The 2011 National Nursing Ethics Conference
will be held in March in Universal City, California.
This is an opportunity for nurses in a range of specialties to learn and discuss and think more about personal values and the values of the profession and how these values mesh with the aims of care for patients, limited resources and professional responsibilities.
Another purpose of the conference will be for nurses to engage with each other to examine more closely the obligations of nurses that are set forth in the nursing Code of Ethics.
The conference will help not only bedside clinical nurses but also nurse administrators and managers, nurse educators, advanced practice nurses and social workers.
Discussions and presentations at the conference will center around the challenges nurses face in acting ethically, the practices now in use that exemplify the Code of Ethics for Nurses, the role of values and character in acting ethically, the types of treatment that are not ethical and how to handle them, and moral distress and moral courage.
With regard to nursing ethics, the American Nurses Association has established a number of recommendations. These include the recommendation that nurses champion human rights for patients, other nurses and communities. The ANA also recommends that nurses promote ethical practices by fostering work environments that support accepted standards of practice.
Other recommendations include enhancing nursing practice by refusing to engage in care that would cause patient quality of care to suffer. Where there are conditions that compromise the ethical practice of nursing, the ANA recommends that nurses contact nursing organizations for help in improving conditions. Nurses also need to be aware when they may have conflicts of interest with patients, healthcare institutions, employers, or other agencies. The ANA also promotes collaboration among nurses and other healthcare professionals to establish environments that foster ethical behavior. Nurses also should work to further discussion of ethics and human rights among the profession and also support healthcare policy that aids in access of care for everyone.
The ANA considers the protection of human rights as they relate to heath and healthcare a fundamental element in the practice of nursing. Nurses champion patients’ rights, especially those whose rights may be in greater jeopardy. The human rights of patients, nurses and citizens of the communities in which nurses practice are important to nurses, and nurses must work to safeguard those rights in the healthcare environment. The profession of nursing is founded on respect for the “worth, dignity, and human rights of every individual,” according to the ANA.
Earn a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree at the College of Graduate Nursing at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. The CGN is the first college in Southern California to offer the DNP program. The two-year, Web-based DNP degree program lets nurses continue to work as they pursue a nursing doctoral degree.
The National League for Nursing: Association for Nursing Educators
The National League for Nursing is an organization for nursing faculty and leaders in nursing education. Members of the organization include nurse educators, education agencies, healthcare agencies, and members of the public. Through the NLN, educators can participate in development programs, network with other educators, participate in testing and assessment, obtain research grants, and find out about public policy related to nursing.
The organization has 30,000 individual members and 1,200 institutional members.
The NLN was founded in 1893 and was the first nursing organization in the United States. The main office of the organization is located in New York City.
The NLN has four main goals: one, to be a leader in nursing education; second, to build a diverse membership and be responsive to its members’ needs; third, be a voice for nurse educators and promote their interests in academic and government arenas; and fourth, promote nursing education that is evidence based.
As part of its goal of being a leader in nursing education, the NLN seeks to be the main source of information about nursing education and the profession for legislators and educators themselves. The goal is to be a key influence on nursing education among all types of programs and student populations. The goal is to tackle issues related to excellence in education, and resolve those issues. The organization also wants to play a key role in forming public policy on nursing education.
The NLN also has four core values of caring, integrity, diversity, and excellence.
The NLN identifies caring as an essential and basic element of the nursing profession. It is a commitment to caring for the whole person in a clinical setting, and beyond that, a commitment to the common good.
Integrity involves open communication, ethical practice and humility. This core value highlights the importance of doing the right thing and having a commitment to truth.
Valuing diversity for the NLN means acceptance and respect for all persons. It is the knowledge that each person is unique and has something to offer society. It is recognizing and embracing differences in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, and religious and political beliefs without judgement. This recognition of diversity means making the attempt to understand ourselves and others, according to the NLN, and celebrating what each person has to offer, no matter how small that contribution may be.
The NLN, in its commitment to excellence, is committed to the continuous development of its members.
Earn a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree at the College of Graduate Nursing at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. The CGN is the first college in Southern California to offer the DNP program. The two-year, Web-based DNP degree program lets nurses continue to work as they pursue a nursing doctoral degree.
What is the American Nurses Foundation?
The American Nurses Foundation provides philanthropy to enhance the “welfare and well being of nurses.” It works to improve the nursing profession and the general health of the public.
Through its funding, nurses can do research in various healthcare areas, such as examining the warning signs of stress-related high blood pressure, how diabetes can be monitored, and the stages of infant development. Almost 1,000 nurses have done research using funding from the Foundation.
The Foundation works essentially to give seed money to nurse researchers who are just beginning their work. The Foundation has given nearly $4 million to nurse researchers over the past 54 years.
