By Christina Orlovsky Page 

If necessity is the mother of invention and Florence Nightingale is the mother of modern nursing, it’s only fitting that during National Nurses Week--culminating in Nightingale’s birthday, May 12--we take the time to recognize nurses’ inventions and the talented professionals who used their creative energy to improve patient care. Ever hear of the crash cart, for instance? It is just one of the many innovations that nurses have helped devise. 

So here is a salute to just a few nurse inventors, from past and present, who realized a need and turned their ideas into reality.

A Nurse-Turned-Physical Therapist’s Feeding Apparatus for Amputees 

For Bessie Blount, nursing was just one step on her long career path, but it was a step that led to several technological advances in assistive devices for amputees. Working with veterans disabled in World War II, Blount, who trained in nursing and then physical therapy, created an electronic device in the early 1950s that allowed amputees to eat on their own. When Blount didn’t receive support for her invention from the American Veteran’s Association, she donated the rights to the French government, and the rights to another invention--a disposable hospital basin--to Belgium. Blount, who became a pioneer among African American women in the mid-century, ended her career path in forensic science, which she practiced until her death in 2009. 

An ER Nurse Leader’s Profession-Changing Invention and Association  

In the 1960s, emergency department nurse Anita Dorr, RN, recognized the length of time it took to gather the supplies the unit needed in a critical situation. Together with her staff, who created a list of necessities, and her husband, who built a wood prototype, Dorr envisioned a wheeled “crisis cart” in 1968 that has since evolved into the crash cart of today. Dorr’s dedication to emergency nursing eventually led to the establishment of the Emergency Room Nurses Organization in 1970--a group that would later become the Emergency Nurses Association, today a 40,000-member-strong organization devoted to strengthening and supporting the professional specialty. 

A Mother-Daughter Duo’s IV Catheter Shield 

In the early 1990s, mother-daughter duo Betty M. Rozier, an entrepreneur, and Lisa M. Vallino, RN, BSN, a pediatric emergency nurse, teamed up to establish I.V. House, Inc., an intravenous therapy organization based in Chesterfield, Mo. With products designed out of a need Vallino had seen in her clinical years for site protectors that eased patient anxiety and reduced reinsertions, the original I.V. House device was patented in 1993; today, millions of I.V. House site protectors have been provided to hospitals worldwide. 

A Sister Act for IV Safety  

Inventive IV lines took a colorful turn for nurse sisters Terri Barton-Salinas, RN, and Gail Barton-Hay, RN, whose half-century-plus of combined nursing experience provided helped them see the need for increased patient safety surrounding IV lines. Acknowledging the hazards of using clear, indistinguishable lines, the pair assisted with the product development of ColorSafe IV Lines, lines available in red, green, orange, blue and purple, with corresponding colored labels for the IV bags.  

A College’s Nursing-Engineering EHR Collaboration 

Perhaps no place is better for innovation than a university campus, which affords bright minds the opportunity to brainstorm, collaborate and experiment with creativity. One such innovative collaboration came out of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where the colleges of nursing and engineering partnered to create the DocuCare EHR, which integrates electronic health records into a simulated learning tool for students, changing the way nursing students learn and preparing them for the increasingly EHR-heavy hospital workforce. Developed by Tami Wyatt, PhD, RN, associate professor of nursing, and Xueping Li, PhD, associate professor of industrial and information engineering--co-directors of the university’s Health Information Technology and Simulation Laboratory--the product was purchased by health care publishing giant Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) in 2010 and is being utilized in nursing school curricula across the country.

© 2013. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Source: Nursezone.com

By Karen Long

While all nurses evaluate the four vital signs of temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate, Ellen Cunningham, RN, MSN, is among many RNs who assess a fifth: pain.

"Every patient has the right not to suffer in pain," said Cunningham, nurse manager at the Interventional Pain Center at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Syosset (N.Y.) Hospital.

But assessing the pain of patients in the critical care setting can be difficult, especially if they have cognitive impairments or can’t speak. 

"Inability to provide a reliable report about pain leaves the patient vulnerable to under-recognition and under- or over-treatment," the American Society for Pain Management Nursing stated in a July 2011 position paper about pain assessments in patients unable to self-report. "Nurses are integral to ensuring assessment and treatment of these vulnerable populations."

How to assess a critically ill patient

Determining a nonverbal patient’s pain is "definitely like unpeeling an onion," Cunningham said. Many nurses follow a hierarchy for pain assessment to evaluate the pain of a patient who cannot self-report, said Barbara St. Marie, ANP, PhD, GNP, ACHPN, pain specialist and former member of the American Society for Pain Management Nursing’s board of directors. The ASPMN outlines the steps in its position paper as follows: 

Try to have the patient self-report pain. It often is difficult with critically ill patients, Cunningham said. Obtaining that information "may be hampered by delirium, cognitive and communication limitations, altered level of consciousness, presence of endotrachael tube, sedatives and neuromuscular-blocking agents," according to the position paper. Those patients might not be able to rate pain on a scale of one to 10, but could use a gesture such as grasping the nurse’s hand or blinking their eyes to indicate pain, St. Marie said.

