Nurse-Family Partnership®, a leading non-profit organization addressing the needs of low income, first-time parents and their children, has received a $210,000 grant from the WellPoint Foundation. The WellPoint Foundation, a private, non-profit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc., promotes WellPoint’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that WellPoint’s affiliate health plans serve. The grant will be used to help augment Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) nurse home visitors’ ongoing educational and monitoring efforts to reduce the rate of low birth-weight newborns among women enrolled in the NFP program.

The grant is specific to NFP sites in California, Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. More than 400 NFP nurses and close to 5,000 NFP clients stand to benefit from this funding.

“We are grateful to the WellPoint Foundation for their generous support of NFP’s efforts to help more women deliver healthy babies,” said Thomas R. Jenkins, Jr., President and CEO, Nurse-Family Partnership.

“While NFP has strong evidence of helping to reduce pre-term deliveries which are associated with low birth weight there is much to be done, especially with more than 600,000 first-time mothers eligible for NFP every year,” Jenkins added. “This grant will help our educational outreach efforts considerably.”

“The WellPoint Foundation is proud to support Nurse-Family Partnership in their efforts to increase the number of healthy pregnancies in these communities,” said Lance Chrisman, Executive Director, WellPoint Foundation. “We have high hopes that this grant will reap measurable benefits for families.”

Today, Nurse-Family Partnership serves more than 22,000 families in 32 U.S. states in a program of ongoing nurse home visitation.

Source: Nurse-Family Partnership

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is pleased to announce that five new Minority Nurse Faculty Scholars have been selected through a national scholarship program funded by the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future. Launched to address the faculty shortage and enhance diversity among nurse educators, this AACN-administered program provides generous financial support, mentoring, and leadership development to graduate students from minority backgrounds with aspirations to teach in our nation’s schools of nursing.

Joining the 38 scholars previously selected for this prestigious honor (and a similar program offered by AACN and The California Endowment) are the following students who are all enrolled in doctoral nursing programs:

- Willie Mae Abel, PhD candidate, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

- Lisa Carter-Harris, PhD candidate, University of Louisville

- Carolyn Hickman, PhD candidate, Arizona State University

- Jimmy Andres Reyes, DNP and PhD candidate, University of Iowa

- Beverly Waller, PhD candidate, University of Michigan

“AACN extends a hearty ‘congratulations’ to this year’s faculty scholars whose impressive academic and professional backgrounds will make them excellent nursing leaders and inspirational role models for the next generation of nurses,” said AACN President Kathleen Potempa. “We are grateful to the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for joining with AACN and taking decisive action to help diversify the nurse faculty population.”

The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future – AACN Minority Nurse Faculty Scholars Program was launched in September 2007 to support full-time minority students with an interest in teaching. This program invites applications from students in doctoral and master’s programs who will serve as nurse faculty after completing their degree programs. Scholarship recipients were selected by an application review committee, and awards in the amount of $18,000 each will be disbursed this fall. All scholarship recipients are expected to attend an annual faculty development program and meet regularly with an identified mentor who will assist in preparing Scholars to assume leadership roles in academia.

Leading Efforts to Diversify Nursing Education

As a central component of AACN’s core values and strategic plan, enhancing diversity in nursing faculty and student populations has been at the forefront of the organization’s advocacy work and programming for more than 10 years. AACN has effectively leveraged its resources to address this national priority given the strong connection between a diverse healthcare workforce and the ability to offer quality, culturally competent patient care. By providing scholarships and leadership development opportunities to minority students pursuing graduate degrees, AACN is creating a cadre of future nurse educators and leaders of the profession. The organization’s work to embed new standards related to cultural competency in the Baccalaureate and Master’s Essentials will help to better equip future nurses to care for an increasingly diverse patient population. Additionally, AACN’s work as program administrator for The Robert Wood Johnson New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program has opened the door for nearly 2,000 new nurses to enter the profession, all of whom come from ethnically diverse and/or disadvantaged backgrounds.

“AACN’s work to change the face of nursing is having a real impact, and we are proud that our collaborative efforts and strategic partnerships have resulted in more than $20 million in scholarship funding for minority nursing students since 2006,” added Dr. Potempa. “As the recognized voice for professional nursing education, AACN will continue to use its national platform to advocate for more programs and federal resources to assist schools of nursing with their efforts to remove financial barriers to nursing education and faculty careers for all populations in need.”

Source:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)

The American Nurses Association (ANA) applauds the introduction of federal legislation that empowers registered nurses (RNs) to drive staffing decisions in hospitals and, as a result, protect patients and improve the quality of care.

