Tag Archives: nursing practice

Mentoring

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XLargeThumb.01781601-201407000-00000.CVAs a member of Editorial Board for the Journal of Pediatric Surgical Nursing (JPSN) Editorial Board, my role is to mentor authors who ask for assistance. I enjoy working with colleagues on these projects and find (as always) that I learn much more than I offer. Most of the authors thus far are newer in the profession and have less clinical experience. This brings the challenge of helping them fill in the literature, clinical, and research gaps.

But, my most recent mentoring challenge is an expert clinical nurse who feels that she does not have anything “data driven” to write. This is despite the fact that for over 25 years, she has worked with a specific patient population, collaborated with the leading physician expert, earned two Master’s degrees, and is seen as the clinical expert by colleagues both novice and expert (as they tell me themselves).

When I asked her, “What do you want to say?” she was able to concisely tell me her thoughts on orthopedic pin care, take me through the full circle history of where we were, why it didn’t work, what they found worked, and now, frustratingly, a return to the original method of 25 years ago with little data to support this trend.

We strategized a bit and came up with a plan (any ideas you have are also welcome!)

But my question for the group goes beyond pin care…..my colleague brings up an interesting question in my mind.  How does JPSN capture her history?  Not for pin care (we’re working on that one) but her history of our profession.  In an hour of speaking with her…and then in speaking with another nurse who referred her to me from her institution, it is quite clear that this woman has a great story. She has lived, worked, and exemplified our nursing legacy. I am confident that we will capture what she wants to say about pin care.  I am worried that we will lose her story of a fabulous, devoted career when she retires.

So, my musing for all of you is how do we at JPSN document this era of nursing? And validate these nurses’ contributions? My “mentee” told me that she did not think she had anything she could write since she did not do formal research. Yet she knew her team’s infection rates (or lack thereof) from her infection control colleagues, supports data driven care, and supports nursing’s progress to maintain our place at any management table.

How do you capture these nurses’ special contributions and history at your journal? Thanks for educating me as a mentor!

Nancy

Guidelines for the Portrayal of Overweight and Obese Persons in the Media

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It would be difficult to find a compassionate healthcare provider who would support bias and discrimination of their patient population. But, all too often, healthcare providers (as well as writers and editors) make choices that unfortunately do just that….reinforce obesity bias and discrimination. Bias and discrimination affect all of us; our consciousness has been raised in the way we speak, write, depict, and comment on many vulnerable groups in our society. Obesity discrimination unfortunately remains a prevalent issue for many of our patients and remains legal in all states except Michigan.

The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity is a data driven, policy oriented site which has several missions, one of which is to stop obesity bias and stigma through research, education, and advocacy. Dr. Rebecca Puhl has led a team of researchers at the Center in the study of obesity bias/discrimination. Her work is often cited, available to all through the site, and offers guidance on opportunities for advocacy and intervention.

Two areas on the Rudd Center website are of particular interest to the INANE membership.The first area features media resources for journalists, bloggers, editors, and film, television, and communication experts. The Rudd Center Media Gallery contains a repository of images and videos that are free for use by anyone visiting their site.  These images show people affected by obesity in a positive way, in a variety of work, school, and recreational settings. The second resource includes guidelines for the portrayal of overweight and obese persons in media or print (including professional posters and presentations). These guidelines remind us to respectfully put people first and the “condition” second. We are all familiar with the disrespectful videos that often accompany a newscast on some “obesity” news….often showing a video of a person affected by obesity walking from behind, focusing only on their body, not their shoulders and head.

As editors of nursing journals, we are in an ideal position to share this information through editorials and articles. Just as important, being mindful of modeling appropriate “people first; condition second” writing will encourage the elimination of bias and discrimination toward a population of our patients who need our support. I encourage you to visit the links above and if time permits, the entire Rudd Center site. Spreading the news of this valuable resource to your readership, students, staff, and community will go far to eradicate hurtful bias and discrimination of adults and children affected by obesity.

