![[FILE] A hospital worker leans against a desk to work inside the emergency department at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.](https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/3304/files/2025/08/nurse.jpg)
Nicole Raz
WMAL
WASHINGTON — (WMAL)Like many states across the country, Virginia is facing a shortage of nurses.
“There is a great shortage of psych mental health practitioners,” says Pam Jeffries, who is the Dean at George Washington University’s School of Nursing.
Jeffries says there is only 1 such nurse for every 57,000 Virginians.
“These ratios are not consistent across the state. There’s more providers, of course, located in the northern part of the state versus the southern part,” Jeffries told WMAL, adding that the need for mental health services is only increasing.
She says there’s no doubt that the healthcare field is changing, but that’s even more reason for more collaboration between health services and universities.
Copyright 2015 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: CNN)
