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Nursing Students Get Career Assistance at Annual NSNA MidYear Conference
The National Student Nurses’ Association (NSNA) is holding its 27th Annual MidYear Career Planning Conference from October 29 to November 1 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona. This year’s theme – Your Nursing Career: A Path Like No Other! – will focus on career planning and offer resources for nursing students to enhance their career.
The conference will kick off on October 29 with a keynote address by Kathleen Bartholomew, MN, RN, RC, national speaker, counselor and author and will conclude on October 31 with roundtable discussions.
The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future is sponsoring a workshop entitled, “Media and Image Workshop: The Ripple Effect of Nursing.” Nursing students will learn how their actions reflect the entire image of nursing. The workshop will provide an overview on how to develop your personal brand and how that brand can help create a positive image of nursing.
For more information about the NSNA MidYear Conference, visit www.nsna.org.
Celebrate Medical-Surgical Nurses Week November 1 – 7
Medical-surgical nurses focus every day on caring compassionately for patients and families. The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) has designated November 1-7 to celebrate these nurses across the nation and bring attention to one of the most diverse nursing specialties practiced today. Medical-surgical nurses care for adult patients in a broad range of settings, applying their expert knowledge to all body systems and disease processes.
For more information on Medical-Surgical Nurses Week, visit www.amsn.org. |
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Maryland Nurses Celebrate at Promise of Nursing Gala
As part of its ongoing commitment to help alleviate the nursing shortage in Maryland and across the United States, The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future hosted the Promise of Nursing for Maryland gala on September 24 to raise funds to help ease the shortage throughout the region. More than 750 area nurses and healthcare professionals from regional hospitals and institutions attended the elegant event at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, which raised more than $500,000 for regional nursing school grants, faculty fellowships and student scholarships.
Event speakers included Jessica Hay, RN, Greater Baltimore Medical Center; Hershaw Davis, Jr., nursing student, University of Maryland; Marian Grant, RN, Johns Hopkins University Medical Center; Maryann Bautista, RN, University of Maryland Medical Center; and Kenya Haney, president of the National Student Nurses' Association (NSNA), nursing student, University of Missouri, St. Louis.
Congratulations to nurses at the University of Maryland Medical Center who won the Promise of Nursing Video Challenge Contest with their entry, “A Day in the Life of A Radiology Nurse.”
For more information on the Promise of Nursing for Maryland gala, visit www.campaignfornursing.com. |
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The 2009 Progress Report is Available!
Each year, The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future develops a progress report outlining Campaign highlights for the year. The Campaign has made great headway since it launched in 2002 and continues to raise awareness of nursing and the challenges nurses face across the healthcare industry. Read more about 2009 Campaign accomplishments by visiting www.campaignfornursing.com and downloading the 2009 Progress Report. |
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Hospice Nursing – A Team Effort
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| Each year, the NHPCO develops a quilt panel in honor of National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. |
To celebrate hospice and palliative care nurses across the country, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) designates November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. While hospice and palliative care has gained more mainstream recognition in recent years, the 2009 milestone marks the 31st anniversary of this appreciation month. The NHPCO offers valuable resources, such as state hospice guides, a pain care bill of rights, and financial information for those who may be caring for an ill loved one or grieving for a lost loved one through their Caring Connections program. To advocate support and build awareness for hospice and palliative care, NHPCO also develops a quilt panel in honor of the month to acknowledge the thousands of hospice facilities and organizations who care for the terminally ill.
As older Americans age, the need for nurses to provide premium end-of-life care is increasing. Hospice nurses and their teams provide comprehensive physical, psychosocial, emotional and spiritual care to patients and their families. While most hospice nurses provide care at home, hospice care in nursing homes has risen in recent years. Wherever the patient resides, hospice teams help provide peace and quiet at the end of life.
“The hospice team is a truly unique interdisciplinary team made up of physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, aids and spiritual caregivers,” said John Mastrojohn III, RN, MSN, MBA, vice president of palliative care, quality and research, NHPCO. “Nurses are a critical part of the team, because they often act as the case manager for the patient and are responsible for coordinating patient care.”
The NHPCO reports that more than 1.4 million Americans receive care from hospice providers annually with 22.8 percent living in a nursing home.