Why Nurses Need More Authority

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An interesting op-ed piece from The Atlantic. My thanks to Thomas Long, PhD, Associate Professor in Residence at the University of Connecticut for bringing it to my attention.

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Allowing nurses to act as primary-care providers will increase coverage and lower health-care costs. So why is there so much opposition from physicians?  

Think it takes a long time to get an appointment with a primary care provider now? Brace yourself: it will likely only get worse. We’re facing a severe shortage of primary care physicians in the nation. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortfall of 29,800 primary care physicians by 2015, and 65,800 by 2025, mainly because of the anticipated increase in demand for services from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), deterrents to entering the field, such as relatively lower incomes, and growth in the general population and specifically growth in the elderly population. Should the ACA pass muster with the Supreme Court next month, an additional 30 to 33 million previously uninsured Americans will be covered — and even if ACA is not implemented in full, and in the end merely expands Medicaid, it will add 17 million to the insured ranks by 2020.

One of the best ways to alleviate this shortage is to expand the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), well-trained registered nurses with specialized qualifications who can make diagnoses, order tests and referrals, and write prescriptions. APRNs could provide a variety of services that primary care physicians now provide.

The definitive word on medical practice in America — the highly respected and impartial Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences — has weighed in on this idea of allowing APRNs to do more, in a landmark 2010 report “The Future of Nursing.” The IOM conducted an exhaustive review of all the available studies of the efficacy and safety of care provided by APRNs and concluded that properly trained APRNs can independently provide core primary care services as effectively as physicians. They can provide wellness and preventive care services, diagnose and manage common, uncomplicated acute illnesses, and help patients manage chronic diseases such as diabetes. In its report, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that “[a]dvanced practice registered nurses should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training.”

But despite an urgent need and clear evidence that APRNs can complement and extend primary care providers’ roles — without sacrificing quality of care — nurses are only permitted to practice independently to the full extent of their training and competence in 16 states and the District of Columbia. The remaining states impose regulatory barriers that limit their scope of practice. These barriers should and can be removed.

But the turf wars of organized medicine are preventing progress. The American Medical Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all oppose expanding the scope of nurse-practitioner responsibilities, despite the IOM report and recent research demonstrating that an expanded scope of practice for APRNs has no impact on primary care physician income.

In Colorado, where there are far too few anesthesiologists available for rural and critical access hospitals, the state’s medical and anesthesiologists societies sued to overturn former Governor Bill Ritter’s 2010 decision to allow Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to provide anesthesia and pain management care in these hospitals. Instead, they prefer to make people travel hundreds of miles out of their communities to have a procedure that a CRNA is licensed and trained to carry out. They are also apparently fine with hospitals being forced to close as a result of a lack of anesthesiologists. This is a classic example of doctor-centric care trumping patient-centric care.

Apparently the physician organizations are threatened by some mix of concerns about lost income and their traditional position as “captain of the ship.” Those opposed to expanding the scope of nurses’ practice also argue that physicians with more years of training under their belts must necessarily know more than an APRN ever could. Of course they know more, but it is well established that they do not know more about providing the core elements of basic primary care.

And why primary care physicians — already overburdened and overworked — wouldn’t want some support with routine care and services is puzzling. Allowing well-trained APRNs to handle routine care frees up physicians focus on diagnostic dilemmas and more complex management issues while dramatically reducing waiting times for care.

Expanding nursing scope of practice not only can help fill the gap in primary care providers, but it can save money as well. RAND estimates that in Massachusetts, using nurse practitioners to their full capacity could save the state between $4.2 and $8.4 billion over ten years. Other studies find sizable savings from care provided by nurses in clinics in retail pharmacies. In these cases, APRNs have the authority to diagnose, treat, and prescribe medications, among other services. Also, tapping nursing’s potential is the fastest and least expensive way to meet growing demand for primary care. Nurses can be trained faster and for a lot less than medical school costs. Between three and 12 nurses can be educated for the price of one doctor.