Identify potential causes of pain. That could include surgery, trauma, catheter removals, wound care or constipation, Cunningham said.

Observe patient behavior. Several tools also exist to help nurses assess pain in patients who are unable to speak, said Donna Gorglione, RN, BSN, clinical nurse manager of the ICU and progressive care unit at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. For patients who are aware but not able to voice their pain, nurses can use the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale, said Maggie Adler, RN, MSN, WCC, associate director of standards and quality at HVHC. 

The Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale measures behaviors such as restlessness, agitation, moaning and grimacing that can indicate pain. Nurses observe the patient and score a zero, one or two in five areas — breathing independent of vocalization, negative vocalization, facial expression, body language and consolability — then add up the score. Zero equates to no pain while 10 means severe pain. Nurses then treat the patients based on the pain score, Adler said. For example, a two might indicate the patient’s pain could be eased with Tylenol, while a seven would dictate a more serious intervention, such as narcotics.

The critical care pain observation tool and Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability tool also are useful, St. Marie said. Changes in blood pressure, heart rate or respiration could be indicators of pain. "I always say that if someone has a physiologic indicator, that’s the point where you start investigating more," she said.

Obtain a proxy report. Parents of young children or caregivers and family members of the elderly can provide vital information about what is causing patients’ pain, Cunningham said. "Credible information can be obtained from family members who know the patient well and may be a very consistent caregiver throughout their illnesses," St. Marie said.

Try an analgesic trial. If the other methods to determine pain yield inconclusive results, a trial could help, St. Marie said. Nurses administer low doses of any number of opioids and look for the patient to settle down, change facial expression or otherwise indicate a decrease in pain. According to Cunningham, any of those would indicate the patient had pain and not distress.

Pain management treatments

After assessing the patients’ pain, level of consciousness and respiratory status, nurses look at other indicators such as comorbidities, kidney and liver function, estimated blood loss from surgery and amount of opioids received in the OR and PACU. Nurses can use a variety of treatments to block pain through multiple receptors and pathways, St. Marie said.

Medications — such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, acetaminophen, local anesthetic agents and antiepileptics — through various pathways are common ways to treat pain. "Pain mechanisms involve our entire body, so it’s not just one pathway" that pain is transmitted through, St. Marie said. Nurses can now help block pain at many of those pathways.

Not all pain can be eliminated, Gorglione said. In some cases, a patient’s goal is to reduce pain to a tolerable level. "That’s an important piece of pain management," she said. "Sometimes we can’t get your pain to zero. If you can tolerate a level of three or four, we can get your pain there, and you can perform your activities of daily living."

Besides medications, patients can benefit from holistic therapies including music, massage or even hand-holding or warm blankets, Gorglione said.

"The tendency with medicine is to run right to the medicine cabinet," Adler said, noting other therapies can be effective. For some patients at HVHC, music has made a difference. "We’ve had patients and patients’ families thank us for the special attention and how relieved they were and how much it helped," Gorglione said. An integral part of pain management is reassessment after treatment. Nurses should use the same tool they used for assessments to determine whether the patient has a lower level of pain, St. Marie said.

Challenges in treating pain

Along with determining the right treatment, nurses face a variety of challenges in pain management. For example, some patients think pain is a normal part of their illnesses and refuse pain medication, Adler said. Elderly patients often have anxiety about becoming dependent on medications, Gorglione said. In those cases, educating the patient about pain management can help.

In other situations, the challenges come from providers. Patients who arrive in the ICU and have addiction issues often are stigmatized or marginalized because providers blame the victim, St. Marie said. But a patient going through withdrawal needs "serious pain control," she said.

Nurses have to overcome the challenges to be able to assess, treat and reassess patients’ pain, Cunningham said.

"No matter how old someone is, no matter how cognitively impaired they might be, it never takes away that they might be in pain," she said.

Source: Nurse.com

 By Morgan Whitaker

As a massive tornado swept through the Oklahoma City area Monday afternoon, Moore Medical Center stood directly in the path of destruction.

The building was pulverized by the 200 mph winds, sending patients and staffers scrambling to safety zones located in the center of the hospital. Miraculously, all the staff, patients and families survived the storm.

That includes nurse Cheryl Stoepker, who used her own body to protect a newborn she’d delivered barely an hour earlier. When she heard news of the approaching twister, she wheeled the newborn and his mother down to the cafeteria, a windowless room on the first floor of the hospital.

“It was dark, that was the first thing that told us something was happening,” she toldPoliticsNation on Tuesday. “We could hear the hail hitting the building even though we were on the first floor and it’s a two-story [building],” she explained.

“So we at that point got down on the floor, patient and myself, took her baby, put him in laps, and we hugged, and we started praying,” she said. “The baby was a little over an hour old, didn’t even have a diaper yet at that point, but mom and I held the baby and prayed and made it through.”

