EM's Busiest Time of the Year | January eNews 151

This is only my second January with VACEP, but between General Assembly and Annual CME Conference preparations, I’m pretty sure it's our organization's busiest month of the year.

At the start of January, we were concerned that some of you were not able to access vaccines efficiently. Thanks to the heroic efforts of VACEP President Scott Hickey, we were able to find a way to register the remaining emergency physicians around the state.

Virginia's General Assembly kicked off on Jan. 13, and it has been a doozy of a session. Entirely virtual, with many legislators not even in Richmond, has created an environment where emails, texts, and calls flood inboxes, phones, and aide offices. The short session will adjourn Feb. 27.

Even with an overwhelming number of communications flowing among lobbyists and legislators, VACEP is advocating for emergency medicine. Dozens of members have sent their legislator emails advocating we "Keep the Cap" for medical malpractice claims (there's another alert below for you). Our president, Scott Hickey, as well as member Jessie Nguyen in Roanoke have been pushing for similar levels of education and training by nurse practitioners who wish to practice independently (there is a bill that would allow them to do so after two years; VACEP and our allies are pushing for five). Other members, like Todd Parker and Cameron Olderog, have logged into video calls in mornings, evenings, and even mid-shift to advocate for emergency medicine with state lawmakers (but hey, less travel?)

We continue to update and push our Issue Tracker to allow you to view the legislation we are monitoring in real-time. There, you’ll also find overviews and the status of key pieces of VACEP-tracked legislation, from NP scope of practice to a naloxone workgroup to licensure of naturopaths (a bill that was defeated this week, by the way). Keeping our members informed of all the work we do is of top importance to VACEP.

I'd also mention that the current bills heading to studies, plus the work we've done to elevate our presence as an organization, have led to a series of workgroup volunteer requests from members. An ever-increasing number of VACEP members are involved in policy-making at the state level. If that's something you'd like to do, please email me at sarah@vacep.org and we can talk about your interests.

Last year, we received great feedback from you and our colleagues around the country regarding our video interviews with ACEP candidates. Because of that, I spent last week recording interviews with the candidates for the VACEP Board of Directors and Councilors. I love getting to spend time with our members talking about their ideas for the future of our organization. I know you'll enjoy hearing from our leaders as much as I did (link below).

Next month, we start test-running our virtual sessions for the Annual CME Conference, February 20-21 (including virtual Jeopardy!). If Jeopardy! (the TV show) can figure out virtual auditions, hopefully we can "fumble-forward" our way through our annual quiz bowl.

As our community is vaccinated, we move closer to being together again in person, but this time with all the innovation and knowledge we've gained over the last year. I look forward to seeing you all soon.

– Sarah Marshall

VACEP Executive Director