There is hope. Employers and patients are beginning to clamor for progress in this area and the turf wars may lose steam as we move away from fee-for-service and toward accountable care organizations, in which a team of providers takes responsibility for the well-being of a population in return for global rather than provider-specific payments. The Federal Trade Commission may provide a further nudge. It has weighed in on a handful of states’ efforts to restrict nursing’s scope, finding cause for anti-competitive practices and, in some cases, evidence that the restrictive laws protect professional interests rather than consumers.

The remaining 34 states that restrict APRN’s scope of practice will eventually have to come to terms with a growing shortage of physicians and increasing demands to save money and restructure how we receive and pay for health care. The inconsistent, often punitive, and highly politicized regulatory environment surrounding APRNs must recognize the new horizons in medical care in the United States.

About the Author:   John Rowe is a physician and professor in the department of health policy and management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

This article available online at http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/05/why-nurses-need-me-authority/256798/

The Power of Nursing

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An incredible article from the New York Times–it was buried in the blogs and I suspect a lot of people didn’t see it. The bolding (for emphasis) is mine. LHN

May 16, 2012, 7:00 AM

The Power of Nursing

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

In 2010, 5.9 million children were reported as abused or neglected in the United States. If you were a policy maker and you knew of a program that could cut this figure in half, what would you do? What if you could reduce the number of babies or toddlers hospitalized for accidents or poisonings by more than half? Or provide a 5 to 7 point I.Q. boost to children born to the most vulnerable mothers?

Well, there is a way. These and other striking results have been documented in studies of a program called the Nurse-Family Partnership, or NFP, which arranges for registered nurses to make regular home visits to first-time low-income or vulnerable mothers, starting early in their pregnancies and continuing until their child is 2.

We tend to think of social change as more of an art than a science. “What’s unique about Nurse-Family Partnership is that the program was studied in what’s considered the strongest study design, and it showed sizable, sustained effects on important life outcomes which were replicated across different populations,” explained Jon Baron, president of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, a nonpartisan group. “This is very unusual. There are probably only about ten programs across all areas of social policy that currently meet that standard.”

What that means, notes Baron, is that if policy makers replicate the program faithfully they can be confident that it will change people’s lives in meaningful ways — improving child and maternal health, promoting positive parenting, children’s school readiness and families’ economic self-sufficiency, and reducing juvenile delinquency and crime.

NFP is not a new idea — it’s almost 40 years old — but after decades of study the program, which has assisted 151,000 families, has the potential for broader impact, thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which provides $1.5 billion for states to expand such programs.

Done well, it could be among the best money the government spends. Investments in early childhood development produce big payoffs for society. (A 2005 RAND study estimated that NFP provided $5.70 in benefits to society for every dollar spent.) But there’s an important concern: home visiting programs are not all effective. When carefully studied, only a few have been shown to reduce the physical abuse and neglect of children. Among the programs that meet the government’s standard for funding, there are large variations in evidence of impact (pdf). Policy makers and proponents of home visiting would do well to pay attention to the specific elements in the Nurse-Family Partnership’s model that account for its success.

NFP was founded by David Olds, who directs the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Early in his career, Olds worked in a day care center in Baltimore because he believed that quality preschool attention would help disadvantaged children succeed in life. What he began to see was that, for some kids, it was already too late to make big gains. If children had been abused or neglected or exposed to domestic violence, or if their mothers had abused drugs, alcohol or tobacco while pregnant, their brains could have been damaged in ways that limited the children’s abilities to control impulses, sustain attention or develop language.