When the storm passed, Stoepker and her patient were forced to climb out in the darkness, navigating around debris as she tried to push the new mother and her child out in a wheelchair. They made their way out alongside one of her colleagues, herself 33-weeks pregnant, and pushing yet another infant and mother who’d just given birth. Eventually the wreckage was impossible to wheel through, and her patient, with only a few minutes of recovery from labor, walked–barefoot–out of the building.

Only 24 hours later, she’s still coming to terms with her experience. “It’s hard to describe and I’m still trying to deal with it and figure out what happened,” she said. As Rev. Sharpton said, this hero who saves lives and cares for people everyday in ordinary circumstances was able to keep a precious patient alive in extraordinary circumstances too.

Source: MSNBC 

Source: Maryville University Nursing 

NAHN News

CONTACT: Celia Besore, MBA, CAE, Executive Director/CEO
National Association of Hispanic Nurses, (202) 387-2477
director@thehispanicnurses.org,
www.nahnnet.org

                                         
For immediate release:

New Scholarship Opportunity for NAHN Members
Extended NAHN Scholarships and Awards Deadlines

Washington, DC (May 21, 2013) — The National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) is delighted to announce the addition of a new scholarship opportunity to the NAHN scholarship program.

The University of Phoenix has partnered with NAHN to offer three (3) full-tuition scholarships. Each scholarship will allow a prospective student the opportunity to complete a LPN/LVN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), an RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) or Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree program at University of Phoenix. Recipients may choose to attend a University of Phoenix on-ground campus or may attend University of Phoenix online.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Applicants must be current members of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and must have been a member for six (6) consecutive months or more by the award date for this scholarship.
• Have a valid, unrestricted, unencumbered LPN, LVN license, OR RN license from the United States in all states in which you hold an active license.
• Applicant must be wanting to enroll and pursue one of the following degree programs, LPN/LVN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing*, RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing or Master of Science in Nursing.
• Applicants, once enrolled, must not receive a total of 100% tuition reimbursement from any source(s) including but not limited to: corporate reimbursement, other scholarships and/or private grants with the exception of Veteran’s Administration GI benefits or Veteran’s Administration Vocational Rehabilitation Benefits and Title IV financial aid funding.

Application deadline: June 18, 2013
Award date:  July 26, 2013

Explore the NAHN University of Phoenix Scholarship page to learn about the scholarship program and to apply for this great opportunity or visit http://www.phoenix.edu/nahnscholar. 

Extension of NAHN Scholarship Date and Removal of W-2 Requirement

Due to this new scholarship opportunity, NAHN is extending the deadline of the regular NAHN Scholarships program to June 18, 2013 so all the deadlines match the University of Phoenix scholarship application deadline. All NAHN Scholarship applications must be received at the NAHN office by June 18, 2013.

Below is the link to the amended NAHN Scholarship Application Form (with new deadline and waived W-2 requirement):

• 2013 NAHN Scholarship Application.

We encourage all our members who qualify to both scholarship programs to apply to BOTH NAHN scholarship opportunities! Last year, NAHN distributed $40,000 in scholarships.

Extension of NAHN Special Awards Application Deadline

We are also extending the deadline to send the Special NAHN Awards application.  All NAHN Scholarship applications must be received at the NAHN office by June 18, 2013. Nominate one of your Chapter champions or nominate yourself!

Below is the link to the 2013 NAHN Special Awards section.

• 2013 NAHN Special Awards

_________________________ 

About National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN)
NAHN National Association of Hispanic Nurses® is a non-profit professional association committed to the promotion of the professionalism and dedication of Hispanic nurses by providing equal access to educational, professional, and economic opportunities for Hispanic nurses. NAHN is also dedicated to the improvement of the quality of health and nursing care of Hispanic consumers.

1455 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20004

New learning institute builds on past success to diversify the dental profession

By Janet Edwards

At the age of 13, Esther Lopez, DDS, knew intimately her mother’s battle with cancer because she served as the primary translator between the patient, a native of Ecuador, and her doctors. Even at such a young age, Lopez vowed the excruciating experience would influence her life’s work. She didn’t know the term “public health” then, but that’s where she would later find fulfillment, through dentistry. In part, Lopez credits the now defunct, but still influential, Dental Pipeline program for helping her achieve that dream. A new project, the Dental Pipeline National Learning Institute, builds on the program that brought Lopez into dentistry.

Esther Lopez is a dentist in Oak Park, Ill. Through both private practice and volunteer public health efforts, she works with low-income and minority populations, groups that typically find dental services inaccessible, complex, and unwelcoming. In large part, Lopez credits a now-defunct minority recruitment program, the Dental Pipeline, for the opportunity to do such work, a longtime ambition that often seemed out of reach.

Lopez is one of a small number of minority dentists in the country—only 9 percent of practicing dentists are African American, Hispanic, or American Indian. While these underrepresented groups comprise nearly 30 percent of the general population, they account for just 13 percent of first-year dental students. Dental schools and their community partners seek to close that gap through a new program that adopts lessons learned from the Dental Pipeline.

