joining on our first panel is joan clifford, immediate past present of the nurses organization of veteran affairs. dr. samuel spagnola. the president of veteran affairs physician assistant association. jeff morris, the director of communications and external affairs for the american board of physician specialties. and dr. nicol salvo from the american podiatric medical association. miss clifford. we allow everybody five minutes. so should be a little light there when it goes red. that means you're up. thanks. >> hi. thank you. chairman, ranking member, and members of the sub committee, on behalf of the nearly 3,000 members of the nurses organization of veteran affairs, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify on today's important and timely subject, va staffing. as the department of veterans affairs undergoes system wide reorganization to include many challenges of implementing the veterans access choice and accountability act, staffing must be at the forefront of the evaluation. i'm deputy nurse executive at the va boston health care system and i'm here as the immediate p

joining on our first panel is joan clifford, immediate past present of the nurses organization of veteran affairs. dr. samuel spagnola. president of the national association of veterans affairs fizz shuns and dentists. president of the veteran affairs physician assistant association. jeff morris, the director of communications and external affairs for the american board of physician specialties. and dr. nicol salvo from the american podiatric medical association. miss clifford. we will begin with you. please proceed with your testimony. we allow everybody five minutes. so should be a little light there when it goes red. that means you're up. thanks. >> hi. thank you. chairman, ranking member, and members of the sub committee, on behalf of the nearly 3,000 members of the nurses organization of veteran affairs, nova, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify on today's important and timely subject, va staffing. as the department of veterans affairs undergoes system wide reorganization to include many challenges of implementing the veterans access choice and accountability act

i'm joan clifford here as the immediate past president of nova, a professional organization for registered nurses employed by va. no nova's focus is original issues and uniquely qualified to share views on va to efficiently recruit qualified health care professionals to treat our veteran patients. we're in the medical centers, community based outpatient clinics, and at the bedside every day. we have identified retention and recruitment of health care professionals as a critically important issue in providing the best care anywhere for our veterans veterans, and we'd like to offer the following observations. we believe that the underlying issues reside in the lack of a strong infrastructure for human resources, insufficient nursing education opportunities, and the complex application system mainly usa jobs that they use for hiring staff. vha is facing a shortage of corporate experience and inefficient staffing to support the multiple priorities required for hiring health care professionals. the complex hiring process with systems that do not interface lead to extended waits for job offers.