Olds developed NFP in the early 1970s. He conducted his first large study in 1977, in Elmira, N.Y., a semi-rural, mostly white, community with one of the highest poverty rates in the state. The program produced strong results. Follow-up studies would reveal that, by age 19, the youths whose mothers received visits from nurses two decades earlier, were 58 percent less likely to have been convicted of a crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, Olds spread the work to Memphis and Denver and subjected the program to more randomized study with populations of urban blacks and Hispanics. The results continued to be impressive. In 1996, NFP began wider replication; the model is now being implemented by health and social service providers in 40 states.

As Olds published his results, the idea gained momentum, but the imitations did not remain faithful to NFP’s approach. “People adopted all kinds of home visiting models and used our evidence to make claims,” he recalled. In the early 1990s, for example, the federal government, inspired in part by NFP, began a $240 million program to train paraprofessionals, rather than nurses, to make home visits to low-income families with young children. NFP also experimented in Denver, using paraprofessionals (trained from the communities they served) in place of nurses for a subset of families.

In both cases, paraprofessionals didn’t get the same results. When it came to improving children’s health and development, maternal health, and mothers’ life success, the nurses were far more effective. In the federal program, paraprofessionals produced no effects on children’s health or development or their parents’ economic self-sufficiency.

What’s special about nurses? For one thing, trust. In public opinion polls, nurses are consistently rated as the most honest and ethical professionals by a large margin. But there were other reasons nurses were effective. Pregnant women are concerned about their bodies and their babies. Is the baby developing well? What can I do for my back pain? What should I be eating? What birthing options are available? Those are questions mothers wanted to ask nurses, which was why they were motivated to keep up the visits, especially mothers who were pregnant for the first time.

Nurses had more influence encouraging mothers to delay subsequent pregnancies, Olds explained. They could identify emerging complications more promptly, and they were more successful at getting mothers to stop or reduce smoking, drug or alcohol use. This is vital. Prenatal exposure to neurotoxicants is associated with intellectual and emotional deficits. It can also make babies more irritable, which increases risks of abuse. (A mother who was abused herself is more likely to misinterpret an inconsolable baby’s crying as “bad behavior.”)

“A lot of the young mothers have had some pretty terrible early life experiences,” says Olds. “It’s not uncommon for them to have been abused by partners or never have had support and care from a mother. Their lives haven’t been filled with much success and hope. If you ask them what they want for themselves, it’s not uncommon for them to say, ‘What do you mean?’”

A big part of NFP’s work is helping them answer this question.

Consider the relationship between Rita Erickson and Valerie Carberry. Rita had had a methadone addiction for 12 years and was living from place to place in Lakewood, Colo. She found out she was pregnant; a parole officer told her about NFP. “I’d burned bridges with my family,” Rita told me. “I was running around with the wrong people. I didn’t have anyone I could ask about being pregnant.” In the early months, Valerie had to chase her around town, Rita recalled. “I was worried she might say, ‘This is too much hassle. Come back when you have your act together.’ But she stuck with me.”

Over the next two years, they embarked on a journey together. “I had a zillion questions,” Rita recalled. “I was really nervous at first. I had lived most of my adult life as a drug addict. I didn’t know how to take care of myself.” On visits, they discussed everything: prenatal care, nutrition, exercise, delivery options. After Rita’s daughter, Danika, was born, they focused on things like how to recognize feeding and disengagement cues, remembering to sleep when the baby sleeps, how to manage child care so Rita could go back to school. For Rita, what made the biggest impression was hearing about how a baby’s brain develops — how vital it was to talk and read a lot to Danika, and to use “love and logic” so she develops empathy. Once Valerie explained that when babies are touching their hands, they’re discovering that they have two. “To me that was really amazing,” Rita said.

This month, Rita is graduating from Red Rocks Community College with an associate degree in business administration. She’s going to transfer to Regis University to do a bachelors degree. Her faculty selected her as outstanding graduate based on leadership and academic achievement — and she was asked to lead the graduation procession and give one of the commencement speeches. Danika is thriving, Rita said. Recently, she came home from preschool and announced:  “Mommy, I didn’t have a good day at school today because I made some bad decisions and you wouldn’t be proud of me.” (She had pushed another child on the playground.) As for the NFP, Rita says that it helped her recover from her own bad decisions. When Valerie came along, she needed help badly. “I didn’t care about my life. I didn’t care about anything. I never ever thought I would have ended up where I am today.”