On the heels of the introduction of the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2010 (S. 3491/H.R. 5527), hundreds of registered nurses from across the country flocked to Capitol Hill last month to meet with their congressional representatives, emphasizing that insufficient nurse staffing can be a life-or-death issue for patients and that federal legislation is needed to ensure that hospitals don’t limit resources in a way that harms patient outcomes.

The RN Safe Staffing Act, crafted with input from ANA, has sponsors from both political parties – Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) and Lois Capps (D-CA), a nurse.

“We know that nurses across the country are deeply concerned about unsafe staffing because it puts patients at risk, as well as puts nurses’ careers on the line,” said ANA President Karen Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN. “Nurses observe all the time how insufficient nurse staffing diminishes the quality of care for patients. We won’t stop advocating on this issue until federal legislation is enacted to increase protections for patients and ensure fair working conditions for nurses.”

Research has shown that higher staffing levels by experienced RNs are linked to lower rates of patient falls, infections, medication errors, and even death. And when unanticipated events happen in a hospital resulting in patient death, injury or permanent loss of function, inadequate nurse staffing often is cited as a contributing factor.

The bill would require hospitals to establish committees that would create unit-by-unit nurse staffing plans based on multiple factors, such as the number of patients on the unit, severity of the patients’ conditions, experience and skill level of the RNs, availability of support staff and technological resources.

ANA backed a similar staffing bill in the last Congress. This version includes new requirements that a hospital’s staffing committee be comprised of at least 55 percent direct care nurses or their representatives, and that the staffing plans must establish adjustable minimum numbers of RNs per unit.

ANA has a long track record of advocating for safe staffing conditions for the nation’s registered nurses, through development of ANA’s Principles for Nurse Staffing in 1999, work with legislators and implementation of a national nursing quality database program that correlates staffing to patient outcomes. In 2007, the association launched its “Safe Staffing Saves Lives” grass-roots campaign, calling on nurses to become advocates. Nearly 1,000 RNs have sent their personal stories to ANA, describing how insufficient staffing on their units has put their patients in jeopardy, overwhelmed them with unmanageable patient loads, and, in some cases, driven them from their jobs.

The safe staffing bill would require hospitals that participate in Medicare to publicly report nurse staffing plans for each unit. It would place limits on the practice of “floating” nurses by ensuring that RNs are not forced to work on units if they lack the education and experience in that specialty. It also would hold hospitals accountable for safe nurse staffing by requiring the development of procedures for receiving and investigating complaints; allowing imposition of civil monetary penalties for knowing violations; and providing whistle-blower protections for those who file a complaint about staffing.

To date, seven states have passed nurse safe staffing legislation that closely resembles ANA’s national approach to ensure safe staffing. Those states are Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Source:
American Nurses Association

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In honor of National Nurses Week, the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest nursing organization, headed to Capitol Hill. In conjunction with the Congressional Nursing Caucus, ANA sponsored a luncheon briefing on Tuesday, May 11th at 12:00 p.m. to highlight for Congressional staff the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform that will reduce our nation’s exposure to toxic chemicals, protect nurses and other workers, improve the health of Americans, and decrease the cost of health care.

ANA sponsored the briefing to highlight the nursing profession’s concerns over chemical exposure and its impact on health care professionals and the patients we serve. “In keeping with this year’s National Nurses Week theme, Nurses: Caring Today for a Healthier Tomorrow, ANA came to Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers about the potential health risks of chemical exposures and the need for real environmental reform. ANA has been a leader in the formation of public policy that affects human health, and as nurses, will continue to advocate for laws that counteract potential threats to human health,” said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR.

Nurses, as the largest group of health care providers, recognize the serious impact chemical exposure has on the public’s health. Studies continue to demonstrate a link between chemical exposure and serious illnesses, including cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, neurological diseases and asthma. Exposure in the workplace puts nurses and other health care professionals at an even greater risk. To illustrate the dangers of chemical exposure, ANA, in partnership with Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), took part in a first of its kind biomonitoring study of physicians and nurses in October 2009. The findings showed each study participant had at least 24 individual chemicals present in their systems, four of which are on the recently released EPA list of priority chemicals for regulation. These chemicals are all associated with chronic illness and physical disorders.

Among the speakers at Tuesday’s event was Donna Yancey, RN, BSN, CRRN, a retired nurse and one of the biomonitoring study participants. Other speakers included Nancy Hughes, MS, RN, and director of ANA’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Andy Igrejas, campaign director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, and Joyce Martin, the director of Environmental Health Policy for the American Association on Individual and Developmental Disabilities.

