Legislative Network for Nurses articles from October 2005

Legislative Network for Nurses archives from October 2005

ANA speaks out against proposed cuts to Medicaid.(Disaster Relief Efforts)
October 3, 2005... The Medicaid budget would not be cut to offset the costs of caring for hurricane victims, if the American Nurses Association has anything to say about it, the organization recently told LNN. ANA President Barbara Blakeney voiced the group's...

Lott acts to protect hurricane relief workers from lawsuits.
October 3, 2005... Nurses and other hurricane relief workers will not have to worry about lawsuits being filed against them if a bill introduced Sept. 22 by Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) becomes law. The Good Samaritan Liability...

Amendment allows RNs displaced by Katrina to work while seeking license.
October 3, 2005... Nurses and other health care professionals who fled Louisiana and Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina will have some help getting back to work. The Senate recently approved an amendment to the State, Justice and Commerce appropriations...

Bill would provide free medical screenings to first responders.
October 3, 2005... First responders, volunteers, and emergency personnel who respond to national disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would receive free health screenings under a bill introduced Sept. 21 by Sens. George...

AACN praises report supporting doctorate of nursing practice.
October 3, 2005... The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) applauds a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that calls for nursing to develop a "non-research clinical doctorate" to prepare expert practitioners who can also serve...

Mikulski works to protect women from PH; AWHONN supports passage of bill.
October 3, 2005... Women would be better protected from pulmonary hypertension (PH) if a bill introduced Sept. 27 by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) becomes law, a spokesperson for the Association of Women's Health, Obstetrics and...

Senators call for investigation into VA nurse hiring policies.
October 3, 2005... America's veterans could receive better health care at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, and taxpayers could see budget savings as a result of a requested Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation of hiring practices at...

Mercury.(health care in hospitals)(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... More than nine in 10 hospitals polled recognize the hazards associated with mercury use and have taken steps to reduce or eliminate mercury-containing devices, according to a survey released Sept. 27 by the American Hospital Association and...

Safety and Quality Awards.
October 3, 2005... The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Quality Forum (NQF) have announced the recipients of the 2005 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. Audrey Nelson, director of the Patient...

BSN Champion Award.
October 3, 2005... The Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Sept. 28 announced that the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) has been selected to receive the 2005 BSN Champion Award. The AACN board created this...

Health care information systems.
October 3, 2005... The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has announced the creation of a Healthcare Information Technology Advisory Panel to focus attention on the improvement of patient safety and clinical processes as new...

Television series.
October 3, 2005... The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has signed on as a national partner to support "Remaking American Medicine... Health Care for the 21st Century," a four-hour primetime television series intended for broadcast on PBS in April...

Blankets for Babies.
October 3, 2005... The American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) is distributing thousands of blankets and baby clothes, donated to the Texas Health Care Nurse-Midwives of Fort Worth, to women and babies displaced by Hurricane Katrina. ACNM established three...

Counterfeit medicines.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations have unveiled a new joint initiative to fight counterfeit medicines. Central to the initiative is the ICN's practical...

Avian flu viruses.
October 3, 2005... The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Sept. 28 announced a public-private partnership to develop vaccines against avian flu viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic. Under the agreement, NIH's National Institute of Allergy and...

Nursing shortage.
October 3, 2005... NURSING SHORTAGE. A new report by the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing recommends strategies for addressing the state's growing shortage of RNs. They include increasing the percentage of baccalaureate and higher degree nurses...

District of Columbia.(State News)
October 3, 2005... District of Columbia: An idea that came out of an undergraduate nursing class at Georgetown University last year has blossomed into a professional nursing corps called "Nurses for America," which has received a $20,000 grant from AmeriCorps,...

Illinois.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... Illinois: Illinois must train 50 percent more health care workers annually through 2010 and invest a total of $40 million to $50 million during that same time period to prevent a critical health care worker shortage in the state, according to a...

New York.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... New York: Catastrophic disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and recent terrorist attacks, have demonstrated the urgent need for health care professionals to be prepared, respond quickly and function under extreme pressure. To address this need,...