Dental Pipeline National Learning Institute
The original Dental Pipeline launched with funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and The California Endowment. In all, 23 (out of 62) U.S. dental schools were involved in the decade-long program, which ended in 2011. Widely credited with transforming dental education, the Dental Pipeline resulted in better access to care for underserved populations, along with more student exposure to community-based services and higher enrollment among minority students.

A new program launched in fall 2012, the Dental Pipeline National Learning Institute (NLI), is intended to build on that success. Project partners are the American Dental Education Association and the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, in San Francisco, Calif. Support comes from an initial 18-month, $650,000 grant funded by RWJF.

Eleven schools were tapped as NLI participants. Each institution receives $12,000 to cover the cost of building a recruitment project or community-based education component. The program includes a three-day training course covering best practices, advocacy and leadership, and various mentoring opportunities.  

Paul Glassman, DDS, professor and director of Community Oral Health at University of the Pacific, is project director. The primary goal is to expose other dental schools to methodologies developed as part of the Dental Pipeline “so they wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel,” he says.   

Evidence of the Dental Pipeline’s success is found in the numbers, Glassman says. “Schools involved in the Pipeline managed to dramatically increase—double, triple, even quadruple—the number of underrepresented minority students entering their schools. [Enrollments of] other dental schools not involved in the program stayed static,” he says. 

The NLI is a one-year program. Participants are dental school faculty members who collaborate with a partner from a local organization, such as a minority-focused college or community health center. “We want some significant community partner involved because we’re really trying to emphasize the fact that in this very complex world that we live in, dental schools really can’t break through these barriers by themselves. The way to make progress in our current world is through partnerships and establishing networks,” Glassman says.  

Like its predecessor, the NLI is also designed to develop future leaders in the push to provide more diverse dental care in community-based health settings, Glassman says. Barriers to health care for low-income and minority individuals, which result in less dental care and more dental disease, are well documented, he adds.  

“Minority populations tend to have more dental disease than more affluent populations and majority populations. They tend to have more barriers to access to care, so they get care less regularly,” he says. Paying for dental care is a serious obstacle, along with language and cultural challenges. “They feel uncomfortable going into a dental office because they feel someone isn’t going to understand them,” he says.  

“We’re expecting people who go through this program to become future leaders in this area, so within their own school and their community, and maybe even regionally, they’re going to be someone steeped in this whole idea of the dental profession doing a better job of improving the health of underserved populations and keep the momentum going,” he says.

The Minority Enrollment Challenge  

While the Dental Pipeline made positive inroads toward recruiting minority dental students, the NLI is designed to keep the momentum going, says Kim D’Abreu, senior vice president for access, diversity, and inclusion for the ADEA.   

The effort continues to face several high priority challenges. A large pool of minority students who could succeed in dental school remains untapped, D’Abreu says, including 12,500 students of color who graduate with majors in the biological sciences each year. “A 2003 focus group study published in the Journal of Dental Education found that early and frequent exposure to dentistry and dentists in practice is essential for minority students to consider the profession. Dental schools need additional tools and strategies to attract a talented group of underrepresented minority students,” she says. 

The process by which dental schools evaluate student candidates is undergoing review, Glassman says.        

“Traditionally, admission is based on grade point average, extracurricular activities, and other sorts of measures that aren’t necessarily the measures that students from minorities have excelled in … because they were working while they were in school and facing other social challenges in their lives,” he says. While it makes it harder for them to get through the admission process, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are less qualified or passionate about a career in dentistry, he says. Schools are now adopting a whole file review approach, one less focused on the numbers, Glassman says.  

The whole file review, which takes into consideration a host of cognitive and non-cognitive variables, has already proven to be effective and is just one of other successful admissions strategies shared with NLI institutional participants, D’Abreu says.

Engaging Students in Community Health
Along with recruitment of minority students, another goal of the Dental Pipeline was to get students to spend more of their clinical time in community health settings, a mission that continues under the NLI program.  

“(In the Dental Pipeline) we increased the number of days from three to four to up to 50 days for senior dental students as part of the education program,” Glassman says. “The hope is that in doing so, these students become more comfortable with community sites, they understand more about that kind of delivery mechanism, become more comfortable with diverse populations, and are better able to serve those populations in the future.”  

Esther Lopez knows too well the importance of that exposure. Her father, a Cuban-born immigrant, abandoned the family of three children, including a brother and sister, following the death of her mother. But in the midst of her undergraduate work in biology at DePaul University—coursework Lopez had hoped would lead to medical school—her father returned, homeless and afflicted with health issues that eventually led to two strokes. He had no job and no insurance. Between studies, Lopez pleaded with pharmaceutical companies for free medicine, and again served as a translator with various health agencies and doctors. 

“We were able to get some assistance,” Lopez says. “Things were going as well as they could have, considering the fact that we didn’t have health insurance. I really wanted to stay in school so I tried as best I could to find resources to help us along the way.”  