National Nurses Week, first founded by ANA, focuses on giving thanks, recognition and acknowledgment for all nurses do for patients. Today’s nurses must have the strength to care for patients during times of disaster and crisis, and the compassion to provide hands-on patient care at the bedside – as they have done throughout the centuries. Moreover, at 3.1 million strong, nurses represent the largest group of health care workers in America, and have the power to achieve much-needed reform in health care and in nursing.

Source
American Nurses Association

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Due to a change in the law, the Nursing & Midwifery Council or NMC updated their advice for nurses and midwives on mixing medicines.

The changes in the legislation mean that nurse and midwife independent prescribers are able to mix medicines themselves and direct others to mix them.

Below are the following updates found on NMC website.

Mixing medicines

Background

• The Medicines Act 1968 defines manufacture in relation to a medicinal product, as any process carried out in the course of making the product. This does not include dissolving or dispersing the product in, or diluting or mixing it with, some other substance used as a vehicle for the purpose of administering it.
• Mixing two licensed medicines where one is not a vehicle for the administration of the other, falls within the definition of manufacture and results in a new, unlicensed product being administered. In addition, as a new product is being manufactured, a manufacturer’s license would be required.
• The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) established from inquiries and discussions with palliative care interests, that it had been long standing accepted practice in this field to prescribe a mixture of licensed medicines for administration to patients, usually via a syringe driver.
• The MHRA recognized that the then legal position had the potential to obstruct the provision of effective pain relief to patients receiving palliative care.
• Following a public consultation and advice from the Commission on Human Medicines, medicines legislation was amended on 21 December 2009. The changes enabled nurse and midwife independent prescribers to mix medicines themselves and direct others to mix them. ‘Mixing’ is defined in legislation as ‘the combining of two or more medicinal products together for the purposes of administering them to meet the needs of a particular patient.
• More specifically the changes allow:
• Doctors and dentists (who can already legally mix medicines) to direct others to mix.
• Nurse and midwife independent prescribers to mix medicines and to direct others to mix.
• Supplementary nurse and midwife prescribers to mix medicines and to direct others to mix, but only where that preparation forms part of the clinical management plan for an individual patient.
• We would expect nurses and midwives who are involved in the mixing of medicines to be supported by local polices and guidance. The Commission on Human Medicines Working Group has produced a report of their consideration into the mixing of medicines which contains a summary of key points for guidance.
• The changes apply to all clinical areas where the mixing of medicines prior to administration is accepted practice and supported by the employer’s policies for the delivery of healthcare.
• The changes do not apply to Patient Group Directions.

Controlled drugs

• A number of medicines used within palliative care are subject to the additional controls contained in the Misuse of Drugs Regulations (MDRs) which are the responsibility of the Home Office.
• The MDRs have a similar concept relating to the mixing of drugs which is referred to as ‘manufacturing’ or ‘compounding’. Under the MDRs only practitioners (doctors, dentists and vets) or pharmacists have the authority to manufacture or compound. Nurse or midwives do not have any such authority.
• Amendments are awaited to the MDRs.
• In the meantime, existing good practice should continue in relation to mixing of controlled drugs based on the MHRA’s existing public statements, of which the Home Office are aware.
• Nurses and midwives are advised that the MHRA guidance would be considered in any NMC fitness to practice proceedings. As with any legal, regulatory or disciplinary proceedings each case would be considered on its merits.

Mixing of medicines for the purpose of administration

• Mixing should be avoided where possible. It must only be undertaken when clinically appropriate and essential to meet the needs of the patient, rather than for the convenience of a health professional.
  Instructions to mix must be in writing.
• The person mixing the medicines must be competent.
• No-one should be obliged to mix and administer medicines, if they do not feel competent or content to do so.
• Guidance should be developed to aid those involved in the mixing of medicines.

Further resources

The National Prescribing Center will be issuing guidance on the mixing of medicines prior to administration in clinical practice.

References

1. “Nursing & Midwifery Council – Advice sheet: Mixing Medicines”

2. The Medicines (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2009. SI 2009/3063

3. Report of the CHM Working Group on Mixing of Medicines

4. MHRA statement on non-medical prescribing and mixing medicines in palliative care

5. MHRA Statement – updated information July 2009

6. Taken from guidance issued by the Commission on Human Medicines Working Group on Mixing Medicines