President's Message
I was talking to a friend and colleague the other day. I mentioned that the due date for this column was fast approaching. When I asked her what she looked for in a column from a president of a national nursing organization, she replied that she looked for inspiration. She wanted to read a column that would inspire her to go above and beyond the daily routine.
I thought about what inspires me? Who inspires me? Then it came to me: heroes! Who are my heroes? Who are heroes to others? Is it the pilot who safely landed a plane full of passengers in the Hudson River in New York on a cold winter day? Is it the banker in Florida who gave his multimillion dollar bonus to his employees? Although some may think of these 2 people as heroes, another person comes to mind: the nurse.
The new White House Administration has placed healthcare near the top of the nation's agenda. The registered nurse (RN) and the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), especially, have an incredible opportunity to help shape a safe, quality, and cost-effective healthcare system.
The public trusts a nurse. The annual Gallup Poll examined the honesty and ethical standards within a range of professions, and the nursing profession repeatedly ranked as the most trustworthy. The public knows that the nurse will have the patient's best interests in mind. The nurse responds when the patient is in pain, the call light goes on, or a neighbor needs advice about a rash or information regarding the side effect of a medication. The nurse responds in times of crisis, such as a hurricane, tornado, or car crash. The nurse is in the community, hospital, clinic, school, and workplace.
The nurse recognizes the patient is more than a set of symptoms. The nurse looks at the patient as a whole person. The physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychosocial components of the patient are all considered when assessing and planning care for the patient. And as part of that plan, the nurse helps the patient navigate the healthcare system. The nurse is the interpreter of complex information, the coordinator of care.
Cost is also a consideration in healthcare. Increasing the number of RNs in hospitals can prevent complications and save lives. The nurse is at the bedside 24 hours a day and is in the unique position to detect the slightest change in a patient's condition. The prevention of potential complications and further deterioration in a patient's status will decrease patient morbidity, mortality, and length of stay and thus result in safe, cost-effective, quality healthcare.
The nurse is a leader and role model. The nurse takes the lead in improving care and shaping hospital policy. The nurse serves as a leader in a government agency, the uniformed services, and during implementation of a public health program. As a role model, the nurse is held to a higher standard. The patient and family look to the nurse to provide calm, competent, ethical, and unbiased care. They watch the nurse to learn how to effectively advocate for services or successfully broach difficult topics, such as end-of-life care. The nurse truly has many functions and responsibilities.
How do the roles of hero and advanced practice nurse fit into the picture? I described several faces of the nurse, all heroic. You may not see yourself in that light, but you certainly are in that category. How did you get there? Chances are you had a mentor. I am not referring to a preceptor that oriented you to your new position. I am referring to a person who was there to listen when you had a very good or very bad day or experience, the person who always had sound, wise advice drawn from experience, the person you wanted to be when you "grew up."
A clinical nurse specialist (CNS) may have been your hero or mentor. The CNS certainly is involved in shaping healthcare and has an impact on the nurse at the bedside. The CNS is responsible for teaching the novice nurse how to critically think and how to react in specific patient situations. The CNS suggests evidence-based therapies and interventions. And the CNS mentors the professional growth and development of both the novice and experienced nurse. Who mentors the nurse in the pursuit of advancement in a clinical ladder process? Who mentors the nurse in poster development or a podium presentation for a local or even national conference? You guessed it, of course, the CNS!
The CNS has many faces, too. The CNS is the change agent, facilitator, policy maker, educator, researcher, mentor, and so many other things to so many people. But first and foremost, the CNS is a nurse. I still think of the CNS as a hero because the CNS is the person who inspires the nurse to reach for a higher goal, to advance in a career beyond all expectations. The CNS is the person a novice nurse will seek when clinical advice is needed. The CNS is the person an experienced nurse will seek when advice regarding pursuit of advanced education is needed. The CNS is a multifaceted individual who has tremendous impact on so many others-patients, families, nurses, nursing, and systems and organizations. I am extremely honored and proud to be included in this unique group of heroes: the CNS!
