DiversityNursing Blog

About a month after passing his state licensing exam, Arthur Greenbank was cashing a paycheck in his field.

The University of Akron graduate is not alone: Of all the majors that students can choose, it is nursing that offers the best chance for employment.

“I tell graduates not to worry, that they almost certainly will land a job within a few months of graduating,” UA nursing administrator Cheryl Buchanan said. “If they would go to Florida or Michigan, they would find a job immediately.”

Researchers at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce examined 2009 and 2010 census data to determine what college majors are most likely to lead to jobs.

“People need to pay attention to this,” center director Tony Carnevale said. “It tells you that if you really want to be an architect, that's fine, but you're going to have to think more about what your plan is.”

“Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings 2013: Not All College Degrees are Created Equal” notes that the unemployment rate for recent nursing graduates is 4 percent. Meanwhile, the typical unemployment rate for majors in many liberal arts fields is double that, and that of architecture and fine arts graduates is more than triple at 13.9 and 11.1 percent, respectively.

What the researchers don't know is whether the graduates were working in their major. Some college majors don't have clear career paths.

That was reflected in the unemployment rates for area ethnic and civilization studies (10.1 percent) and philosophy and religious studies (10.8 percent).

Other majors, such as architecture, have suffered in the economic downturn, although their unemployment rate is gradually improving, Carnevale said.

Only 50 to 54 percent of recent college graduates are working in their majors, Carnevale said.

That means that some “employed” college graduates really might be working in fields once reserved for high school graduates: the proverbial English major driving a cab, for instance.

That can be an expensive outcome, given the cost of college.

“There is lots of pressure now to find out what the value of the college major is,” Carnevale said.

He said that graduates with certificates in heating and air conditioning from a community college can make more than typical graduates with bachelor's degrees.

“It's all about the field of study,” he said.

Buchanan, the UA nursing administrator, said all 55 of the spring 2012 nursing graduates who responded to a UA survey are working in their field or are attending graduate school.

Although nursing might be the fastest route to a paycheck, other majors can eclipse it in salary, according to the Georgetown study.

Electrical engineering ($57,000), mechanical engineering ($58,000) and civil engineering ($50,000) pay more at the start than nursing ($48,000). Same with graduate degrees: Those in nursing earn $81,000 compared with $107,000 for majors in pharmaceutical sciences and administration, $96,000 for chemistry majors and $101,000 for economics majors.

Source: TribLive

SOURCE: American Sentinel University

By Erica Moss

Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies shares “The American Nurse,” a collection of photographs from Carolyn Jones, exploring the unique lives of nurses from across the country, capturing extraordinary personal stories through photography and interviews.

Here, we present some of our favorite excerpts from this incredible book, which help celebrate the important role of the nurse in the U.S. health care system and shed light on what it really means to practice in this important role. 

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced Monday that it is investing $20 million in the new Future of Nursing Scholars program to support some of the country’s best and brightest nurses as they pursue their PhDs. In its landmark nursing report, the Institute of Medicine recommended that the country double the number of nurses with doctorates; doing so will support more nurse leaders, promote nurse-led science and discovery, and put more educators in place to prepare the next generation of nurses. The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, which hosted today’s event to launch the new program, will serve as the national program office for the Future of Nursing Scholars program.

“Implementing the Institute of Medicine nursing report is a major priority for RWJF, because we cannot achieve our mission to improve health and health care without a robust, well-educated nursing workforce and many more highly educated nurse leaders,” said John Lumpkin, MD, MPH, RWJF senior vice president and director of the Health Care Group. “The PhD-prepared nurses the Future of Nursing Scholars program supports will help identify solutions to the country’s most pressing health problems, and educate thousands of nurses over the course of their careers. They will be positioned to lead change and inspire the next generation of nurses.”

Fewer than 3,000 of the nation’s more than 3 million nurses have doctoral degrees in nursing, and many of them have DNPs, not PhDs, which prepare nurses to conduct research and teach. The average age at which nurses get their PhDs in the U.S. is 46—13 years older than PhD earners in other fields.

In 2014, schools of nursing will apply to join the Future of Nursing Scholars program, which will support up to 100 PhD nursing candidates over its first two years. The first scholars will begin their PhD studies in 2015. They will receive scholarships, stipends, mentoring, leadership development, and dedicated post-doctoral research support. To expand the new program’s reach, RWJF has developed a strategic philanthropic collaborative to engage other donors.

