Cynthia Neff’s dedication to nursing profession impressive

I attended the Legislative Dinner at the University of Virginia’s School of Nursing, where we were proud to receive some of the candidates for the upcoming elections. By far, I was most impressed with Cynthia Neff’s dedication to the nursing profession and to funding and support for the development of nurse practitioner programs.

She expressed a frank and sincere understanding of the importance of undergraduate and graduate nursing education as we continue through economic and health crises in our commonwealth and country. Nurses are by far and away the most important and integral component of quality care.

She made no apologies for this fact without pandering, as a few of the other candidates did.

Many of us were disappointed that we could not hear Rob Bell’s response to some of her points.

There are multiple potential negative outcomes in lessening support for nurses and nursing education, as did President Bush in each of his budgets, which greatly decreased funding and undeniably increased the acuity of our health care crisis. More of the same policies are in line with Rob Bell’s conservative policies.

While he does show some understanding of the fact that mental health care needs certain and immediate attention and improvement, his policies are shallow in comparison to Ms. Neff’s finely nuanced and comprehensive understanding and intention for health care in Virginia.

I am sure I speak for many of my nursing and public health colleagues when I say that we are rooting for her no-nonsense and wise approach to changing Virginia for the better.