By the time her father died in 2000, Lopez, exhausted, had given up on medical school, but she was more determined than ever to help resolve the challenges facing low-income and minority individuals seeking medical care. She completed her bachelor’s degree, and then enrolled in the master’s program in public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). With her coursework finished, Lopez continues to work on her thesis.  

While attending UIC, she joined a research project involving people with periodontal disease and diabetes.   

“We were trying to determine what needs existed for people that had diabetes, and if they even knew there was a corollary between that and periodontal disease, specifically in the Latino community. I got engaged, really excited, and decided dentistry intrigued me,” Lopez says. 

With the help of the Dental Pipeline, she enrolled in UIC’s College of Dentistry. “Dental school is really, 
really expensive. The fact that we have programs like the Dental Pipeline for people like me is just amazing,” she says. Lopez received some tuition reimbursement from the program and worked as a research assistant in exchange for remaining tuition waivers.  

While in dental school, she joined a group of fellow students in establishing the first student-run dental clinic in the United States.   

Located on the north side of Chicago, the clinic still operates in Goldie’s Place, which serves as a place for homeless adults to get back on their feet. In 1997, a single dentist began providing services. In 2008, Lopez and others created the student component.  

“Goldie’s Place helps dental students become part of the change, which is what I really wanted to do,” says Lopez, who served for a time as clinic director after graduating 
from dental school.  

As a student, she often spoke with colleagues about the challenges of health care in low-income communities. “A lot of times someone who comes from privilege has blinders to different barriers that exist. I think it’s more impactful when you’re hearing from a colleague about things that make it hard for you to succeed,” she says.   

No matter a person’s race, ethnicity, or income level, dental needs will always be the same: a cavity is always a cavity, an extraction is an extraction, Lopez says. “But the way they perceive disease is always different,” she says, a concept that young dental students initially struggle with at Goldie’s Place. “It’s hard for them to understand, but it’s true. When you come from an underprivileged background, it’s not that you’re neglecting yourself; it’s just that it’s more important to feed your child. Or pay your rent.”  

Communicating correct information in a way that is easy for clients to understand is imperative, Lopez says. “It’s important to service them understanding their cultural needs.”  

Today, many of her classmates continue to work with grassroots organizations. One student has written a manual on how to establish a student-run dental clinic based on the Goldie’s Place model. “They’re addressing dental health issues not one person at a time, but communities at a time,” Lopez says. Other community-based health organizations in Chicago are beginning to incorporate the model for student clinicians, she says.  

“I’m proud of the fact that … I was able to do something like participate in the Goldie’s Place dental clinic. There are so many great things going on there. Every time I hear of some success on their part it makes me happy. If it weren’t for the Dental Pipeline I wouldn’t have been able to do that. It’s meant a lot, not just for me, but for community members that really needed it.”  

Lopez continues to volunteer at Goldie’s Place, and as part of a Chicago Community Oral Health Forum project to assess the dental health needs of adults and children. The Dental Pipeline gave Lopez the opportunity to both share her hard-won knowledge in the realm of public health and to establish a meaningful career addressing the issues, she says.  

“I’m really excited that programs like this exist because they give students like me a chance to fulfill their dreams,” Lopez says. “It really does make me feel a sense of responsibility, because there was an organization that backed me, to really give back to the community in a significant way.”

Source: Insight Into Diversity 

Is something similar to the Dental Pipeline National Learning Institute happening in your area to increase the number of minorities that go in to the Nursing profession as well as offer Nursing access to undeserved populations? Comment below!

By: By Debra Wood

As America becomes increasingly diverse, the health care field is seeing more men and minorities in nursing, albeit at a slower pace than the country as a whole.

Christine T. Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, a professor at New York University College of Nursing and a lead investigator on the RN Work Project, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded longitudinal study of newly licensed nurses, agreed that the profession is making progress, particularly with increasing the number of men in nursing. But she added that changes occur gradually, because even when schools graduate high numbers of male or minority nurses, the overall percentage for the entire profession rises slowly due to its size, about 3 million.

“We’re going in the right direction, but have we made even remotely measurable strides? Absolutely not,” added Patrick Robinson, PhD, RN, ACRN, dean of undergraduate curriculum and instruction at Chamberlain College of Nursing, headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill. “Any gain is a positive, but we are nowhere near where we need to be. There has to be a concerted effort to recruit and retain highly qualified men and minorities in the nursing profession at all levels.”

Robinson indicated that the lack of diversity in nursing drives a wider wedge in health disparities as minority populations and language barriers grow.

 “We, as a profession, need to keep up with what is happening in the population,” agreed Patrick R. Coonan, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, dean of the Adelphi University School of Nursing in Garden City, N.Y. “We have to actively work at it.” 

More men in nursing 

The U.S. Census Bureau released the findings from its Men in Nursing Occupations study in February 2012, which showed the number of male registered nurses has tripled since 1970, increasing from 2.7 percent to 9.6 percent.

Making the profession more attractive to men increases the pool of potential candidates, Kovner said. In addition, she added, “There is some evidence male and female brains work differently. In terms of what research we do, how we teach students, and how we deliver care in health care settings, it’s critical we have that view.”