“Having supported nursing in our region for 10 years, we are very proud to be the first foundation to join this new collaborative, which is bringing together diverse funders to support the PhD-prepared nurse leaders the country needs,” said Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation. “We expect the nurse scholars this program supports to transform health care through innovation in their communities and nationwide.” Marshall-Blake said the Independence Blue Cross Foundation is committing $450,000 over three years to support nurses in becoming transformational leaders in education, research, and policy.

The co-directors for the Future of Nursing Scholars program are Susan B. Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, RWJF’s senior adviser for nursing and Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Nightingale professor of nursing and director of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
Other speakers at the launch were: Afaf I. Meleis, PhD, DrPS (hon), FAAN, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Elizabeth Galik, PhD, CRNP, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and an RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar whose research is helping older adults suffering from dementia; Munira Wells, PhD, RN, an RWJF New Jersey Nursing Scholar whose research focus is New Jersey nurses who were born in India and faced culture shock in the United States; and Maryjoan Ladden, PhD, RN, FAAN, senior program officer at RWJF.
 

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 

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 more than 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. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or Facebook atwww.rwjf.org/facebook.
 

About the Independence Blue Cross Foundation

In October 2011, the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, launched a charitable, private foundation, whose mission is to transform health care through innovation in the communities it serves. The IBC Foundation and Independence Blue Cross, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, are both committed to improving the health and wellness of the people of southeastern Pennsylvania. The foundation targets the following areas of impact:

• Caring for our most vulnerable: Supporting nonprofit community health center clinics that deliver quality, cost-effective primary, medical, and dental care to uninsured and underinsured people.

• Enhancing health care delivery: Strengthening the nursing workforce through education, career development, and research.

• Building healthy communities: Partnering with community leaders and programs to address community health and wellness needs.

Source: Newswise

By Neal St. Anthony

Registered nurse Rachele Simmons walked away from a $100,000 career two years ago.

She still isn’t generating enough cash to pay herself a salary from the St. Paul business she started in 2011. But if passion and commitment matter, Simmons already is wealthy from her mission to train and place more minorities in health care jobs.

And as business continues to grow at fledgling Foundations Health Career Academy, Simmons should generate positive cash flow by the end of this year.

“Rachele is phenomenal,” said Tom Thompson, administrator at St. Paul’s Galtier Health Center. “She’s positive and she knows what she is doing. We’ve hired some of her graduates and never had any problem. Her people are very good. And we have a diverse clientele in our facility. So we need staff who speak different languages and who are from different backgrounds and races.”

Simmons is the founder, teacher, marketer and chief bottle washer at Foundations Health, a state-certified private school that has graduated 160 students through its four-week, certified nursing assistant/home health aide program. For many graduates, the course offers a first step into the growing health care industry into jobs that can pay as much as $20 per hour plus benefits.

Simmons, 44, has been a hospital nurse and last worked as a manager at Walgreens, training managers and others to use retail-medical equipment. And she always worked a shift or two a week as a hospital nurse to build a rainy-day fund.

Over the years, Simmons got used to being the only black nurse on the floor or in managerial meetings at Walgreens.

She also knew that health care is a growth area, particularly lower-cost primary care that can be delivered relatively inexpensively outside the hospital and help keep patients in their homes.

She also thought she could be an inspiration to young people of color.

“I just wanted to give something back,” said Simmons, who decided, as her sons reached adulthood, she could handle some business risk. “I had been involved in nursing for 25 years. I was always the nurse called to see the ‘diverse’ patients, often black. It meant so much to them.

“This is what I was called to do. Maybe we can start something that … will get more people of color in nursing, in science, in medicine. We need more black nurses and Hmong nurses and more diversity in health facilities.” She’s even had a couple of white medical students take the class because they wanted to learn the grass roots and work in diverse clinics.

Foundations Health, housed in the Hmong Professional Building a mile west of the State Capitol on University Avenue, is a first business step for Simmons.

Simmons is no stranger to drive and hard work. Divorced when her sons were toddlers, Simmons said her ex-husband never paid child support, forcing her for a short time onto public assistance. The St. Paul Highland Park High School graduate completed two-year nursing school in St. Paul and worked days while completing her registered-nurse degree at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, often bringing her boys to play in the commons while she attended class.

“She was a successful nurse and thrifty with her money,” said Isabel Chanslor, a business trainer with nonprofit Neighborhood Development Center, which for 20 years has provided training to several thousand would-be urban entrepreneurs, including Simmons. “She did not want to take a loan.’’

Last month, NDC recognized Simmons for her commitment to community as a finalist in the organization’s annual entrepreneurial awards.

“She’s a gutsy lady,’’ Chanslor said. “She’s high energy, sharp, rides her little motor scooter everywhere. She has a good business plan and she’s a really good instructor and very focused and dedicated, according to her students.”