“When a woman becomes pregnant whether she’s 14 or 40, there’s this window of opportunity,” explained Valerie, who has been a nurse for 28 years and has worked with more than 150 mothers in NFP over the past seven. “They want to do what’s right. They want to change bad behaviors, tobacco, alcohol, using a seat belt, anything. As nurses, we’re able to come in and become part of their lives at that point in time. It’s a golden moment. But you have to be persistent. And you have to be open and nonjudgmental.”

Beyond the match between nurses and first-time moms, there are multiple factors that make NFP work. (NFP has identified 18 key elements for faithful replication.) The dosage has to be right: Nurses may make 50 or 60 visits over two and a half years. The culture is vital: It must be non-judgmental and respectful, focusing on helping mothers define their own goals and take steps towards them. The curriculum should be rigorous, covering dozens of topics — from prenatal care to home safety to emotional preparation to parenting to the mother’s continuing education. Nurses need good training, close supervision and support, and opportunities to reflect with others about difficult cases. And, above all, data tracking makes it possible to understand on a timely basis when things are working and when they are not.

With the government making such a large investment in home visiting, it’s crucial for programs to get the details right. Otherwise, society will end up with a mixed bag of results, and advocates will have a hard time making the case for continued support. That would be a terrible loss. “When a baby realizes that its needs will be responded to and it can positively influence its own world,” says Olds, “that creates on the baby’s part a sense of efficacy — a sense that I matter.” It’s hard to imagine higher stakes.

Source: The New York Times

Creating New Solutions from Caring Ideas

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Sanofi announces nursing recognition program to help turn caring ideas into new solutions

Nurses worldwide are encouraged to enter an exciting recognition program showcasing nursing innovations and care solutions

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO March 31, 2012

Paris, France, 9 November, 2011…  Sanofi and its partnering organizations, the International Council of Nurses (ICN); the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation (NPHF); le Secrétariat International Des Infirmières et Infirmiers de l’Espace Francophone (SIDIIEF); and l’Association Française pour le Développement de l’Education Thérapeutique (AFDET) are delighted to announce the CARE CHALLENGE  recognition programme (www.care-challenge.com), inviting nurses to submit their innovative patient care ideas and projects. Nurses from anywhere around the world can share, exchange, and nominate projects and ideas for the CARE CHALLENGE initiative and be eligible to receive an award. To accommodate the international scope of this programme, the deadline for submissions online at www.care-challenge.com has been extended to March 31, 2012.

Continue reading →

RWJF Announces 12 Faculty Scholars

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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Announces
12 New ‘Nurse Faculty Scholars’

Prestigious Program Advances Careers, Health Research of Promising Junior Nurse Faculty

PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced the names of the 12 outstanding nursing faculty from across the country who were selected to participate in its prestigious Nurse Faculty Scholars program this year.  The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program is strengthening the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools by developing the next generation of leaders in academic nursing. It is providing $28 million over five years to outstanding junior nursing faculty to promote their academic careers, support their research and reduce the nation’s severe nurse faculty shortage. This is the fourth cohort of RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars.

Each Nurse Faculty Scholar receives a three-year $350,000 grant to pursue research, as well as mentoring from senior faculty at his or her institution. The award is given to junior faculty who show outstanding promise as future leaders in academic nursing.  The Scholars chosen this year are conducting a range of health studies, from using story-telling to encourage Native American women to get mammograms, to using simulation to help reduce medical errors in hospitals caused by interruptions, to examining the impact of family strength and parenting on reducing risky behavior among teens, to investigating whether home improvements can realize health benefits for disabled, low-income seniors.

