idea.”
CTA encouraged attendees to get booster shots, flu shots and test for COVID-19 before attending CES and will require proof of vaccination. The event will follow Nevada public health guidelines and require attendees to wear masks indoors. Additionally, CTA will distribute complimentary COVID-19 self-test kits to each CES attendee.
“It’s time we return to making the world better, rather than living in fear,” Shapiro said in a statement. “Earlier this week, President Biden asked Americans to vaccinate, wear masks, test for COVID — and stop closing schools and businesses. I agree. CES 2022 will kick off 2022 messy, but it will be chock-full of innovation and full of entrepreneurs and businesses. We will all be taking risks. But without risk there is no innovation. “
The state’s new unemployment claims for the filing week ending Nov. 27 fell by about 50% from the previous week, while continued claims rose by more than 7,000 filings.
The Virginia Employment Commission installed a new unemployment insurance system in November, and it missed two weeks of reports during that period.
According to the VEC’s announcement Thursday, 6,546 initial claims were filed last week, a decrease of 6,548 claimants from the previous week. Continued claims totaled 13,917, an increase of 6,605 claims from the previous week and 81% lower than 72,305 claims from the comparable week in 2020. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.
The decrease in new claims by Virginians reflects U.S. employment numbers. In November, the unemployment rate hit a 21-month low of 4.2%, a 0.4% drop since October, and 594,000 people in the U.S. entered the labor force last month, the most in 13 months.
The majority of Virginia claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: accommodation/food services; administrative and waste services; retail; manufacturing; and health care and social assistance.
Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 222,000, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week’s revised level. There were 711,416 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Virginia had 328,000 job openings in September, breaking a record set in July, when there were 320,000 openings.
Virginia’s new unemployment claims rose by about 19% last week, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Friday.
For the filing week ending Nov. 6, Virginians filed 1,290 new claims, an increase of 202 from the week before. Continued claims totaled 24,922, a decrease of 6,642 from the previous week.
Compared to the same week last year, initial claims were about 87% lower than the 9,909 recorded then. Continued claims were 73% lower than the 91,960 from the comparable week last year.
People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.
The majority of claimants who filed for benefits last week reported being in these industries: accommodation/food services; administrative and waste services; retail; and health care and social assistance.
The VEC has been under scrutiny this year for backlogs of claims and for multiple delays in the launch of its updated claims system. The VEC shut down its system last Monday to launch the new one, and a recent report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shows that the agency has made progress in its backlog, down to 437,000 outstanding claims. The report also shows, though, that the VEC is trying to recoup more than $1.2 billion that was incorrectly paid out, WWBT reported.
Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 267,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level for initial claims since the 256,000 reported on March 14, 2020. There were 720,432 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020.
Ashley Apple has advice for those hoping to understand the burden nurses face as COVID-19 surges once again while hospitals suffer staff shortages.
“Think of the worst day you’ve ever had at work. Then add in poor staffing and multiple human deaths. Then repeat it every day for 18 months,” she says. “That’s sort of where we are.”
Apple was an emergency room nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Chesterfield County during the early days of the pandemic. Today, she is a family nurse practitioner with KidMed Pediatric Urgent Care. While her career transition was already in the works, Apple admits that the pressures of COVID-19 hastened her exit.
Also commissioner on government relations for the Virginia Nurses Association, Apple is troubled as she hears from colleagues choosing to leave their hospital jobs.
“This is not sustainable,” Apple says of the rate of turnover among nurses. “We have to do something, or we are going to face dire public health consequences.”
Hospitals across Virginia are struggling to retain and recruit nurses as the pandemic nears the two-year mark.
In its 2021 industry report, national nurse staffing firm Nursing Solutions Inc. found that in its Southeast region, which includes Virginia, turnover among registered nurses working at hospitals during 2020 was 24.6% — a 4.7% increase over the previous year, and higher than the national average of 19.5%.
Amid a COVID-19 surge in recent months, the challenge facing many hospitals has not been having enough licensed beds, but having enough staff members available to care for the patients who occupy those beds, says Julian Walker, vice president of communications for the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.