 Kovner’s data from the 2010-2011 study of newly licensed RNs found about 11 percent of the sample is male, a higher percentage of new graduates are male than 10 years ago. 

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) 2012 State of the Schools report, based on responses from 87.5 percent of schools with nursing baccalaureate and graduate programs, found that 11.4 percent of students in BSN programs are men, as are 9.9 percent of students in master’s nursing programs, 6.8 percent of students in research-focused doctoral programs and 9.4 percent in practice-focused doctoral programs.

Evans said that second-degree accelerated programs are bringing in more men.

 Dina A. Faucher, PhD, MSN, RN, OCN, western regional nursing and health professions director for Corinthian Colleges in Las Vegas, also reported an increase in males in the schools’ accelerated programs. At one of the campuses, males represent nearly half of the students.

“Everyone’s going in it for job security,” Faucher said.

Coonan reported that 12.5 percent of students in Adelphi’s program are male. He attributes much of that increase to less gender stigma about the men in the profession, changes to the male role and to the economy.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that because of the high demand for skilled nursing care, the profession enjoys low unemployment rates, 1.8 percent for RNs and 0.8 percent of nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists. It also found men’s representation highest among nurse anesthetists at 41 percent. Male nurse anesthetists earned more than twice as much as the male average for all nursing occupations: $162,900 annually vs. $60,700.

Nick Angelis, CRNA, MSN, author of How to Succeed in Anesthesia School (And RN, PA, or Med School), said male nurses, like himself, are initially attracted by the growing role of advanced practice nurses, but he added that those advanced roles are lacking minority role models.

Robinson agreed the lack of men and minority nurses in advanced and leadership roles is a problem.

“People need to see people like themselves in those positions, so they know what they can be,” Robinson said.

Representation of minorities in nursing 

Evans indicated that patients find it reassuring to receive care from someone who comes from the same ethnic or racial background. Yet recruiting more ethnically and racially diverse students requires a concerted effort to reach out to them, at schools or community organizations, and educate them about the opportunities available in nursing.

 “Diversity is critical to the profession from many perspectives,” said Kathleen Potempa, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the University of Michigan School of Nursing in Ann Arbor. That includes to “better match the changing face of U.S. demographics; to provide diversity of thought, life experience and culture in health policy and decision making; and to provide opportunity to all Americans to participate in the health professions, an enduring job sector in the U.S.”

The 2010 U.S. Census found 72 percent of Americans self-identified as white, 16.3 percent Hispanic or Latino, 12.6 percent black or African American, and 4.8 percent Asian.

The 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Current Population Survey (CPS) reported of the 2.875 million nurses in the United Sates, 6.1 percent were Hispanic, 11.5 percent black and 7.3 percent Asian. That compares to more than 2.4 million nurses in the 2003 CPS, of which 3.9 percent were Hispanic, 9.9 percent black and 7 percent Asian. 

Kovner’s data from 2010-2011 showed 79 percent of newly licensed nurses were white, less than historical percentages. But racial categories, she cautions, are difficult to define with many people stating they fall into more than one demographic group. However, her data shows that nonwhites are going back to nursing school at higher than historical rates.

The AACN study found an increase in minority BSN students, with 72 percent identifying as white, 7 percent Hispanic, 10.3 percent black and 8.8 percent Asian.

Calling health care cultural, Coonan emphasized that nurses from similar backgrounds as patients can more completely understand the culture and could lead to better outcomes.

Coonan has significantly increased minority students at Adelphi during the past nine years, boosting it from 10 percent to 57 percent from under-represented groups by reaching out into communities with higher minority populations without lowering the school’s standards. About a third of its graduate students come from minority groups.

“Then my challenge was to hire faculty from under-represented groups, and that was a lot harder,” Coonan said. But now 40 percent of Adelphi’s faculty fit that description. 

The AACN survey found only 5.1 percent of full-time faculty members are male and 11.8 percent are from racial or ethnic minority groups.

“The pool of individuals who represent ethnic and racial minorities and are prepared to teach is low,” said Evans, who called the minority faculty shortage a tremendous problem. Texas Tech actively recruits minorities into its master’s education program in an effort to grow its own more-diverse faculty.

© 2013. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Source: NurseZone.com

By: Juliet Wilkinson

The ink isn’t dry on your nursing license and already you’ve had your first epiphany as an RN--“People are looking to me for answers now.” Simulation labs, nursing theories and hours of didactics won’t prepare you for the first time one of your patients yanks off their IV and gown and wanders into the hall at 2 a.m. naked.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses held 2.7 million jobs in the United States as of 2010. Whether you’re still waiting for your license in the mail or working as a novice in the field, getting a position is only half of the battle. To enjoy fulfillment in your career and avoid the ever-increasing ranks of “burnout” nurses, try the advice of those who have gone before you, including these simple tips:

Embrace your mentor 

Regardless of the degree awarded, nursing school provides a basic structure for practice. You learn hands-on technique and theory, but it cannot replace actual, bedside experience. Tina Smith, RN, CHPN, a nurse of 27 years who has mentored many hospice RNs, encourages new graduates to build on that framework by identifying a mentor early on.

