MHA's Organization of Nurse Executives

ASA tackles anesthesia awareness

In its latest advisory, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) seeks to educate patients about "anesthesia awareness", a rare event in which a patient may regain consciousness during surgery.

The practice advisory offers recommendations for reducing anesthesia awareness in four areas:

• preoperative evaluation of the patient’s risk for awareness
• use of equipment checklists
• monitoring depth of anesthesia
• drug selection

Click here to read more about the ASA's advisory on anesthesia awareness.

[ via Ambulatory Safety Monitor ]

Congregational Health Nurse Certification

Congregational Health Nurse Certification meetings will be held May 31–June 3 at Patterson Place, located at 312 Camp Garaway Road in Clinton, Miss. Nurses will learn context, values and beliefs of expanding their skills to a faith-based community.

Register by May 9, 2006. There is a $50 deposit and the total fee of $500 includes lodging, some meals, materials, etc. To register or for more information call 601-925-3391, 601-973-169 or e-mail bolian@mc.edu.

Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease / Dementia: Managing Difficult Behaviors Workshop

The Mississippi Hospital Association's Organization of Nurse Executives Northeast Council is sponsoring a spring workshop, Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease / Dementia: Managing Difficult Behaviors. The speaker will be Linda Turner, director of the Alliance Charitable Foundation of Marshall County

The workshop will be held on Thursday, May 4, at Northeast Mississippi Community College's Childers Hall, located on Cunningham Boulevard in Booneville, MS. There will be two sessions: a morning session from 9 a.m. until noon and an afternoon session from 1:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. The fee is $20 per person. Continuing education units (CEUs) are available for health care professionals. The general public is also invited to attend.

This program will be extremely helpful to those caring for these types of patients, so please help us spread the word to the general public about the workshop. For more information or to register, contact Linda Smith at Tippah County Hospital at 662-837-9221.

Mark your calendars for Harmony for Health

Musical magic will fill the air in Madison County on Saturday, April 29, 2006, when the Mississippi Nurses Foundation hosts Harmony For Health, an open-air benefit concert in celebration of National Nurses’ Week. Whisper Lake Country Club’s 18th fairway will be the setting for the event featuring a program of various musical selections. The Madison Central High School Jazz Band will open the evening at 6 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band and the Mississippi Swing.

Concert attendees need only bring their lawn chairs or blankets. Food will be available for purchase and children’s activities will feature Dr. Juggles at this family-focused event honoring the nurses of Mississippi.

“The purpose of this event is to honor nurses for their special week and to raise funds for the Foundation, which has key goals of promoting wellness and disease prevention through special programs for school children, women, and employers/employees of Mississippi. This is our second year to host this open-air event. Whisper Lake Country Club and our generous sponsors have partnered to help us offer an event that will be casual, fun and family-friendly,” said Dr. Lisa Haynie. Haynie and Dr. Audwin Fletcher, nurse practitioners and board members of the Mississippi Nurses Foundation are serving as co-chairs of this exciting event.

“We are planning a very UNIQUE TRIBUTE this year to honor our nurses,” added Dr. Audwin Fletcher. “This type of tribute has never been done in the history of the Mississippi Nurses Association or Foundation. Every nurse, along with family and friends, will want to be part of this thrilling recognition!”

Advance tickets are $5, tickets at the gate will be $8 and preschool is always FREE. For tickets or sponsorships, contact the Mississippi Nurses Foundation at 601-898-0850 or foundation@msnurses.org.

Let's stop talking to nurses about patient satisfaction

Health care needs to stop thinking that it provides a service and realize that it provides an experience, said Fred Lee during a presentation entitled "Let's stop talking to nurses about patient satisfaction," given during the Emergency Nurses Association Leadership Challenge, held in Austin, TX, in February.

In his presentation, Lee examined ways to improve the patient experience and discussed how the role played by employees is the most crucial. He presented strategies to help managers hire the right people, coach existing employees, and generally ensure that patient satisfaction is a high priority.

Lee argued that healthcare provides an experience, just like Disney World provides an experience. Lee, a former vice president of a major medical center, learned first-hand about the Disney experience as a Disney cast member, and has written a book about how to incorporate the Disney philosophy into healthcare.

How to create an experience

Lee used the analogy of the theater to illustrate how to produce an experience. He said managers can use theater skills and experience to coach staff.

Lee recommends that a manager begin by describing the experience he or she wants a patient to have. He recommends taking a real patient's story and breaking it into the following scenes. He used the example of an emergency department as a good way to tell a patient's story:

• Scene 1: arriving
• Scene 2: triage
• Scene 3: waiting (the never-ending scene)
• Scene 4: see physician
• Scene 5: have tests
• Scene 6: diagnosis followed by admit or discharge

Using this analogy allows the manager to take each scene and break it down. "Ask, is that the experience you want the patient to have?" Lee said.

The manager should concentrate on the employees who are "actors" in each scene and examine how their roles affect the patients' experiences. Ask staff how they can make the scene better and more memorable. Remind staff that they are always on stage regardless of whether they're conscious of it. They always affect patients' experiences, even if they're just standing and chatting outside of a patient's room.

"We can be heard and we can be seen," he said. "We're giving a message, even when we're silent."

Source: Adapted from Patient Care Staffing Report, April 2006, HCPro, Inc.

Magazine seeks to show men that nursing career is viable

 

Men in Nursing is the first professional nursing magazine aimed at the small number of male nurses in America. The goal of the publication is to encourage men to choose nursing and help them manage the issues, stereotypes and gender-barriers they face, according to Bob Kepshire, the magazine's editor-in-chief (and director of emergency and community services at the University Health Care System in August, Ga.).