Enrollment applications are up at VCU’s School of Nursing, says Shelley Conroy, associate dean of graduate programs, but it’s difficult to find enough faculty members. Photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
The situation is forcing hospital administrators to make difficult decisions about whether to cancel or delay nonemergency procedures, divert ambulances or hire expensive travel nurses — contract workers who are hired for temporary positions at hospitals around the country.
A chronic problem
While the pandemic has highlighted the nursing shortage, the problem is not new. In 2010, the Virginia Nurses Association published a study warning that by 2020, one in three Virginians would not receive necessary health care because of a shortage of registered nurses.
As the most recent wave of the pandemic floods emergency departments, some in the profession worry that the impact on nurses’ mental health will have ongoing repercussions that will be a long-term burden on this workforce.
“I am seeing a level of post-traumatic stress disorder in individuals now going through the second wave with COVID,” says Linda Shepherd, chief nursing officer at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, which is owned by Ballad Health. Shepherd is also president of the Virginia Nurses Association.
Hospital administrators and human resources executives are seeing nurses retire early, transition into nonclinical roles or leave staff jobs for higher-paying travel nurse positions.
“A surprising number are leaving health care altogether, which is really breaking my heart,” says Wendy Horton, CEO of the University of Virginia Medical Center.
The UVA Health system’s voluntary turnover rate among registered nurses this September was 19.1% — significantly higher than the 10% to 12% rate Horton is accustomed to seeing at the hospital. “This is the first time in my career that I have seen this type of turnover,” she says.
“We are seeing the fatigue of this marathon of COVID,” notes Paul Hudgins, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke. “Folks are getting out of bedside care and looking at other types of jobs.”
‘Tradeoffs every day’
As a result, hospitals are forced to decide how to allocate their staff.
At Johnston Memorial Hospital, Shepherd says that managers and other nonclinical staff are jumping in to take on tasks such as answering phones, which can free up nurses to focus on caring for an increased patient load.
Several Virginia hospitals have had to request emergency medical services to temporarily divert ambulances to other hospitals, a measure Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital took twice in late August and early September, officials told local media outlets. Diversion orders lasted at most four hours.
“Staffing is a big part of it and a big contributor to why you are seeing hospitals and health systems take unprecedented steps,” Hudgins says.
The Old Dominion EMS Alliance, which includes 25 hospitals and 100 emergency
medical services agencies in Central Virginia, operated under “code black” — meaning at least eight of its member hospitals were diverting ambulances — for an unprecedented 35 consecutive days ending Sept. 22, according to Executive Director Heidi Hooker.
Hooker emphasizes that code black allows ambulance dispatchers to evenly distribute patient load among hospitals that have capacity — but adds that patients with critical issues will always be taken to the nearest hospital.
In late August, UVA Health announced that it was postponing some nonemergency surgeries due to rising patient loads and staffing concerns — a step that other hospitals around the state have also taken during the most recent wave of rising COVID-19 cases.
Horton says this is one of the many options hospital leaders examine daily to manage available resources while also balancing extra work related to the pandemic, such as testing and vaccination drives. “There are tradeoffs every day,” she says.
Meanwhile, the nationwide shortage of nurses has boosted the pay rates for travel nurses as high as $7,000 to $8,000 a week. By comparison, a registered nurse in Virginia earned about $1,488 a week in 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ mean wage report.
“In Virginia we are not seeing the super-high rates we are seeing in some of the other states, but the nurses are,” says registered nurse Diana Wylie, who is vice president of business development for FlexRN, a Fredericksburg-based nurse staffing agency that’s part of American Medical Staffing. “They see they can make $8,000 to $10,000 a week in Florida or Texas or Louisiana. Now you are pulling on a workforce that maybe wasn’t willing to travel before, but can now go make double or triple their normal wage if they leave Virginia.”
Horton says the salary boost in other states presents problems for hospitals here to attract contracted nurses.
“We can’t even get travelers to come here because they are very attracted to those very high rates and also to the hotspot areas,” Horton says. “Many are breaking their contracts early and going to hotspots.”
For staff nurses, watching a temporary employee make multiple times their pay for the same job can be demoralizing, says Apple.