“Find the nurse who is willing to teach and learn from them,” said Smith, a home care nurse for Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson, Md., who previously served as the associate clinical director for Gilchrist’s home division.

Respect the power of your license 

All nursing programs provide an introduction to the professional roles and responsibilities affiliated with licensure, but they can’t force you stay current and read state laws after graduation.

The legislation surrounding nursing practice is there for a reason--to protect you while providing safe, evidence-based nursing care. Failure to comply with state licensure laws, such as providing care outside your role of a nurse, can lead to loss of licensure, law suits and even prison time.

Welcome opportunities 

Welcome opportunities, even if they don’t pertain to your chosen career field. One of my many mentors, Sandi Dannunzio, RN, works in the cardiac catheterization laboratory at St. Joseph’s Mercy of Macomb in Michigan. She reflects upon her decades of nursing experience and work as a mentor, and thinks about how she would now advise new grads. “It never hurts to be too educated. Take advantage of every educational opportunity, even if it seems irrelevant now,” Dannunzio said.

Keep learning 

Once upon a time, RN diploma schools were the golden standard for nursing education. These hospital-based training programs now only turn out 20 percent of registered nurses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) “Findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey.” The majority of nurses enter the field with an associate of science degree (45 percent), followed closely by bachelor’s-prepared nurses (34 percent), per the DHHS.

But more and more employers are looking for nurses with their BSNs, so take the opportunity to get yours, when possible. “You never know when you’re going to want a change or miss a great opportunity because you didn’t reach for that degree.” said Dannunzio.

Furthermore, if you desire more initials behind your name in the form of professional credentialing, you might need a bachelor’s degree. Over this last decade, many of the prestigious specialty certifications, such as the Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) or the National Certified School Nurse (NCSN), require a bachelor’s degree for exam eligibility.

Apply evidence-based skills 

“As a student, you’re trying to learn new techniques in simulation labs and please the instructor--or make the grade. As a new nurse, you may be trying to please the charge nurse or manager. You have to find your own happy medium and not get paralyzed by mistakes,” Smith stated. “Understand that the best action to take is always rooted in evidence-based practice. As you gain experience, you’ll appreciate the driving forces behind nursing practice regulation and learn how to rely on your own intuition.”

Network 

Join professional organizations, such as the American Nurses Association or your own specialty organization, to network with peers, keep abreast of emerging nursing issues and even make a difference in the nursing field through legislation. Likewise, if you have the opportunity to affiliate yourself with academic nursing affiliations, such as the Honor Society for Nurses, take advantage.

Don’t miss out on life 

“You’re never going to look back on life and wish you’d worked more. Don’t place your career over your family--you never get back time with your children after they’re grown or your family once they are gone,” Dannunzio warns. With the myriad opportunities available in nursing, you can seek a position that complements your familial goals as well as your professional ones.

© 2013. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Source: NurseZone.com

By: Natalie DiBlasio

From Tampa to Pittsburgh, Chicago to Memphis, comic superheroes are being spotted all over the country -- and they are fighting grime.

On windows, that is.

In their off-hours, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Batman, to name a few, are washing windows at children's hospitals. Their mission? To bring happiness to the youngest of patients.

"We donned the Spider-Man costumes and we rappelled down the side of the buildings," said Harold Connolly, president of Highrise Window Cleaning of Clearwater, Fla. "We knocked on the glass, waved hello – there were a lot of big smiles."

Connolly organized two superhero window-washing sessions at hospitals in Florida so far this year, and he isn't alone. Images of wide-eyed children in awe of their favorite superheroes washing windows have gone viral online, prompting hospitals and window washing companies nationwide to hop on board.

"Some of these poor kids, they don't get a lot of opportunities for anything fun there," Connolly says. "It cheered them up at least for the moment anyway."

Last week in Chicago, Captain America, Batman, and Spider-Man's mission for the day was surprising children into forgetting that they are in hospital beds at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Mission: Complete.

Nolan Erickson, 6, has been spending a lot of time in the hospital with his 14-month-old brother Matthew.

Matthew was born with brain cancer and has undergone six surgeries and five rounds of chemotherapy; the family hasn't left his side.

"We have been in the hospital for 11 months out of the 14 that Matthew has been alive," mother Sue Erickson says. "Nolan has spent his last two birthdays here. Smiles come few and far between."

But on one day – for Nolan, Matthew and their 2-year-old sister Sophia, there was a break from all the sadness.

The three superheroes, window washers from Corporate Cleaning Services, were fighting grime as they rappelled down from the 23rd floor. The heroes circled all around the building, waving, giving a thumbs up and creating soap designs as they went.

"The superheroes' lines were hanging right in front of our window," Erickson says. "The kids just sat there waiting for 45 minutes to see which one it was. It was Spider-Man. When you see your kids excited and smiling – as a parent it was more than I could ever ask for."