Simmons has invested $50,000 in space and equipment. She uses word-of-mouth and social media to attract students. The 80-hour course costs about $950.

“My students are mostly young, single, with kids, without kids, battered, not battered, on welfare, not on welfare … most of them are working poor,” Simmons said. “If they want to work hard and truly better their life, we’ll take them.”

Na Yang graduated from Foundations Health in 2011, but can’t work as a nursing assistant because of an injury. So, she joined the office as a part-time office manager.

Simmons said Yang works more hours than she’s paid because of her commitment to the cause and the need to stay on top of the paperwork.

“You couldn’t find a better instructor,” Yang said of Simmons.

“She’s knowledgeable and passionate. She couldn’t do this without her passion.”

Source: Star Tribune

By Karren L. Johnson

After a nearly 15-year journey — which included raising three children and working full time as a registered nurse -- Terra Brown of Susquehanna Township is just months away from completing her bachelor’s of science degree in nursing.

“It took a lot of hard work but it was worth it,” said the 42-year-old Brown, who works at Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute in Lower Paxton Township and entered the nursing field with an associate’s degree. “It feels good to know I improved both my knowledge and myself.”

Brown said she wants to teach other nurses and plans to go on to earn a master’s in nursing.

According to a recent survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Brown isn't alone in her pursuit to further her nursing education. The number of students enrolled in baccalaureate degree completion programs — also known as RN to BSN programs — increased by 13.4 percent from 2010 to 2011, the study found. Master’s programs reported a 7.6 percent jump in enrollments in 2011.

For current nurses and those looking to enter the field, the future looks bright. A 26 percent increase in the demand for new nurses is expected between 2010 and 2020, equating to 711,900 new jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“A driving force behind this increase in BSN enrollment is the Institute of Medicine’s “The Future of Nursing” report that calls for the number of nurses who hold BSNs to increase to 80 percent by 2020,” said Betsy Snook, a registered nurse and the CEO of the Pennsylvania State Nursing Association.

“To meet this goal, which will help meet the needs of our growing population and more complex health care environment, there has been a trend among hospitals to require nurses to complete a BSN degree or higher,” Snook said.

While this goal does take a certain amount of initiative from nurses, it isn’t on them alone to achieve, Snook said. It also requires the support from employers and organizations such as PSNA, as well as education institutions, to help nurses achieve a higher level of education and training.

A choice to advance

Armed with a BSN from York College of Pennsylvania, Patricia Himes was excited to begin providing care to people. She joined the staff of a local hospital where she worked as a charge nurse for about six years. While she loved her job, she found herself curious about opportunities for growth.

“I’ve always had an urge to learn more and do more,” said Himes, who had heard there was a growing need for certified nurse practitioners.

As a result, she went back to school while working full time, receiving a master’s degree and her nurse practitioner training from Widener University’s Harrisburg campus.

“We are seeing a very large growth in nurses seeking advanced degrees, particularly as nurse practitioners,” said Geraldine M. Budd, assistant dean in Widener University School of Nursing’s Harrisburg campus. Budd said nurse practitioners provide most of the same services as physicians, making them especially important for practices and hospitals in disadvantaged areas without many physicians.

For now, Himes wants to just continue her overall growth and development while working for PinnacleHealth FamilyCare in Lower Paxton Township. But she said she definitely sees herself getting a doctor of nursing practice down in the future.

Nurses who do get additional training will find themselves in demand.

“With many of the highest trained nurses in the teaching arena reaching retirement age, there is also going to be a real need for qualified nurses to step into roles as nurse educators,” Budd adds.

Enhanced educational programs

Among the BSN to RN programs seeing a surge in enrollment is the one offered by Penn State Harrisburg. The school has seen enrollment increase by 25 percent between 2011 and 2012, said Melissa Snyder, coordinator for the nursing bachelor’s program.

“To best meet the needs of our students, we offer an evening format, a hybrid format, which is a combination of online and face-to-face classes and periodic all-day formats,” Snyder said. “We also ensure that nurses are graduating with solid skills in leadership, critical thinking and research, all things that employers are looking for.”

While enrollment in its BSN programs has increased, Penn State recently announced that it is phasing out all of its associate nursing programs and transitioning them to four-year baccalaureate programs, Snyder said.

Some community colleges are finding other ways to appeal to students who want more than an associate degree. For example, Harrisburg Area Community Collegerecently created a dual admission partnership with Millersville University to keep their graduates competitive and to provide a seamless transition into a bachelor’s program.

“We have always been very clear with our students that an associate degree is not an end point and we encourage they should seek further education,” said Ron Rebuck, director of nursing at HACC’s Harrisburg Campus. “The trend that I’m seeing is that by the time our nursing students graduate, a majority of them are already enrolled in a BSN program.”