It also highlights a problem that predates the pandemic: Nurses already felt overwhelmed as nurse staffing levels declined in many hospitals in an effort to contain costs.
“Going into the pandemic, they were already burned out, working mandatory overtime — things like that,” Apple says. “It has compounded an already stressful situation.”
A fear of losing even more staffers has caused some Virginia hospitals to stop short of mandating COVID-19 vaccines for their staff members — even as health care officials urge the public to get vaccinated to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
So far, Carilion Clinic has not mandated vaccinations for employees, but has instead strongly encouraged it, even offering $150 bonuses for employees to get vaccinated by Oct 1. “Staffing was a part of that discussion,” Hudgins acknowledges. “If there was a statewide mandate, obviously we would do that. If all of our brethren in health care went down this path, I think we would have gone down that path as well.”
Meanwhile, HCA Healthcare, which runs 13 hospital campuses and dozens of smaller facilities in Virginia, and Ballad Health, which operates seven hospitals in Southwest Virginia, also have stopped short of requiring shots among employees.
Other health systems — including Inova Health System, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, UVA Health and Valley Health — have all mandated vaccinations.
In Hampton Roads, the region’s major health care employers — Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, Riverside Health System and Sentara Healthcare — set a deadline of Nov. 1.
This patchwork of policies may soon be moot, however. The Biden administration was expected in October to issue guidelines requiring vaccinations for workers in most health care settings that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, including hospitals. The mandate is anticipated to require vaccinations for the majority of health care workers.
Building a better pipeline
Shelley Conroy, associate dean of graduate programs at VCU’s School of Nursing, says she is seeing continued interest in nursing degrees, especially the advanced degrees VCU offers. “Applications are up, to the point that we can’t handle all of the students.”
Two challenges, however, are hiring enough faculty to teach these future nurses — nurses with advanced degrees can earn more money in practice than in academia — and providing students with clinical placements required for the degrees.
VCU has tried to bridge this gap by sharing the pool of nurses with advanced degrees with the university health system. These nurses spend 40% of their time teaching and 60% in clinical work.
In Charlottesville, Piedmont Virginia Community College is working to increase the number of nursing graduates from 100 to 150 per year, working closely with U.Va. to create a smoother pipeline of nurses ready to work.
The 50 new graduates would start work in January instead of August, to provide a more consistent stream of new employees to area hospitals. But the plan is contingent on hiring two new nursing instructors.
“We are searching right now,” PVCC President Frank Friedman says. “It is very difficult to find qualified nursing faculty.” He also notes that while PVCC typically receives 250 to 300 applications for its 100 nursing spots, the pandemic may have an impact on student interest.
“We have seen some current students withdraw from our program out of fear,” he notes. “They don’t want to work in a hospital. They are afraid to expose themselves to COVID. We [also] had about seven individuals withdraw this semester because vaccinations are mandatory” at area hospitals.
Apple, Shepherd and others say that in order to attract and retain nurses, employers need to offer more professional respect, increased mental health support and decreased nurse-to-patient ratios.
While many hospitals are adding mental health resources and experimenting with more flexible scheduling, Horton admits that compensation is a challenge.
In October, UVA Medical Center announced that the health system would commit more than $30 million during the 2022 fiscal year to increase compensation and make market pay adjustments for much of its workforce.
Dorrie Fontaine, former dean of the U.Va. School of Nursing, says she has been getting calls from many hospitals, asking her to talk to their staff about managing stress and anxiety. She recently published a book, “Self Care for New and Student Nurses.”
“Self-care is great,” she says, but hospitals can greatly help their recruitment and retention efforts by ensuring that nurses are supported with adequate staffing and appropriate recognition for the work they do. “Until you have hospital systems who treat nurses with the respect and dignity they deserve, all the yoga in the world is not going to be enough.”
Apple also worries that the current stresses on nurses will have long-lasting impacts on the health care workforce if these professionals aren’t better supported with adequate staffing and appropriate recognition for the work they do.
“We didn’t sign up to be soldiers. We are caretakers,” she says. “We have found ourselves on a battlefield, and we need help.”
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