Upcoming Audioconference Seminars Offers Meaningful
Continuing Education for Nurses at Healthcare Facilities
4/29/05
Starting May 26, "Workplace Advocacy, Strategies, and Tools" hosted by the Center for American Nurses offers an affordable, convenient, and fun way for staff to gain valuable skills, earn up to 3.6 CE credits and interact with co-workers. Staff will learn skill-building strategies that they can use to increase their overall effectiveness in the workplace. These courses are designed for staff who require the skills but can't afford to leave the workplace to attend costly, time consuming seminars off-site. More...
Latest Keynote of Note from OJIN
4/28/05
A new Keynote of Note from the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (OJIN) has been posted. The keynote speech presented by Dr. Thomas Waters at the March 2004 4th Annual Safe Patient Handling & Movement Conference was titled, "State of the Science in Ergonomics." In this speech, Dr. Waters, Leader of the Human Factor and Ergonomics Research Team at NIOSH, discusses work-related musculoskeltal disorders in depth. The article provides an overview of research findings and gaps with a specific focus on health care ergonomics. More...
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla Receives Nursing’s Highest Honor
4/27/05
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla has received the prestigious Magnet Designation for excellence in patient care, a distinction conferred by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association (ANA). Scripps La Jolla becomes the first hospital in San Diego County to receive this honor and one of only five in California.
Designation as a Magnet hospital is recognition that Scripps La Jolla meets the highest standards of patient care and nursing practice, maintains exemplary staffing ratios, and attracts nurses, clinical staff and physicians by encouraging excellence, collegiality, collaboration, and professionalism. Magnet hospitals have shown better patient outcomes in study after study.
For information on Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, please go to www.scripps.org.
National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows in Nursing Research
4/26/05
The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is committed to increasing the number of doctorally-prepared nurses in order to meet the demands for adequately trained behavioral, biological, and biobehavioral scientists. NINR is particularly interested in facilitating the progress of students who are in research training programs for recent nursing graduates and students in BSN to PhD programs.
The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows in Nursing Research grant program will provide predoctoral training support for doctoral students. The applicant must propose a research training program and dissertation research that is consistent with the scientific mission of the NINR.
For more information on grant announcement, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-05-091.html.
New ANA Recommended Resources for Certification Review
4/25/05
Study smart with these ANA specialty certification review packages. ANCC certification exams are based on the content in ANA standards of practice. Each package contains the specialty standard for your practice area and the Nursing: Scope and Standard of Practice (contains clinical, non-clinical and advanced practice standards). Books can be ordered separately at the regular price or at a 10% discount for the package.
Go to the bookstore...
CDC Issues Instructions for Destroying Flu Samples, Monitoring Lab Workers
4/22/05
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued instructions for monitoring laboratory workers who might have been exposed to a dangerous strain of flu virus sent to domestic and international laboratories as part of a routine lab proficiency test, and instructions for destroying the samples through incineration and other methods. CDC said testing of laboratory personnel who may have worked with the samples is not recommended in the U.S. at this time, noting that the risk of transmission is considered low. However, it said laboratories with workers exposed to the samples within the past 10 days should monitor the workers for influenza-like illness, and test them if they develop symptoms. Read more at www.cdc.gov/flu/han041505.htm.
University of Miami Receives $850,000 Challenge from The Kresge Foundation to Complete Nursing Center
4/21/05
The University of Miami has been awarded an $850,000 challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation toward the completion of its state-of-the-art M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies. According to the terms of the challenge, the school will receive the full $850,000 in January 2006, once the $19.4 million facility's outstanding balance of $3.75 million has been raised.
The four-story Schwartz Center, scheduled to open on the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus early in 2006, will feature technologically advanced classrooms and clinical practice labs, a state-of-the-art simulation center, seminar and conference rooms, a computer lab. The spacious 53,000 square foot facility will enable the school to educate up to 700 undergraduate and graduate students annually and support the clinical and research initiatives of the school's award-winning faculty of nurse scientists and educators.
To view construction progress on the M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies, visit www.miami.edu/nur.
Topix.Net Provides Daily Nursing News to The American Nurses Association Web Site
4/20/05
Topix.net, the Internet's largest resource for online news with over 300,000 news channels, announced that it will provide a free daily newsfeed from the Topix.net Nursing Channel to the American Nurses Association (ANA) Web site. More...
ANA Needs You to Help Advocate for Increased Nurse Education Funding
4/20/05
On April 7, 2005 Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) circulated a letter in the U.S. Senate soliciting support for a $24 million (16%) increase in funding for nursing workforce development programs. This "Dear Colleague" solicitation asks other Senators to sign-on to a letter requesting $175 million in FY 2006 funding for the nursing workforce development programs funded through Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act.