“Several Scholars in earlier cohorts have published their research and are already helping to improve health care and advance nursing and nursing education,” said Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D., R.N, F.A.A.N., national program director for the RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars Program.  Campbell is Anna D. Wolf Chair and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, which provides technical direction to the program. “It’s exciting to begin the work with this newest group of Scholars and I look forward to seeing where their work, their enthusiasm and their skills take them.”

This year’s selection comes as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is embarking on a collaborative campaign to transform the nursing profession to improve health and health care.  Based on the recommendations from a groundbreaking Institute of Medicine nursing report released last year—The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, RWJF is spearheading the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action to engage nurses and non-nurses in a nationwide effort to overhaul the nursing profession. The campaign is working to implement solutions to the challenges facing the nursing profession and to build upon nurse-based approaches to improving quality and transforming the way Americans receive health care.

Supporting junior nurse faculty will help curb a shortage of nurse educators that could undermine the health and health care of all Americans. The Affordable Care Act will vastly increase the number of people who can access health care in the United States. As the number of patients increases, there will be greater demand for skilled nurses and faculty to educate them.  Right now, many schools of nursing are turning away qualified applicants because they lack the faculty to teach them.

The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program is helping to curb the shortage by helping more junior faculty succeed in, and commit to, academic careers. The program provides talented junior faculty with salary and research support as well as the chance to participate in institutional and national mentoring activities, leadership training, and networking events with colleagues in nursing and other fields, while continuing to teach and provide institutional, professional and community service at their universities.

“We are particularly pleased that several of our scholars are reaching a level of achievement recognized by the American Academy of Nursing,” said Campbell. “Three scholars were inducted as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing last year, and this year six more will receive that honor.”

The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars Program strives to increase the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of nursing by fostering leadership skills among scholars to recruit and retain diverse faculties and student bodies at their schools of nursing.  To that end, the program encourages applicants with diverse backgrounds.

The program will also enhance the stature of the scholars’ academic institutions, which will benefit fellow nurse educators seeking professional development opportunities.

To receive the award, scholars must be registered nurses who have completed a research doctorate in nursing or a related discipline and who have held a tenure-eligible faculty position at an accredited nursing school for at least two and no more than five years.

This year’s Nurse Faculty Scholar award recipients and their research projects are:

  • Anna Beeber, Ph.D., R.N., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Developing Best Nursing Practices in Assisted Living;
  • Jennifer Bellot, Ph.D., R.N., M.H.S.A., Thomas Jefferson University, Painting a Portrait of Utilization and Integration: Medicare and Nurse Managed Centers;  
  • Tina Bloom, Ph.D., R.N., The Curators of University of Missouri, Internet-based Safety Planning with Abused Pregnant Rural Women;
  • Alexa Doig, Ph.D., R.N., University of Utah, Simulation Training to Reduce Medication Errors Caused by Interruptions;
  • Jill Esquivel, Ph.D., R.N., N.P.,  University of California, San Francisco, A Self Care Intervention for Hispanic Patients with Heart Failure;  
  • Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda, Ph.D., R.N., University of Miami, Joven (Youth): Juntos Opuestos a la Violencia Entre Novios/Together Against Teen Dating Violence;
  • Nalo Hamilton, Ph.D., R.N., University of California, Los Angeles, Insulin-Like Growth Factor-2, Estrogen Receptors and Racial Disparities;  
  • Emily Haozous, Ph.D., R.N., University of New Mexico, Digital Storytelling and Medical Mistrust in American Indian Women;
  • Tsui-Sui Annie Kao, Ph.D., R.N., University of Michigan, Family Collective Efficacy: An Underdeveloped Mechanism to Minimize Adolescent Risk Behaviors;
  • Matthew McHugh, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H., R.N., C.R.N.P., University of Pennsylvania, Nursing Care Environment, Neighborhood, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities;
  • Elena Siegel, Ph.D., R.N., University of California, Davis, Leadership Support for Quality Improvement in Nursing Homes; and  
  • Sarah Szanton, Ph.D., C.R.N.P., Johns Hopkins University, Bio-Behavioral Mediators of Enhanced Daily Function in Disabled Low –Income Older Adults.

