Nurses are crucial to patient outcomes, and work environments must be supportive so nurses can make their optimum contributions, says Dorrie Fontaine, DNSc, RN, FAAN, president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), which held its annual National Teaching Institute in Orlando, Florida, in May.
Fontaine opened the conference-attended by more than 6,700 nurses-by addressing three major issues for critical care nurses (patient safety, moral distress arising from ethical situations, and collaboration with other professionals) and exhorting nurses to commit to finding solutions in their workplaces. This was also the message of incoming president Kathleen McCauley, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN.
With the message "live your contribution," McCauley wants to spend her first year as president helping members discover which of their talents and skills will help improve their work settings. She pledged that the "AACN will remain a relentless partner" in promoting more healthful work environments, safer staffing, and more compassionate end-of-life care for patients-three major initiatives of the association.
McCauley says that in the coming year the AACN will focus on developing more research-based practice resources, increase the number of nurses certified in critical care, gather data on how critical care nursing is practiced throughout the country, and collaborate with other associations to address the nursing shortage and develop nurse managers.
The AACN also announced the first recipients of its new Beacon Award, recognizing hospital critical care units that have achieved excellence in patient care and created a supportive work environment. The winning units are at Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Massachusetts), Georgetown University Hospital (Washington, DC), University of California-Davis Medical Center (Sacramento), and Methodist Hospital (Houston). For more information about the AACN go to http://www.aacn.org. -Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN
ONCOLOGY NURSES ADDRESS CANCER IN OLDER ADULTS
The ONS releases a position paper at its annual meeting.
Acknowledging that approximately 60% of cancers afflict people older than 65 years, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and the Geriatric Oncology Consortium, a network of more than 150 community cancer clinics focusing on caring for older adults with cancer, joined to outline requirements for improving cancer care in this population. The statement calls for significant changes to address the needs of this group, including the elimination of ageism from research and practice, educating health care providers, full and equal access to care, funding for research on aging and cancer, and changes in health care policies and legislation to develop necessary services. The statement can be downloaded from the ONS website, http://www.ons.org.