Ask your Senator to indicate their support for nursing by signing the Mikulski/Collins Dear Colleague Letter. Senators need to sign the letter by April 29. The more Senators who sign onto the Mikulski/Collins letter, the more likely it is that these programs will receive a funding increase. More...
April 24-30th is National Infant Immunization Week
4/19/05
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in conjunction with the Pan American Health Organization has declared April 24-30, 2005 National Infant Immunization Week. This event is an annual observance to promote the benefits of immunizations and to focus on the importance of immunizing infants against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases by age 2. For more information, Visit the CDC web site.
ANA's Legislative and Regulatory Initiatives for the 109th Congress Now Available Online
4/18/05
The ANA strives to promote health care policies that advance the goals of nursing and foster public health. Our ANA Board-approved Legislative and Regulatory Agenda for the 109th Congress focuses on ANA's core issues, which include: nursing shortage, appropriate staffing, workplace rights, workplace health and safety, and patient advocacy and safety. More...
Labs Destroy Distributed A/H2N2 Influenza Virus
4/15/05
Public health officials are working to destroy samples of a dangerous strain
of flu virus (A/H2N2 influenza virus) sent as early as last September to nearly
4,000 laboratories in the U.S., Canada and 16 other countries as part of a routine
lab proficiency test. At a press briefing 4/13/05, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding, M.D., said most of the labs have already
destroyed the samples and that the risk of the virus infecting a lab worker and
spreading to others was very low. However, she said the agency was doing everything
it could to reduce any threat to public health, since the A/H2N2 virus has not
circulated in the U.S. in nearly 40 years and younger Americans would not have
developed immunity to it. The labs have been advised to destroy the test kits
containing the virus and monitor employees recently exposed to the kits. The
CDC does not yet know why the company that created the test kits chose to use
the A/H2N2 virus, which was responsible for a 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic, Gerberding
said. Go to CDC web site for CDC/WHO update. http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/HAN/ArchiveSys/ViewMsgV.asp?AlertNum=00227.
AHRQ Launches Patient Safety Network
4/14/05
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has created an on-line clearinghouse for resources on improving patient safety and preventing medical errors. Users of AHRQ's Patient Safety Network (PSNet) can customize the site to automatically collect the latest articles, news and conferences on topics of interest to them, such as bar-coding, and opt to receive weekly updates on the latest patient safety findings, according to AHRQ.
AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, M.D., called the site a "one-stop portal for patient safety resources to help health care professionals improve health care for all Americans." Developed by a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, the site is intended for physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, clinicians, researchers and consumers.
For further information on PSNet, visit the site at http://psnet.ahrq.gov.
Health Care's Environmental Leaders Earn Top National Awards
4/13/05
The Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) program awarded more than 70 hospitals, health systems and healthcare organizations for outstanding achievement in reducing waste, virtually eliminating mercury, and minimizing the use of toxic products. The annual H2E Awards Ceremony, held in Chicago, featured the announcement of eight Environmental Leadership Awards, the premier national recognition of environmental innovation in health care.
H2E is creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health care. As a joint project of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm, its goals are to eliminate the use of mercury in healthcare; to cut health care waste; and to phase out the use of hazardous substances and persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic chemicals in the health care sector.
Read more at www.h2e-online.org./awards/summit2pr.htm.
New Series Helps Patients Understand Breast, Cervical, and Prostate Changes
4/12/05
The National Cancer Institute has updated its patient education booklets, Understanding Breast Changes, Understanding Cervical Changes, and Understanding Prostate Changes. The booklets are designed to reduce the anxiety patients often feel when they receive an abnormal result from a screening test or exam.
The Understanding Changes Series explains facts and symptoms related to breast, cervical, and prostate conditions while defining medical terms in every-day language that is easier for patients to understand.
Publications can be ordered online at https://cissecure.nci.nih.gov/ncipubs or by calling the toll-free number, 1-800-4-CANCER.
ANA Co-Publishes Two New Standards on Pain Management and Plastic Surgery
4/11/05
Nursesbooks.org has partnered with the American Society of Pain Management Nurses and the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses to produce two new standards in growing areas of nursing practice. More...
Blakeney to Receive Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Massachusetts
4/08/05
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association will present ANA President Barbara Blakeney the Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of extraordinary personal and professional achievement on April 13, 2005. Blakeney has been an adjunct professor for the department of family and community nursing at UMass Boston. In addition, she has been honored by Boston Women's Magazine as one of the 100 women whose work has contributed to the betterment of Boston and was named to Modern Healthcare Magazine's 2002, 2003 and 2004 lists of the 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care.
Read Barbara Blakeney's biography.
Detailed information on award ceremony is found at www.umass.edu/umhome/news/articles/13774.php.
ANA Coming to You - Caring for Those Who Care: Preventing Injuries in Today's Work Environment
4/07/05
Don't miss this important seminar coming to an area near you this spring. This session will educate you about the basic health and safety principles as they apply to the healthcare work setting with an emphasis on the prevention of needlestick injuries and back/musculoskeletal injuries. The sessions speakers are ANA President Barbara Blakeney and Past ANA President Mary Foley.
