Virginia is already in a nursing shortage and many of our nurses, especially rural areas are underpaid and overworked. We go to work in horrific conditions. Many of us worked the recent snow storm and cared for patients for days without running water or plumbing. Without so much as a port-a-potty being available to us for 15+ hours and we hardly received a thank you much less anything like pizza or a gift or show of appreciation. MRMC is regularly understaffed and on capacity black with nurses working in unsafe ratios on med surg, stepdown, ICU, ER and specialty settings. We service a very sick, rural, poor population with poor health literacy. The patients get sicker and we are expected to work for less and with less resources. Not only is the population sicker but they are more and more abusive and their families are abusive as well and we are expected to take it with zero compensation. Increasing renewal fees and license fees is not in the best interest of the citizens of Virginia nor the VBON or the nursing work force. Many have already fallen on hard times with pay cuts, you will lose nurses in droves to this and you will deter potential new comers to the profession. If you care at all about your front line workers and the care patients receive...you will not do this. Thank you.