Virginia Commonwealth University Health

VCU Health operates from a downtown Richmond campus that grew out of the Medical College of Virginia, founded in 1838, and now functions as the clinical enterprise of Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU Medical Center anchors the system, with Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU and a network of outpatient sites across the region. As central Virginia's academic medical center, it takes the cases community hospitals transfer out, and its downtown location means it also serves as a safety-net provider for surrounding neighborhoods.

Clinical strengths include a Level I trauma center, transplant, cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurosciences and neurosurgery, cancer care through Massey Cancer Center, burn care, and pediatric subspecialty services. Nurses practice across adult and pediatric intensive care, neonatal intensive care, trauma, burn, transplant, cardiac and surgical step-down, medical-surgical, oncology, perioperative, emergency, and labor and delivery units, with acuity among the highest in the state. As the teaching partner for VCU's schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health, the system trains students throughout its facilities, so bedside staff work alongside learners as a standing condition. For nurses, that combination of trauma volume and academic setting is uncommon in Virginia.