NACNS Updates
Conference News
The 2009 annual NACNS conference entitled "Clinical Nurse Specialists: Vision, Value, Voice" was held in St Louis from March 4 to 7. Despite the sluggish economy, CNSs showed up in full force, with attendance of approximately 400 participants and more than 40 exhibitors. NACNS and the Board of Directors sincerely thank the St Louis area CNSs for their support and numerous volunteer hours spent making conference participants feel welcome and for helping to make this conference such a success. NACNS and the Board of Directors also want to gratefully acknowledge and thank the following conference sponsors, exhibitors, and contributors for their support:
Corporate Sponsors
Sage Products
Major Sponsor
Nurses Service Organization
Sponsors
Abbott Nutrition
Voice Care-IVS
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Gannett Healthcare Group
Massachusetts General Hospital
Exhibitors
Academy of Medical-Surgical Nursing/ Medical Surgical Nursing Certification Board
Access Medical Solutions
Allina Hospital & Clinics
American Nurses Credentialing Center
Armstrong Medical Industries Inc
Bard Medical Division
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Baylor Health Care System
Calmoseptine Inc
Carroll Hospital Group
Children's Medical Center-Dallas
Department of Veterans Affairs
EBSCO Publishing
Elsevier/Mosby's Nursing eClinical Solutions
Elsevier/Mosby/Saunders
The Gideons International
Hill-Rom
Indiana Center for Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
J.A. Thomas & Associates
Joerns Healthcare Inc
Jones & Bartlett Publishers
KCI
Loyola University Chicago
Massimo
Massachusetts General Hospital
Nurses Service Organization
Posey Company
Providence Health & Services
Sage Products Inc
Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
The Silver Lady
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
Travel Portland
University of Pennsylvania Health Systems
University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics
US Army Medical Recruiting Team
Vidacare
Voice Care-IVS
Wiley-Blackwell
Wolf Tory Medical
Wolters Kluwer Health-Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Wound Care Education Institute
Board Member Farewells and Introductions
Our spring conference signals the annual change in leadership of the NACNS Board. We are fortunate to have so many talented members volunteer their time.
Melanie Duffy from Pennsylvania is our new president after serving 1 year as president-elect, 1 year as vice president, and 1 year as director.
Sue Sendelbach is leaving her position as president to assume the role of immediate past president. During her term of office as president, Sue co-chaired the doctoral competency task force. Patti Zuzelo was elected to the position of president elect after serving 1 year on the board as a director. Finally, the board welcomes new Director Rachel Moody. Outgoing board member is Theresa Murray, who was the immediate past president.
News From our Affiliates
For the California CNS Affiliate
The California CNS affiliate had an excellent turnout for its first 2009 quarterly educational offering. Drs Cheryl Canary Westlake and Renee Pozza, faculty at Azusa Pacific College, presented on the DNP versus PhD to more than 80 participants.
Members in the News
Elissa Brown has been elected president of the American Nurses Association, California, for this biennium 2009-2011.
The California Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Northern California Director Garrett K Chan, APRN, PhD, CEN, FAEN, is the lead advanced practice nurse in the emergency department observation unit and clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, in the critical care/trauma CNS specialty track. Dr Chan was inducted into the Academy of Emergency Nursing of the Emergency Nursing Association. Dr Chan was recognized for his leadership in research, his advanced understanding and articulation of the CNS role in emergency settings, and his work in the area of palliative/end-of-life care in the emergency department. Congratulations, Dr Chan!
The California APRN group met on January 31, 2009, and held an all-day strategic planning meeting. Members of each coalition of APRNs provided a representative to work on crafting for each group an information paper, which will then be submitted for compilation. Other members are working on an article about the various APRN groups, which can be used to educate and inform.