Ohio.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... Ohio: The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation in Columbus has awarded $991,000 in funding to five area colleges of nursing as a continuation of its health care workforce initiative. The awards went to the nursing programs at The Ohio State...

Tennessee.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center recently announced that its newly approved DNP-PhD program is now accepting students. This program combines the best of both the practice (DNP) and research doctorates (PhD) for those...

The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing.(Opportunities)
October 3, 2005... The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University is accepting registrations for the Nurses Improving Care to HealthSystem Elders (NICHE) Leadership Conference on Feb. 27-28, 2006, in New York. NICHE is a national program...

The National Institutes of Health.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is accepting applications for loan repayment programs. These programs will repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational debt for health professionals pursuing careers in biomedical and behavioral...

The Fogarty International Center.(Opportunities)
October 3, 2005... The Fogarty International Center invites applications for the Ellison Overseas Fellowship Program. This is a one-year clinical research training experience for graduate level U.S. students in the health professions. This opportunity is for...

Health emergencies.(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released several new tools and models to aid emergency health care personnel during public health emergencies, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They include standardized hospital bed...

Department of Justice reauthorization bill.( )(Brief Article)
October 3, 2005... The U.S. House of Representatives Sept. 28 passed by voice vote a proposal offered by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) that would provide grants to states for carrying out a campaign to increase public awareness of domestic violence against pregnant...

But I play one on TV.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... BUT I PLAY ONE ON TV. Actress Maura Tierney, who stars as emergency physician Abby Lockhart in the television series "ER," recently joined congressional representatives and health care professionals at an event on Capitol Hill to bring...

Nurses, doctors rally on the hill to bring attention to emergency care.(Emergency Care)
October 17, 2005... America's hospital emergency departments are under-funded, over-crowded and suffer from staffing challenges caused, in part, by rising costs of medical liability insurance, emergency health care professionals said at a recent rally on Capitol...

Americans say trips to ED are better thanks to RNs.
October 17, 2005... Emergency nurses are the unsung heroes of the emergency department and are equally as important to patient care as emergency physicians, according to the results of a new survey released by the Emergency Nurses Association. Mike Tennant, a...

AHRQ announces grants for health IT to reduce errors.(Health Information Technology)
October 17, 2005... Nurses and other health care providers may be in a better position to improve the safety and quality of health care, if new grants announced recently by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality are successful. The AHRQ Oct. 6...

Hospitals willing to use health IT, cite cost as barrier, study says.
October 17, 2005... While nine out of 10 hospitals are using or considering using health information technology for clinical uses, most cite cost as a major impediment to broader adoption, especially for small or rural hospitals, according to an American Hospital...

HHS announces new rules to advance IT.
October 17, 2005... More health care providers will be using e-prescribing and electronic health records systems more quickly, if new regulations are implemented. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt recently announced new...

Study says public supports electronic medical records.
October 17, 2005... The American public believes strongly that electronic medical records can make the difference between life and death in emergencies, new research shows. Nearly three out of four Americans (72 percent) say they favor the establishment of a...

HRSA awards $26.1 million to train health professionals in bioterrorism.
October 17, 2005... Health care providers will have better training on how to help in the event of a bioterrorist attack if new grants announced by the Health Resources and Services Administration accomplish what they are designed to do. HRSA Administrator...

Bioterrorism training.
October 17, 2005... BIOTERRORISM TRAINING. The American College of Emergency Physicians Oct. 13 announced a $966,075 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to increase the preparedness of community health care providers to respond to terrorism and weapons...

RNs pleased with domestic violence screening tools.
October 17, 2005... Nurses and other health care providers should screen their patients more often for domestic violence, the Family Violence Prevention Fund recently told LNN. Therefore, the FVPF is promoting educational sessions and awareness campaigns by...

HCS finds nurse salaries up 11% in hospitals, nursing homes.
October 17, 2005... The national average salary of registered nurses in hospitals increased 10.94 percent this year to $27.34, according to the 35th annual Hospital Salary and Benefits Report, recently published by the Hospital and Healthcare Compensation Service....