Ever since Jeremy Whitmer graduated from high school just over 10 years ago, he has made it his personal mission to advance his nursing career. Despite being deployed to Iraq with the National Guard, he was still able to earn an associate’s degree, as well as a BSN degree thanks to HACC’s dual admission program.

“It was the perfect route for me because it provided a lot of flexibility,” said Whitmer, who is now working in Holy Spirit Hospital’s cardiovascular operating room. “I feel that having a BSN degree has given me many more leadership opportunities, as well as critical thinking and time management skills that I apply to my job every day.”

Support from employers

Having recently applied for magnet status, a designation awarded by the American Nurses Association that denotes nursing excellence, Holy Spirit Health System takes pride in being in full support of helping its nurses reach a higher level of education, said Brenda Brown, director of human resources.

“We know there are a lot of great nurses coming out of associate programs,” Brown said. “When we see such a nurse who exemplifies our values, we will support them in completing their BSN within four years of their hire.”

In addition, Holy Spirit offers a tuition reimbursement and an RN scholarship program, as well as an education loan repayment program. It also pays for all certifications. Currently, 42 percent of the hospital’s nurses either have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in nursing, she said. There are currently 88 nurses enrolled in bachelor’s programs and 27 are working toward their master’s in nursing, she said.

Sherry Kwater, chief nursing officer for the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, said 57 percent of the center’s more than 1,800 nurses have a BSN. She said many have advanced their education while working at the center, which is a magnet facility.

“At Penn State Hershey Medical Center, we have so many specialty patients who require nurses with a body of knowledge around that patient population,” Kwater said. “Education is our mission here, so we migrate towards hiring nurses who are educators or specialists with a focus in a specific area. This also helps raise the skill of the bedside nurse.”

 Himes, the nurse with PinnacleHealth, credits the support from her coworkers for enabling her to grow and gain increased confidence in her field.

“The physicians are very supportive and very willing to teach me how to do things that I’ve never done before or that I’m insecure about,” she said. “I couldn’t be happier about my career path. It’s been a great testament of how the field of nursing is growing and that the opportunities are endless."

Source: The Patriot News

BY BLAIR KERKHOFF

By Abigail Curtis

More than 70 years ago, Georgia Randall of Belfast was on a troop train that slowly made its way west across the country before depositing the new Army Nurse Corps recruit in the lively streets of San Francisco.

There, she boarded a converted cruise ship and set sail, with her ultimate destination unknown, the feisty and sharp centenarian recalled Saturday morning at her home while sitting at a table covered with old photographs of her World War II experiences.

She and the 14 other nurses who shared her stateroom also shared a bathtub full of water that they had to use for nearly two weeks of bathing.

“It was a bath in a Dixie cup,” Randall said, adding that the officers who expected the women to be “glamour girls” when they came to dinner were mistaken.

The cruise ship American ended up heading to Australia, where Randall, who spent her first years on a family farm in Sidney, Maine, worked for more than a year caring for the American men who had been badly injured in the bloody battles of the South Pacific. After her time in Mareeba, a “two pub town” on the northeastern coast of Australia where she worked in a station hospital, she spent more than a year working in a tent hospital that had been built in the jungle of New Guinea.

Randall is happy to describe the places she lived, the wildlife and exotic people she saw and the adventures she had during her stints in the Pacific. But when asked about the injured men she cared for during the war and the hard things she had seen, she demurred.

“The horrible things, who needs them?” she asked, just days before Memorial Day. “I don’t talk about those things. There’s no point in dwelling on it. We know a war is a war.”

‘Home and alive in ’45’

Randall had graduated from Crosby High School in Belfast in 1931, the only girl in a family of four brothers. She was a member of the first graduating class from the Waldo County General Hospital School of Nursing in Belfast, and when she got her cap in 1934 she launched into a long and varied career. At first, she worked at the Belfast hospital and then was a private-duty nurse. But when the war began, her youngest brother was in the service and she felt that she could do more for her country.

“It was luxury nursing. It wasn’t for me,” Randall said.

She joined up in April 1942, and was discharged on Christmas Day of 1945.

“Wasn’t that a good present?” she said, smiling. “Home and alive in ’45.”

When she enlisted at Fort Dix, N.J., she and the other nurses who arrived at the same time decided that they might as well “go the distance,” and volunteer for overseas duty.

Randall said that the military issued her woolen clothes as part of her uniform that were not useful in the hot places she worked. A Chinese green grocer in Mareeba used to roast peanuts by putting them in a tin tray on his shop roof, she said, and once she went on a crocodile hunt — though she did not get any crocodiles.