Margaret Talley RN CNS CWCN-AP
Wound Clinical Nurse Specialist
Chair California CNS Network
Palomar Pomerado Health System
(760) 739-2393
San Diego, California
Oklahoma Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
The Oklahoma Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists will be hosting its second Annual Advanced Pharmacology Conference on April 23 to 25 sponsored by Oklahoma Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists and the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing.
Members April Merrill, MS, APRN, CNS, and Rise Kester, MS, CNS, APRN-BC, provided leadership and expertise for their facility's diabetes program, which was recently awarded the gold seal of excellence by the Joint Commission for Advanced Inpatient Diabetes and also for Hyperglycemia.
In 1997, INTEGRIS Health of Oklahoma City and ediba Diabetes Center of Excellence partnered together to begin conquering the devastating effects of diabetes and hyperglycemia in the inpatient arena. This partnership has led to the development of an outpatient diabetes education center that is recognized by the American Diabetes Association and a world class inpatient Glucose Management Service led by 2 CNSs and an endocrinologist. Clinical nurse specialists April Merrill and Rise Kester of the Oklahoma Affiliate led the way in this journey by coordinating the interdisciplinary effort to meet the requirements for these certifications. INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center is the first hospital in the nation to receive the award for hyperglycemia and the first to receive both awards together.
Susan Dresser
Member Recognition
Mary Stahl of the Kansas Affiliate recently published "Update on Ventricular Assist Device Technology" in the January 2009 issue of AACN Advanced Critical Care Journal.
CNS of the Year
Linda Gorman, MN, APRN, BC, CHPN
Palliative Care CNS
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, California
Linda Gorman is one of the founding members of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center palliative care team and one of the essential backbones who have helped develop the team over the years. She has worked tirelessly to educate staff throughout the hospital by providing in-services to nurses, social workers, case managers, and physicians on concepts of palliative care. She developed the End of life (EOL) Champions program, providing an EOL education day to RNs nominated by their managers to bring additional understanding and information to the floor nurses on clinical concepts of EOL care. She helped formulate the dying patient protocol, a policy that allows for more comfort-driven care regardless of a patient's hospital location, and established most of the policies and procedures that currently exist for EOL care at Cedars. As a result of her work, the palliative care program has seen a 100% increase in consultations over the last few years and an expansion into areas such as emergency department and intensive care unit and, most recently, to pediatric medicine.
She is a coveted lecturer and mentor for University of California Los Angeles and Cal State CNS/nurse practitioner students. She serves on many hospital committees and is one of the primary team that helped establish the medical center's Nursing Research Conference, as well as a nursing toolbox, which are a series of lectures and meetings for nurses to help them develop their research projects.
Linda is certified as a psychiatric CNS, and before palliative care (where her psychiatric skills are well used), she was well known in her field. Her book Psychosocial Nursing for General Patient Care was nominated as American Nurses Association book of the year last year and remains a valuable resource for nursing.
Researcher of the Year
Morris A. Magnan, PhD, RN
Staff Nurse, Nurse Researcher
Karmanos Cancer Center, Detroit, Michigan
Dr Magnan is known for his ability to communicate with nurses at all levels of practice and to work collaboratively across disciplines to advance nursing practice and research. He has a consistent record of writing research proposals, conducting research, and disseminating findings. In other words, he completes the full cycle of planned research from problem identification to research dissemination.
Dr Magnan's research is the first to raise questions about the reliability of pressure ulcer risk assessments made in acute care settings. His research includes a multisite program to understand the effects of Braden Scale training on the reliability and precision of Braden Scale pressure ulcer risk assessments and the reliability of the Braden subscale ratings. He also examined the effect of technology-assisted training on the correct endorsement of pressure ulcer preventive interventions. Dr Magnan gathered and analyzed data tosubstantiate desirable and undesirable patient outcomes linked to nursing practice.
