ANA Addresses Safe Patient Handling, New Blood Pressure Standards, Other Major Health Care Topics at Convention

Washington, DC - The American Nurses Association (ANA) kicks off activities on Sunday, June 27, for its 2004 Biennial Convention at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The convention will continue through Tuesday, June 29, with over 120 continuing education opportunities for nurses. Pre-convention activities will be held Saturday, June 26, giving participants the opportunity to attend additional workshops. Focusing on the theme Nurses: Your Voice, Your Health, Your Life - Your Career, the convention will allow participants to get updates on hot topics in health care, including safe patient handling, new blood pressure standards, basic disaster life support, nursing shortage solutions and more. ANA Convention highlights are as follows:

United States Surgeon General's Keynote Address

United States Surgeon General Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, will kick off the convention's morning opening session on Sunday, June 27, with a half-hour keynote address. One of our nation's chief spokespersons on matters of public health and medicine, Dr. Carmona has served in a variety of roles in the medical field including as a paramedic, educator, surgeon… and a registered nurse.

Select Pre-Conference Sessions

Safe Patient Handling & Movement
(Saturday, June 26, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
Given overwhelming data that indicate that manually handling and lifting of dependent patients is a high-risk activity, both for the health care worker and the patient, this workshop aims to dispel the myths associated with safe patient handling and create safer working environments for nurses who provide direct patient care. Workshop participants will learn about the hazards surrounding manual patient handling and the solutions needed to reduce risks to nurses and patients. (Separate registration fee.)

Basic Disaster Life Support
(Saturday, June 26, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
This course emphasizes an "all hazards" approach to disaster response. Participants will develop basic skills related to event recognition, initial patient care, personal protection measures and how to work within a disaster response system. (Separate registration fee.)

Select Plenary Sessions of Interest

Magnet™ Hospitals' Best Practices-Solutions for Staffing - Plenary I
(Monday, June 28, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
Representatives from selected new and experienced Magnet™ hospitals in urban and rural areas will describe nurse staffing recruitment and retention program efforts that have proven successful. Research shows that Magnet™-designated facilities consistently outperform their peers in recruiting and retaining nurses.

Improving Patient Care Through Continuing Education

Facing the Future and Embracing Competence in Aging - Plenary II
(Tuesday, June 29, 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.)
As the number of older Americans approaches 20 percent of the population, nurses are increasingly taking care of older adults. Currently, geriatric adults are the "core business" of health care, representing 48 percent of hospital admissions, 80 percent of home care patients and 85 percent of nursing home residents. Older patients have longer lengths of stays and higher rates of readmission to hospitals, and generally are at higher risk for functional declines. This session addresses how nurses can meet this health care challenge.

One Solution to the Nursing Shortage: Growing Our Own
(Sunday, June 27, 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.)
This session focuses on how one employer implemented innovative programs that allowed nursing to "Grow Our Own" to combat the growing nursing and nurse faculty shortages.

Take Action for Healthy Blood Pressure
(Monday, June 28, 6:00 a.m. - 7:45 a.m.; free breakfast CE symposium.)
Today, one in every four adults has high blood pressure and the vast majority (70 percent) does not have it under control. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and ongoing damage to blood vessels leading to major organs in the body. Learn more about the new standards for blood pressure, and techniques and interventions to manage the growing crisis of uncontrolled high blood pressure.

For details on these and other convention sessions and activities, or for a downloadable convention program, see http://www.nursingworld.org/convention/.

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The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its constituent member associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

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