A recent review article published in the September issue of The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management found that nursing home hospice patients received the same high-quality care as hospice patients living in their own homes. According to the Department of Health Policy at Harvard Medical School, on average, hospice nurses spend about 20 days with a patient at the end of his or her life, whether it is in the patient’s home, a family member’s home or a nursing home.
For more information on the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, visit: www.nhpco.org. For more information on Caring Connections, visit www.caringinfo.org.
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| Hospice nurses coordinate care and help enhance the quality of life for patients nearing the end stage of life. |
Providing Peace in Passing
It is never easy to plan for, discuss or witness the conclusion of a life, but this inevitable process can seem less disheartening when patients and families are better prepared for what’s to come. Hospice nurses, also known as palliative care nurses, are trained to do just that. Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that reduces the severity of a disease or slows its progress rather than providing a cure.
Hospice nurses dedicate themselves to patients with chronic and/or life-threatening conditions by providing medical care and serving as the family liaison with the caregiving team, which may include family members, physicians, social workers, therapists, attorneys and clergy. Working collaboratively, hospice nurses coordinate care to minimize suffering and enhance the quality of life for patients nearing the end stage of life to ensure they are comfortable in their final days.
“It requires a unique and compassionate person to care for the terminally ill because you go in knowing these patients have a limited amount of time,” said Ellen Leary, RN, CHPN at Samaritan Hospice in Marlton, N.J. “Although it is often emotionally challenging, it is very rewarding to care for patients and their families by entering their most intimate worlds and guiding them through the end-of-life process.”
A career as a hospice nurse requires completing the education for becoming a registered nurse (RN) and passing the NCLEX-RN licensing exam. Most services also require RNs to have a bachelor’s degree in nursing and at least one year of acute care experience. To become a certified hospice nurse, nurses must have a current license as an RN, at least two years of full-time experience in a hospice-nursing practice, and they must pass the National Board of the Certification of Hospice Nurses exam. Hospice nurses also typically have master’s degrees in hospice and palliative nursing.
The primary focus of hospice nursing involves assessing and managing the physical symptoms and psychosocial issues of the terminally ill patient, which often includes assessing the patient for infection, providing pain medication and supplying the patient with proper nutritional and emotional support. In addition, hospice nurses are also charged with assessing the patient’s family dynamics to understand how to best treat the patient and teach family members the basics of taking care of their loved one. Because many hospice nurses provide care in the patient’s home and cultivate close relationships with a patient and their family, these nurses are often viewed as an extension of the family. They may even help the family through bereavement following the patient’s passing and stay connected well after the loved one’s death to provide support.
“As a hospice nurse and often the leader of the medical team, my role may not always be medical in scope,” said Leary. “I not only experience the last moments of a patient’s life as a caregiver and a friend, I also empower the family to feel confident that they are doing the best they can possibly do for their loved one.”
To learn more about hospice nursing, visit www.discovernursing.com.
 Joan Rollins Tropp, RN, hospice nurse, Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in nursing?
A: When I was in fifth grade, I had my appendix removed and, of course, was very scared. During my stay at the hospital, the nurses were so nice and took such good care of me that I decided I one day wanted to become a nurse and make others feel better. When I returned home, I even posted a note above my bed vowing to become a nurse when I grew up, just as a reminder to myself.
Q: What inspired you to become a hospice nurse?
A: After seeing many trauma cases in the emergency room setting, I started thinking about my own mortality. Back then, people never really talked about death, so there was much to learn. I started taking classes on death and dying at The Women’s Institute of Houston, and my newfound knowledge provoked me to start a Patient Counseling Team with a friend at Bryn Mawr College in 1978. The team became a hospice program at the hospital, which was a significant accomplishment since the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) didn’t begin accrediting hospice programs until 1983.
Q: What advice would you offer to nurses interested in hospice nursing?
A: Always remember that even though the patient is terminally ill, they are very much alive and it is an honor to be part of their life. Hospice nursing offers the opportunity to really connect with a patient and family and provide care so that the patient feels comfortable and the family feels involved and can focus on the quality of time left with their loved one.
Q: How has nursing impacted your life?
A: Nursing continually reminds me that life is a journey. Every facet of my life has been impacted, from the way I care for my children to having a flexible and reliable career.
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