Preceptor of the Year
Marianne Hujcs, MSN, RN, CCRN, CNRN, CNS
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ms Hujcs is described as a "gift that keeps on giving," who has changed the course of students' lives and, in the span of a single semester, influenced them so strongly that they maintain a lifelong relationship with someone many consider their "greatest preceptor ever." She leads and inspires her students, nurses, her colleagues, and her fellow CNSs. Her 14-year history of precepting students and her influence has extended to students from 5 different colleges in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Utah. While precepting students and working as a CNS, she is known for her outstanding ability to inspire staff to deliver excellent care. She has a unique ability to unite both the theoretical and didactic aspects of preceptorship within the dynamic critical care environment. She fully demonstrates the simultaneous challenges of the CNS as a role model, leader, and clinical expert.
She sees each student as a limitless opportunity to promote the unique value of the CNS role and the essential support provided families, patients, and nurses. She actively promotes CNS students' critical thinking skills and autonomy through thoughtful interdisciplinary engagement and inclusion at the clinical site with members of the interdisciplinary teams, clinical nurses, and administrators.
Educator of the Year
Elaine Steinke, PhD, ARNP, CNS
Professor
Wichita State University, School of Nursing
Wichita, Kansas
Dr Steinke, who has taught in the Adult Health and Illness Clinical Nurse Specialist option for approximately 20 years, is known as an exemplar scholar for junior faculty and CNS students. She is a full-time professor who has achieved national and international recognition. Dr Steinke brings a wealth of knowledge to the graduate nursing students in both the master of science and doctor of nursing practice degree programs. Her commitment to high-quality graduate education is evident in her curriculum development and teaching abilities. She has numerous relevant publications in a variety of journals and books. Her scholarship is noteworthy and cited throughout the literature in her topic area.
She is a thoughtful, highly organized, knowledgeable CNS educator who has significantly contributed to the graduate students' education and to their role as a CNS upon graduation. Her expertise and devotion to current CNS students and alumni are highly valued. In addition to degree-bound graduate students, she also helps tailor the educational sequence of courses for postmaster's degree students seeking to acquire advanced practice eligibility for state and national certification.
Brenda Lyon Leadership Award
Peggy Gerard, DNS, RN
Dean
School of Nursing, Purdue University Calumet
Hammond, Indiana
As NACNS treasurer, Dr Peggy Gerard established fiscal procedures and a reporting system that continue to serve as the foundation for the board's management of the association's finances. She provided leadership for the board to identify new sources of revenue and reduce expenditures.
As NACNS Education Committee co-chair and then board liaison to that committee, she provided leadership for many of the projects that have moved NACNS to the forefront as the expert on CNS education. Examples of these are as follows:
* surveys of CNS programs to describe curriculum content,
* development and publication of the CNS Program Directory,
* development and implementation of NACNS's Program Consultation service, and
* NACNS's 2006 CNS Summit that focused on CNS doctoral education.
She cofacilitated the NACNS doctoral competencies task force, was a key leader for our 2007 annual CNS Summit, and is now coleader of our Education Standards task force.
Peggy has approached every responsibility with great thoughtfulness and shared her wisdom freely for the benefit of NACNS.
She has been the dean of the Purdue University Calumet School of nursing since 2002 and is highly respected within the school and across the campus. In 2008, while serving on the NACNS Board, she also served 6 months as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs for the university.
Sue B. Davidson Service Award
Kathleen Vollman, MSN, RN, CCNS, FCCM
CNS, Educator, Consultant, and Entrepreneur
Advancing Nursing
Northville, Michigan
Kathleen has provided visionary leadership for NACNS since its inception.
Under her leadership as chair of the Membership Committee, many initiatives have been developed and implemented to support the continued growth of this organization, for example, the member-get-a-member campaign, the ambassador program, and personal follow-up contacts with nonrenewing members. Kathleen has also been instrumental in recruiting Sage Products Inc as our first corporate member.
Kathleen is a tireless worker for NACNS and a role model to many new CNSs. She is a wonderful example of a true professional leader both within NACNS and in the nursing community.