In Australia, the hospital was in a school that the Army had taken over, and during air raids, the nurses would move the patients out of the hospital on litters and place them between the sandbags that were stacked outside. During her first air raid, Randall grabbed a chocolate cake that she had just made and took it into the fox hole with her.

“Oh, I got ribbed because of that,” she recalled.

Later, when she was stationed in the 247th General Hospital New Guinea, in the jungle near the community of Lae, it was so hot she once saw the thermometer reach 130 degrees. Another nurse swore she saw it reach 136 degrees. Army engineers working at the nearby ammunitions dump dug the nurses a swimming hole that was fed by a cool mountain stream.

“It was clear water. Cool and delightful,” Randall said. “One of the other girls and I got brave. It got so hot at night, we couldn’t sleep. We’d go down and skinny dip.”

The 30 or so American nurses there also entertained themselves by taking funny pictures of each other — one of Randall shows her cavorting in a grass skirt — and getting them developed by the guys in the X-ray department.

“We were pin-up girls,” she laughed.

Another moment she remembered vividly was the time she was on night duty and saw that the mice around her feet were making a commotion. When Randall looked around, she saw that a venomous tiger snake had entered through a hole in the screen.

“It was beautiful,” she said, adding that the snake shone like flakes of gold. “We killed it. It was a crime to have done that. I saved the mice, I guess — one of the tragedies of war.”

When she was discharged and came home to Maine, she continued working for decades as a nurse around the midcoast. She also raised one son, David Emery, who later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Source: Bangor Daily News

 By CHRISTIN LULOW

Between 2 million and 3 million Americans take warfarin (Coumadin) to prevent blood clot formation, which is important in various medical conditions such as atrial fibrillation or after certain procedures, such as getting a new heart valve. Blood levels of a person’s international normalized ratio are measured regularly, and doses of the medication are adjusted accordingly.

Warfarin management may seem overwhelming, but anticoagulation clinics are here to help. While it may not seem like a lot goes into dosing warfarin, more goes into it than may be obvious. Nurses work with people on warfarin, and we want folks who take it to understand they play an important role in the management of their dosing.

A health care provider will start a patient on warfarin for a number of reasons. Although warfarin increases the time the body takes to form blood clots, it is a safe medicine to take when monitored appropriately. Routine follow-up for INR checks is an extremely important part of warfarin management.

During follow-up appointments, nurses will assess numerous issues with regard to your warfarin management. They will check your INR and compare it against your weekly dosing schedule. An INR reading may be outside of the optimal range for something as simple as a missed dose. However, when a patient starts or discontinues a medication, is ill, has been hospitalized or is scheduled for surgery, warfarin dosing is likely to be effected and will need to be adjusted.

It is the job of the nurse in the anti-coagulation clinic to figure out what to do with the patient’s warfarin dosing and when to safely see the patient back in the clinic to help maintain that patient within their goal range. The job of the patient taking warfarin is to notify the nurse in the anti-coagulation clinic of any changes in their medical condition or lifestyle that will affect INR readings.

This may sound simple, but many common activities can impact an INR level. What a person eats and drinks, how much a person exercises or doesn’t, any over-the-counter medications, prescription medications or herbal supplements, illnesses, whether a person smokes or doesn’t, dieting and weight changes, surgery and recovering from surgery are some of the other causes that can change a person’s INR reading. Anything out of the norm for a patient needs to be reported to the nurse at the anti-coagulation clinic immediately.

Warfarin management does not have to be confusing for the patient; supportive and knowledgeable anti-coagulation nurses can help greatly. What the nurses want you to focus on is being consistent.

Be as consistent as you can with your diet and your activity. Don’t worry about avoiding certain foods with vitamin K – except green and white tea; those are the only no-nos. If you like salads and green vegetables, eat them; they offer great health benefits. However, they can affect your INR readings, so it is important to be consistent in the quantity and regularity with which you eat these foods. Let the nurses adjust your warfarin doses around you; don’t adjust your lifestyle around warfarin.

Keep your scheduled appointment times for INR follow-up and take your warfarin as directed. Contact the anticoagulation clinic before you change, start or stop taking other medications. Always watch for signs of bleeding and or unusual bruising.

By following these basic guidelines, patients taking warfarin can live healthy, stable lives with minimal disruption caused by this life-saving medication. While it seems complex, with the help of your anti-coagulation nurse you can keep it simple!

Christin Lulow is a registered nurse in the Coumadin clinic at the International Heart Institute at St. Patrick Hospital.

Source: Missoulian