To learn more about the program, visit www.nursefacultyscholars.org.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, measurable and timely change. For nearly 40 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.

 

 

 

Free Titles from the National Academies Press

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MORE THAN 4,000 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS PDFs

NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE

The National Academies—National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council—are committed to distributing their reports to as wide an audience as possible. Since 1994 we have offered “Read for Free” options for almost all our titles. In addition, we have been offering free downloads of most of our titles to everyone and of all titles to readers in the developing world. We are now going one step further. Effective June 2nd, PDFs of reports that are currently for sale on the National Academies Press (NAP) Website and PDFs associated with future reports* will be offered free of charge to all Web visitors.

For more than 140 years, the NAS, NAE, IOM, and NRC have been advising the nation on issues of science, technology, and medicine. Like no other collection of organizations, the Academies enlist the nation’s foremost scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts to address the scientific and technical aspects of society’s most pressing problems. The results of their work are authoritative and independent studies published by the National Academies Press.

NAP produces more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the best-informed views on important issues. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health which was released earlier this year.

We invite you to visit the NAP homepage and experience the new opportunities available to access our publications. There you can sign up for MyNAP, a new way for us to deliver all of our content for free to loyal subscribers like you and to reward you with exclusive offers and discounts on our printed books. This enhancement to our free downloads means that we can reach out even further to inform government decision making and public policy, increase public education and understanding, and promote the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge.

*There are a small number of reports that never had PDF files and, therefore, those reports are not available for download. In addition, part of the series, “Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals” are not be available in PDF and future titles in this series will also not have PDFs associated with them.

Seven Decades of Service to Rural and Medically Underserved Families: New Frontier Nursing University Name Becomes Official

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HYDEN, Ky., July 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Providing compassionate care for women and families in rural and medically underserved areas for more than 70 years, students and graduates of the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing have garnered national recognition for their dedication to Frontier’s mission. Proudly, the school has now officially become Frontier Nursing University as of July 1, 2011.

This nationally recognized institution traces its humble beginnings and commitment to service to Mary Breckinridge, a visionary and trailblazing woman who, in 1925, established the Frontier Nursing Service, traveling on horseback through the hills of Eastern Kentucky to serve as a nurse-midwife for mothers during childbirth. Established in 1939, the school was an outgrowth of Mrs. Breckinridge’s dedication, offering the country’s first rural-based nurse-midwifery education program. Over the course of the ensuing decades, students and graduates have expanded her legacy of care by providing health services to women and families in rural communities around the world. In 1970, the school created the first family nurse practitioner program in the United States, and in 2005, the women’s health care nurse practitioner program was added.

Today, Frontier’s educational programs are recognized for their excellence not only across America, but also worldwide. Close to 1,100 students from all 50 states and several foreign countries are enrolled in either Frontier’s Doctor of Nursing Practice or Master of Science in Nursing degree programs, which combine superb online course offerings and real-world practicum.

Dr. Susan Stone, DNSc, CNM, FACNM, President and Dean

Dr. Susan Stone, Frontier’s visionary President and Dean and a certified nurse-midwife, explained: “This new name represents a milestone in the history of our institution: we are a University recognized for our outstanding graduate degree programs, both domestically and worldwide. We’ve just been honored by US News and World Report as being within the top 15 of nurse-midwifery and family nurse practitioner programs in the USA and ranked within the top 50 on their list of graduate schools of nursing nationwide.

