Nurses and union leaders across the country are sounding the alarm about deepening staffing shortages at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers, as a new federal report and recent rallies highlight the strain on care for some of the nation’s most vulnerable veterans. Tensions are especially high in Atlanta and Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the effects of looming job cuts and the removal of union protections are being felt acutely by staff and patients alike.
On August 13, 2025, a group of registered nurses gathered outside the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center in Decatur. Their message was clear and urgent: proposed staffing cuts, particularly in mental health services, threaten the well-being—and even the lives—of homeless and high-risk veterans. The rally came just one day after the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a sobering report. According to the OIG, VA medical centers nationwide are facing severe staffing shortages, with the Atlanta facility alone reporting 79 unfilled positions—53 clinical and 26 nonclinical as of August 14, 2025. The shortages, nurses say, are poised to get even worse as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to eliminate 30,000 VA jobs as part of broader federal spending cuts.
“We have veterans who have attempted suicide multiple times prior to receiving the intensive care and support we provide,” said Sharon Kuluwa, a nurse at the Atlanta VA, during the rally. “We feel very strongly that cutting services to these extremely vulnerable veterans will jeopardize their well-being and their lives. We need to be adding nurses and resources to support these veterans in any way physically possible.” The union representing 1,200 Atlanta VA nurses, the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), warned that management intends to cut 55 percent of the staff in the Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) team—a move they say would gut services designed to keep veterans safe and stable.
Florence Uzuegbunam, a nurse practitioner and NNU associate director, described the situation as “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” She explained, “Management is looking to take nurses from these vital positions in order to fill open positions. We know the answer is not to take from one team to add to another starving team, but to increase the total number of nurses and providers who work at the Atlanta VA. That is the only way we can fulfill our mission to provide high quality effective and therapeutic care to our veterans.”
These concerns are not limited to Georgia. In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Congressman Bobby Scott spent August 14, 2025, touring area VA clinics and discussing the impact of staffing shortages. Speaking outside the Hampton VA Clinic, Scott did not mince words about who he felt was responsible. “When you go around firing everybody, it’s hard to recruit people to join the organization,” he told reporters, pointing the finger squarely at the Trump administration and VA Secretary Doug Collins.
The numbers back up the nurses’ and lawmakers’ anxieties. The August 12 OIG report revealed that in Fiscal Year 2025, Veteran Health Administration facilities saw a 50 percent increase in severe occupational staffing shortages compared to the previous year. Psychology was identified as the most frequently reported shortage, but the gaps extend across disciplines. During his visit to the Chesapeake VA clinic, Scott noted that the dental clinic was not operating—not because of a lack of equipment, but because there simply weren’t enough staff. As Scott put it, “The dental clinic, for example, has plenty of equipment sitting there, but they don’t have it staffed.”
VA Secretary Doug Collins, for his part, has acknowledged the challenges but maintains that the new Chesapeake clinic will be fully staffed by January 2026, describing the gradual ramp-up as standard procedure. However, for patients and staff waiting for relief, the timeline feels painfully slow.
Compounding the crisis is a dramatic shift in labor relations at VA facilities. On August 6, 2025, the Trump administration announced it would terminate most collective bargaining agreements with the VA, including the NNU’s contract covering 16,000 nurses nationwide. In Hampton, the union representing VA employees says this move has rendered them effectively powerless. Union President Stacy Shorter described being forced off VA property and losing access to essential resources. “It is our position that the executive order and the actions taken by Secretary Collins are illegal and that we will prevail in court,” Shorter said, adding that the union had to pack up and move within a week and can no longer use VA equipment or email accounts. Despite these setbacks, Shorter was adamant: “The most important thing I want everybody to know, we’re not going anywhere.” A lawsuit challenging the administration’s actions has already been filed.
The struggle is also playing out in Congress, where lawmakers are seeking to restore collective bargaining rights for VA workers. Congressman Scott noted that legislation is pending to overturn the executive order and reinstate union protections, with a discharge petition circulating in hopes of bringing the bill to a vote. “There’s legislation pending to restore the collective bargaining, to overturn the Executive Order. That is subject to a discharge petition,” Scott said, expressing hope that enough signatures will be gathered to move the legislation forward.
For many, the stakes could not be higher. The VA’s mission—to care for those who have served—relies on a stable, supported workforce. As the OIG report and the voices from Atlanta and Hampton make clear, the current trajectory threatens not only jobs but the quality of care for veterans who may have nowhere else to turn. The proposed cuts to the MHICM team in Atlanta, for instance, would directly impact veterans at risk of homelessness, suicide, or severe mental health crises—populations that already face significant barriers to care.
Meanwhile, the broader political fight over union rights and federal spending priorities continues to shape the landscape. Supporters of the administration’s approach argue that fiscal discipline is necessary and that reforms to staffing and labor practices will ultimately make the VA more efficient. Critics, however, warn that cutting jobs and sidelining unions will erode morale, drive away skilled professionals, and leave veterans underserved. The debate is heated, and both sides are digging in for a protracted battle—one that will likely play out in the courts, in Congress, and on the front lines of VA clinics across the country.
As the dust settles on this latest round of changes, one thing is clear: the future of care for America’s veterans hangs in the balance, with the decisions made in the coming months set to shape the VA’s ability to serve those who have already given so much.