Hundreds of kids, staff and families were mesmerized by the superheroes swinging around the building for hours.

"I have been here a lot of years but I have never seen anything like it — nothing can brighten a day like a superhero," says Kathleen Keenan, hospital spokesperson. "These three men truly became real-life superheroes when they were on that building and their ropes became their webs. It was magical."

Keenan added: "It was like each kid had their own superhero for a moment, it was like there was no glass between them."

The superhuman trend is spreading all over the country:

• Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., has had two visits, one in October from the American National Skyline's superheroes and one in December from elves, says spokesperson Sara Burnett.
• The youngsters at Ministry St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Marshfield, Wis., got a big surprise in December when Spider-Man, Batman, and Captain America left the place smiling and squeaky clean, says Geoffrey Huys, hospital spokesperson.
• In St. Petersburg, Fla., at least 40 or 50 inpatient children at All Children's Hospital caught a glimpse of Spiderman last month, says hospital spokesperson Roy Adams.

"We try all the time here to make it as fun as possible," Adams says. "We are trying to make kids forget that they are in the hospital and are going through these tough medical issues. We have celebrities come in, but this was a different kind of VIP visit because, well, they were coming down the side of the building."

Last July, Michelle Matuizek, office manager of Allegheny Window Cleaning, Inc., saw pictures of window washers in London dressed as Spiderman.

"I looked around and – at that point - no one had done it in the states," Matuizek says. "I thought why don't we do a character theme for our Children's hospital around Halloween."

So on October 22, the patients at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC had visit from Spider-Man, Batman, Captain American and Superman.

"The kids went wild. They were all over the windows, smiling and screaming – it was just magical," Matuizek says. "The nurses, the kids, the families it was a wonderful experience for everyone. We are going to do it again next October."

Both Allegheny Window Cleaning, Inc and Highrise Window Cleaning have plans to do more superhuman fly-bys in the future, and Connolly hopes the trend catches on.

"The kids—that the important thing," Connolly says. "We are hoping it spreads throughout the country and beyond. Other hospitals see this and then ask your window company if they will do it – I bet you they will. Who doesn't like making children happy?"

Source: USA Today

By: Darnell Lattal 

We’ve all heard it preached — in our corporations and beyond — how we should do the right things in the right way and for the right reasons. Even so, it’s often easier, faster and seems more profitable to take actions that fall in a somewhat gray area — what we’ll call a slippery slope.

Here’s what that could look like in an organizational setting: approving products before quality checks, production rate trumping safe practices, questionable sales made for goods not available, creative accounting to justify mergers, suppressing reporting errors, and the many other small ways we individually fail to keep promises or look away when our gut tells us something is amiss.

If one were to break it down by gender, there is no evidence that women are more likely to behave more ethically than men. But gender research does report more verbal sensitivity to the rights and dignity of others among women when compared to men. For instance, women overwhelmingly report that they would not work for a company that will do anything to win. Still, refusal to select such a workplace doesn’t mean that women in the workplace will behave more ethically than men. What people say they will do has very little predictive validity compared to what they actually do.

Nevertheless, gender is an untapped resource in setting the conditions to behave ethically. Consider the oft-cited stereotype that women are known for their inclination as caregivers and men for their conditioning to reach the end goal. Both are important. Caring is of little value if the corporation fails, and end goals are meaningless if people and the public good are harmed. But if each were to bring their strengths to the table when addressing ethical concerns and help keep each other accountable to do the right thing, we might not read about ethical lapses in the news as often.

So, who is in charge of the organizational ethical compass? The ultimate responsibility rests on the shoulders of those who lead, and diversity executives can help leaders to create an ethical workplace culture by starting with the following steps:

• Encourage leaders to surround themselves with men and women who are committed to supporting ethical actions.

• Make sure there’s a set of values that leaders and employees can look to when facing ethical dilemmas. Craft a sophisticated plan of action to ensure ethics is part of everything from sales meetings to production report to community involvement. Translate values into the varied observable actions that represent those values.

• Provide a forum in which errors and near-misses are reported without negative consequences, but are part of the healthy ethical framework the company is striving to create.

• Examine the consequences for saying and doing the wrong thing — subtle and unintended, overt and intended. Leaders must examine themselves and seek evaluative support from others about what they do that’s trending toward or away from what others deem ethical.

• Arrange practices, processes and incentives of the workplace to shape and maintain ethical decisions from the boardroom to the shop floor.

• Leaders should be open to critique of business strategies and tactics — in some instances it’s acknowledging that the worker in the boiler room may know better than leaders about what is really going on that is ethical or not.

• Encourage use of a scorecard of ethical elements to evaluate how well leaders and employees are doing, jot down what “slippery slopes” they faced and how they might better respond to it going forward.

• Share learning in an active way. Review short-term effects against uncertain but possible longer-term effects. Calibrate and change course where needed.

Source: Diversity Executive 

Are women more ethical than men? What do you think? Let us know with your comments below.