Each winter, the JMU PA Program participates in "White Coats on Call".  This is a grassroots lobbying effort held annually by the Medical Society of Virginia and the Virginia Academy of Physician Assistants.  Physicians, PAs, and PA students from many of the Virginia PA programs come together during the General Assembly in Richmond to inform their senators and delegates about the challenges facing the practice of medicine in the commonwealth of Virginia.  It is a wonderful opportunity for PA students to observe the legislative process in action and to be involved with civic engagement.

Specific topics that have been supported in previous years have included:

• Moving PA practice agreements from the state level to the practice level
• Giving the Virginia Board of Medicine the authority to regulate opioid misuse
• Supporting a budget amendment that would allow for a pilot of the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program to be integrated into an electronic medical record
• Supporting SB1062 and HB1910 to amend Virginia Code to include physician assistants within the definition of the term "mental health service provider"