Drugs and other medical treatments.
October 17, 2005... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has launched a $15 million program to help clinicians and patients determine which work best for certain health conditions. Thirteen new research centers, as well as a center for communicating...

Quality of care.
October 17, 2005... The quality of care managed by health plans improved in many areas in 2004, but only about 21.5 percent of the industry now reports publicly on its performance, according to the National Committee on Quality Assurance's annual State of Health...

Cancer death.
October 17, 2005... The country's leading cancer organizations recently reported that Americans' risk of dying from cancer continues to decline and that the rate of new cancers is holding steady. The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published...

Demonstration of excellence.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... The National League for Nursing has named four nursing schools as 2005-2008 Centers of Excellence in Nursing Education. The schools received the three-year designation based on their sustained demonstration of excellence in faculty development,...

Linda Everett has been elected president-elect of the American Organization of Nurse Executives.(People in the News)
October 17, 2005... Linda Everett has been elected president-elect of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She is the chief nursing officer and director of nursing services and patient care, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and an associate...

Gail Kincaide, who has served as executive director of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses for 12 years, recently announced she will step down at the end of this year.(People in the News)
October 17, 2005... Gail Kincaide, who has served as executive director of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses for 12 years, recently announced she will step down at the end of this year. Kincaide became the first executive director of...

California.(S)(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... California: By a nearly unanimous vote, delegates at the California Nurses Association's biennial convention voted to begin affiliation talks with the AFL-CIO. In a press release, the CNA said that the move "would enable CNA to help champion a...

Massachusetts.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Massachusetts: A new report by the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing recommends strategies for addressing the state's growing shortage of registered nurses. They include increasing the percentage of baccalaureate and...

Illinois.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Illinois: A foundation formed to preserve the history of Provident Hospital and Training School in Chicago is stepping up its efforts to help reverse the region's growing shortage of nurses. The Provident Foundation last year launched Future...

The Food Safe Schools Project.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... The Food Safe Schools Project at the American Nurses Foundation is seeking school nurse leaders to attend a weekend train-the-trainer workshop Dec. 3-4 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare nurse leaders for replication...

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is inviting Planetree, Magnet and Bald ridge Award-winning hospitals to submit proposals for up to $50,000 in funding to describe, analyze and interpret their successes and lessons learned in the context of cultural transformation.(Opportunities)
October 17, 2005... The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is inviting Planetree, Magnet and Bald ridge Award-winning hospitals to submit proposals for up to $50,000 in funding to describe, analyze and interpret their successes and lessons learned in the context of...

Flu vaccination.(Resources)
October 17, 2005... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted educational materials for use in promoting flu vaccination and a checklist to help determine who should get a flu shot before Oct. 24, based on CDC recommendations. In September, CDC...

Complementary and alternative medicine.(Resources)
October 17, 2005... The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health has developed the complementary and alternative medicine Online Continuing Education Series for health care providers and the public to learn...

Continuing education programs.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... Malpractice, sexually transmitted diseases and pain management are among the topics featured in the latest series of continuing education programs presented by the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing on Oct. 20. The program is designed to...

Hand hygiene.(Resources)
October 17, 2005... The World Health Organization Oct. 13 released draft guidelines for hand hygiene in health care settings as part of a new campaign to reduce health care-associated infections worldwide, noting that the emergence of life-threatening infections...

National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation Act.(Legislation)
October 17, 2005... Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have introduced legislation to create a Department of Health and Human Services program they said would encourage disclosure and analysis of medical errors and early compensation for...

The Safety Net Inpatient Drug Affordability Act.(Legislation)
October 17, 2005... Health care providers would not have to pay as much for drugs if a new bill introduced by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) becomes law, according to the senator's office. The Safety Net Inpatient Drug Affordability Act is designed to provide relief on...

More from the states.(Brief Article)
October 17, 2005... MORE FROM THE STATES. In response to the growing Latino community in Sonoma County, Calif., Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University have instituted programs to interest minority students in health care professions and have...