Of the estimated 2.9 million nurses in the nation, only 5.7% are men (a figure that has doubled since 1980, however).

The first issue of the peer-reviewed bimonthly debuted in February of 2006 with articles addressing subjects from clinical care to personal issues involving stereotypes. Modern Healthcare magazine (March 27, 2006) points out that, interestingly, four of the five featured articles were written by women.

State of the Registered Nurse Workforce in the United States

In 2005, Nursing Economics began a six-part series of articles that has focused on the registered nurse (RN) workforce in the United States (Buerhaus, 2005). In this article, they pull together key results of their national surveys to provide a comprehensive assessment of the state of the nursing workforce in the United States. 

Some interesting findings:

• In the 2002 national survey of RNs, 95% of RNs reported a shortage of nurses during the past year in the hospital where they worked. Two years later, after a large nationwide increase in hospital RN employment of 185,000 (Buerhaus, Staiger, & Auerbach, 2004), the 2004 survey of RNs indicated that fewer, though still a majority of RNs (82%), reported a shortage of nurses (Buerhaus et al., 2005a). In 2004, one-quarter (23%) perceived the shortage as very serious, 64% a somewhat serious shortage, and 13% of RNs perceived no shortage in the past year.
• In both the 2002 and 2004 surveys, RNs identified the top four reasons for the nursing shortage as inadequate salary and benefits, more career options for women, undesirable hours, and a negative work environment.
• RNs in both surveys indicated the leading recommendation on how to solve the nursing shortage was to improve the work environment.

• The results of both the 2002 and 2004 national surveys show that most RNs are generally satisfied with their jobs (Buerhaus et al., 2005b). In both surveys 83% reported they were either very, moderately, or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. However, those who reported they were very satisfied with their job increased significantly from 21% in 2002 to 34% in 2004.

• Nearly nine in ten RNs (87%) in both surveys were either very or somewhat satisfied with being a nurse.

• More than 70% reported they would recommend nursing as a career to a qualified student, with the percent of RNs who would definitely recommend nursing doubling from 17% in 2002 to 33% in 2004.

Caring for Nurses

Like many Americans, nurses suffer from chronic conditions related to poor diet, stress and little proper exercise. And though they may know more than the average American about the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle, they need assistance in achieving a more healthful one.

But helping nurses help themselves won’t benefit just your staff. By investing in the health and well-being of your employees, you will see improved retention and attendance, increased productivity, better job fulfillment and higher quality of care.

For the full story from Hospitals & Health Networks, click here.

Cherokee Uniforms will accept nominations recognizing exceptional service, sacrifice and innovation through May 31, 2006

They excel in one of the nation’s fastest-changing and most complex industries. And they have dedicated themselves to an especially demanding profession — one that’s hampered by a chronic shortage of workers.

“America’s healthcare workers, despite their importance to our society, often are unsung heroes,” said Michael Singer, president and CEO of Cherokee Uniforms. “To show our appreciation and gratitude for their significant contributions to patients and medical care, Cherokee Uniforms annually sponsors the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award.”

Nominations are being accepted through May 31, 2006, for this year’s award program, which gives peers, friends and colleagues a meaningful way to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of outstanding nurses and other non-physician healthcare professionals.

Celebrating the Healthcare Family

Cherokee Uniforms, a leading designer and manufacturer of healthcare apparel, established the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award in 2003. It has since become one of the nation’s premier nurse and healthcare honors, eliciting more than 3,300 nominations since its beginning.

Nominees have represented their profession in all its diversity, including:

• Expertise in a variety of clinical specialties, from wound care and birth defects to substance abuse and physical therapy
• Experience in different medical settings, from rural health clinics and urban hospitals to emergency services in an ambulance or in a war zone
• Understanding of unique patient populations, from at-risk newborns to Native Americans and senior citizens

For Every Nomination, Cherokee Makes a Donation

Cherokee Uniforms will donate one dollar for every healthcare professional who is nominated for the award through May 31, 2006, to Nurses House, a national fund that provides short-term financial assistance to registered nurses facing serious hardship.

“It’s easy to forget that nurses are human and that sometimes they need to be rescued from life’s devastating circumstances,” Singer said. “Nurses House offers nurses who are in pain and suffering a helping hand and a warm heart in their hour of need.”

Choosing Winners and Awarding Prizes

A panel of nurse leaders and Cherokee professionals will choose 12 winners who best meet the program’s key requirements: exceptional service, sacrifice and innovation.

Candidates may be nominated in two of the following categories but can only win in one: Registered Nurses (RNs); Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs); Licensed Practical Nurses/Licensed Vocational Nurses (LPNs/LVNs); Student Nurses; and other Non-Physician Healthcare Professionals.

To nominate a healthcare professional, visit www.CherokeeUniforms.com or pick up a nomination form from a Cherokee Uniforms retailer. All nominations must contain an accurate description (100 words or more) of the nominee’s exceptional service, sacrifice or innovation.

The grand prize winner in each category will receive an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two. Additional winners in each category will receive all-expense-paid trips to a 2007 U.S. medical conference of the winners’ choice, annual memberships to their preferred clinical association and a donation of $500 to the nonprofit organization of their choice.

All award winners will receive trophies, a medical wardrobe of Cherokee scrubs and Rockers footwear worth more than $1,000, and a profile in the nationally distributed Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award 2007 calendar. Additionally, those who nominated the grand prize winner in each category will each receive a Cherokee medical wardrobe and a donation of $500 to the nonprofit organization of their choice. Nominations are due by May 31, 2006. Winners will be announced in September 2007.