Monthly meeting was held at Brocks and sponsored by Sandoz to discuss Biosimilar science and pharmaceuticals. These are therapeutic protein products similar to it’s reference biologic product with similar structure, function, pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety.

To increase attendance at the local meetings, support our local NPs and generate interest in our state VCNP, several ideas were discussed. Hishani brought up the fact that Mary Washington Hospital has it’s own radio channel. Mary Washington radio will discuss the NP role and diverse NP specialties as we lead up to NP week. There are so many NPs locally with different specialties and abilities, more awareness regarding these important roles is crucial to support our NPs and make other healthcare providers and the public aware of all NPs do. Eastern Associates also discussed mentoring a new NP and help them navigate the legislative process in order to get more NPs involved in and aware of the governing of NPS. Our state VCNP board discussed providing a “VCNP 101” talk, which would inform NPs about all the VCNP does for them as their representatives in the legislature and encourage them to get involved in their local chapters. Business and press releases were discussed to share achievements and increase visibility.

Goals for next year are to increase attendance at our meetings. Hishani urged everyone to bring someone with them to the next meeting. We discussed changing the meeting nights, or holding additional gatherings- either a happy hour one evening after work, or a coffee gathering on a Saturday morning. We discussed having a health “fair”, maybe providing screenings for hypertension or diabetes, providing education, food samples/recipes for a healthy dish using an unusual vegetable. We discussed hosting this “fair” at the food bank, or the Rappahannock Educational Farm.

Our next meeting will be 6/12/25 place TBD.

Submitted 5/10/25 JPSF