Seminar Locations and Dates: Atlanta, GA - April 30, Silver Spring, MD - May 7, Chicago, IL - May 9, Seattle, WA - June 3. More...
Call for Nominations to The ANA-PAC Board of Trustees
4/06/05
Calling all political activists! The ANA-PAC Board of Trustees will elect five new members in June 2005. Both ANA/CMA members and Direct ANA members are eligible to serve on the ANA-PAC Board. ANA-PAC is dedicated to the improvement of health care by raising funds from ANA members and contributing to the support of worthy candidates for federal office who have demonstrated their beliefs in the legislative objectives of the American Nurses Association.
For ANA/CMA members, applications are due to your CMA offices by Wednesday, April 20, 2005. For Direct ANA members, applications are due to ANA by May 4, 2005. More...
Two New OJIN/Hirsh Institute Articles
4/06/05
Two new articles have recently been added to the Sarah Cole Hirsh
Institute section on OJIN (Online Journal of Issues in
Nursing). These research reviews are on the topics of suicide and cancer-related
fatigue.
For patients diagnosed with cancer, there is evidence that exercise results in overall decreased fatigue and emotional stress, and improves quality of life. A new article by Visovsky and Dvorak presents an evidenced-based review about exercise interventions for persons with cancer. Read article..."Exercise and Cancer Recovery"
Suicide rates among American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) children are the highest in the United States. A review by Gary, Baker, and Grandbois discusses risk factors and protective factors related to suicide in AIAN youth, as well as culturally sensitive, comprehensive care programs for these vulnerable youth. Read article..."Perspectives on Suicide Prevention Among American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Adolescents: A Call for Help
Innovative State-of-the-Art Audioconference Seminar Series on
Workplace Advocacy Coming to a Location of Your Choice
4/05/05
This new Audioconference Seminar Series, "Workplace Advocacy, Strategies, and Tools" offered by the Center for American Nurses is designed for nurses who require the skills but can't afford to leave the workplace to attend costly, time consuming seminars off-site. Participants can also earn up to three CE credits provided through the American Nurses Association (ANA). More...
ANA Needs You to Help Advocate for Increased Nurse Education Funding
4/04/05
On March 18, 2005 Representatives Lois Capps, RN (D-CA) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY) sent a letter to the House of Representatives soliciting support for a $24 million (16%) increase in funding for nursing workforce development programs. This "Dear Colleague" solicitation asks other Representatives to sign-on to a letter indicating their support for $175 million in FY 2006 funding for the programs funding through Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act.
Ask your Representative to sign the Capps/Whitfield Dear Colleague Letter. Members of Congress need to sign the letter by April 6.
The more Members of Congress who sign onto the Capps/Whitfield letter, the more likely it is that these programs will receive a funding increase. More…
Survey of 76,000 Nurses Probes Elements of Job Satisfaction
4/04/05
In one of the largest samples of its kind exploring various components of job satisfaction among registered nurses (RNs), conducted through an ANA survey, respondents as a total group report being highly satisfied with regard to interactions with other RNs, their professional status, and professional development opportunities. Read Press Release...
(Note: This news release should be publicized in place of the news release, titled "Survey of 76,000 Nurses Probes Elements of Job Satisfaction," dated Monday, March 28, 2005. The detailed survey results are the property of ANA and have not been distributed publicly.)
New Government Web Site Allows Consumers to Compare
Hospital Quality; ANA a Partner in Groundbreaking Project
4/01/05
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the federal government is offering a resource on hospital quality of care information through an innovative, consumer-friendly Web site - www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov.
Hospital Compare is the result the cooperation of the Hospital Quality Alliance, a landmark public-private partnership of hospitals, government agencies, quality experts, purchasers, consumer groups and other health care organizations, including ANA. The new initiative will provide the public with useful and understandable information on hospital quality of care in an easily accessible way to assist patients, families and communities in making important health care decisions. Read press release at www.aha.org/aha/press_room-info/jsp/releasedisplay.jsp?dcrpath=AHA
/Press_Release/data/PR_050401_HospitalCompare&domain=AHA
NIAID Initiates Trial of Experimental Avian Flu Vaccine
4/01/05
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has begun fast-track recruitment for a trial to investigate the safety of a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza. Sites in Rochester, NY, Baltimore and Los Angeles will enroll a total of 450 healthy adults. H5N1 avian influenza leads to severe disease in both birds and humans.
The trial will test the vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune response in 450 healthy adults aged 18 to 64. If the vaccine is shown to be safe in adults, there are plans to test it in other populations, such as the elderly and children.
Read more at www2.niaid.nih.gov/Newsroom/Releases/avianfluvax.htm.
Press Releases