“The evolution of the name of our institution reflects both the amazing ‘chronicle’ of our past, as well as the incredible opportunities that lie in our future. All of these milestones are directly attributable to the vision of Mary Breckinridge, the dedication of our board, faculty and staff, and to the increasing worldwide demand for educated women’s and family healthcare professionals.  Combining the Frontier Nursing heritage with our academic excellence as a University, we will more appropriately define the status of our unique institution. As we continue to educate nurses to become nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners, we will fulfill our mission to serve rural and medically underserved communities, while reinforcing our commitment to prepare nurses and midwives for advanced practice both domestically and internationally.”

Click here to learn more about the name change and the mission and purpose of Frontier Nursing University.

News from HIGN

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This came across my desk today…

HARTFORD INSTITUTE FOR GERIATRIC NURSING RE-BRANDS ITSELF AS “HIGN”

New Name Signals Launch of New Initiatives

New York, NY – March 3, 2011 – The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) at New York University College of Nursing has launched a number of initiatives to more aggressively position the organization as the leading proponent for quality health care of older adults through nursing excellence. The initiatives are being implemented under the Hartford Institute’s new brand: HIGN.

HIGN is recognized for improving the practice environment through education, research, and evidenced-based protocols.

Some of the new HIGN initiatives underway are:

  • HIGN is launching a completely new web site designed to provide bedside nurses, advanced practice nurses, academics, and students with an easy-to-use, highly accessible, better looking, deeper content resource to support their various needs. Visit the new site at here.
  • The HIGN Report is a new, leading-edge communications effort published monthly to broadcast important information and events related to HIGN’s four core competencies: Practice, Education, Research and Policy. Visit the HIGN homepage to subscribe to the newsletter here.
  • The new HIGN e-Learning Center is a continuing education portal to courses, tools and other resources geared to improving care of older adults in clinical settings and integration of geriatrics in academic curricula. Learn more about the new e-Learning center here.

“Our new brand signals a re-dedication to our mission and a marked upswing in our efforts to expand and continue the legacy of the Hartford Institute as an invaluable resource,” says Tara Cortes, PhD, RN, FAAN, HIGN executive director. “These are substantive initiatives designed to better support practice, research, education and policy.

About HIGN

Since its start in 1996, the singular mission of the Hartford Institute of Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) has been to shape the quality of nursing care to older adults by assuring geriatric competency of America’s nurses. The commitment to this mission exhibited by the dedicated Hartford Institute leadership, staff and affiliate organizations has made HIGN today a globally recognized geriatric nursing resource.

For more information contact Barbara Bricoli at 212-992-9753
Barbara.bricoli@nyu.edu


From the CMAJ: Perinatal Hospice

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I recently received this press release and wanted to share with my colleagues. What an interesting and important issue!

Providing hospice in the womb

Amy Kuebelbeck was 25 weeks into her pregnancy when she received the terrible news. Her fetus had been diagnosed with an incurable heart defect. If she carried through with her pregnancy, her baby’s life would be a brief one.

Kuebelbeck did continue her pregnancy and gave birth to a boy. Her new son, Gabriel, was even sicker than anticipated. He died a few hours after his birth.

“He lived for nine months before he was born,” says Kuebelbeck, “and for two and a half peaceful hours afterward.”

That was in 1999, a time when perinatal palliative care — support for families expecting babies with life-limiting illnesses — was still very much in the concept stage. There was no formal support program at the hospital where Kuebelbeck, a freelance writer from Saint Paul, Minnesota, received care during her pregnancy with Gabriel. There was, however, one person on staff who helped her family though the entire process.

“One person validated for us that we still had a profound opportunity to parent and love this baby,” says Kuebelbeck.

Her experience led to a 2003 memoir, Waiting with Gabriel: A Story of Cherishing a Baby’s Brief Life. It also led to the creation of the website perinatalhospice.org, which lists hospitals, mostly in the United States and Canada, that have perinatal hospice programs. When she started the website, in 2006, there were only 10 programs on that list. Now there are 90.

“My long-term goal is to take the website down because every hospital has a perinatal hospice program, just as every hospital has an emergency room,” says Kuebelbeck.

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