Many of these researchers have gone on to become leaders in nursing research, making an impact on a national level.
Some of the examples of the research include:
Research on the effect of exercise on fatigue and mood in women with breast cancer.
Research on the variables that help or hinder nurses” control over their practice .
Research on the process for increasing nurses” professional satisfaction.
Research on how cultural perspectives determine how patients and their families view healthcare.
Research on cognitive aging.
Research exploring adolescents’ ideas of physical activity.
The Foundation also has a Scholar in Residence program, which provides a one-year term of residence at the Institute of Medicine to do research. In addition to the Foundation, the program is supported by the American Nurses Association, the American Academy of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine. It is designed to give the necessary resources to nursing researchers who are involved in health policy initiatives at the national level.
Donations to the Foundation enable it to offer the many research grants that it does. Donations can be made through the Honor a Nurse Recognition Program. This program gives public recognition to a nurse in whose name the donation was made.
Support can also be given to the Foundation through payroll deduction at your place of work.
Donations also may be made through matching donations at your place of work if your company has such a program. In this type of program, companies match one-to-one their employees’ tax-deductible donations.
Donations also may be made through a transfer of stock. You can also donate your vehicle.
The ANF accepts general donations by check and credit card, by mail, online, or by phone. Any gift may be made “in memory” or “in honor” of a family member or other loved one.
Take your nursing career to the next level — and help those who need it most — by enrolling in the Web-based MSN/FNP program at Western University of Sciences’ College of Graduate Nursing. A full-time student can complete the course in as little as two years while continuing to work as a nurse and studying at times convenient to your schedule.
Institute of Medicine Report on the Future of Nursing
A new report from the Institute of Medicine focuses on the future of nursing. The report urges the nursing profession to take a greater role in leading change in healthcare and healthcare reform.
Because of the number of nurses and the ability of the profession to adapt to change, the report says that the nursing profession has the ability to lead the way in far-reaching changes to the healthcare system in the United States. Also, because they have direct contact with patients and a large body of knowledge about healthcare, nurses are in an unmatched position to work with other healthcare professionals to lead in the improvement and redesign of healthcare in a range of settings, including hospitals, schools, homes, clinics, long-term care facilities and community health centers.
Nurses are at the crux of healthcare change, according to the report. Because of their function in the healthcare system, they have the ability to help improve access to healthcare, to help coordinate care in a broad range of settings, and to expand their services as primary care providers.
Also, studies have shown that nurses can have a huge impact on quality of care by protecting patient safety, preventing errors in giving medication, reducing infection rates, and even making the transition easier for a patient between the hospital and home.
But even though nursing care is involved in a broad range of areas, from promoting good health, to preventing disease, to coordinating care, the profession itself lacks the diversity it needs to have. Nurses are not as diverse racially, ethnically, in gender or age to be able to relate culturally to different populations in the country.
The report urges that nurses need to have more education and training to prepare for new duties and to respond to the changes that are quickly occurring in healthcare in an evolving healthcare system. Because of restrictions to what they can do in clinical care, limitations put on them by policy and reimbursement guidelines, and professional tensions, nurses have not been able to do all that they are capable of doing in providing quality care and in improving care. To improve the quality of care, the nursing work environment will have to change, along with nurses’ range of duties, their education and their numbers.
The report came up with four key messages. First, nurses need to practice to the fullest degree of their education and training. Second, nurses need to attain higher levels of education. Third, nurses should be equal partners, along with physicians and other healthcare providers, in helping to redesign and improve healthcare in the United States. And fourth, in order to have the best trained nurses, and the best healthcare policy, there needs to be better collection of healthcare information and an improved information collection system.
Take your nursing career to the next level — and help those who need it most — by enrolling in the Web-based MSN/FNP program at Western University of Sciences’ College of Graduate Nursing. A full-time student can complete the course in as little as two years while continuing to work as a nurse and studying at times convenient to your schedule.
Nurses Push for Greater Role in Patient Care
Because of the growing shortage of primary care physicians, nursing groups are saying more nurse practitioners will be needed to make up for the physician shortage. This is a problem that will only get worse with the new health reform legislation that will give health coverage to millions of people who up until now had none.
Some health experts are pointing to nurse practitioners as the answer to the shortage because, the experts say, nurse practitioners have the education and training to do a number of things, including physical exams, diagnosis and treatment of common conditions and prescribing drugs.
But the American Medical Association, as it has done before, is urging legislators to move slowly, saying that patient care could be affected by giving nurse practitioners a larger role. The conflict between these two positions has only intensified as pressure grows to use healthcare professionals such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
The AMA has openly questioned the training of nurse practitioners and their ability to take on the kinds of care provided by doctors. It has questioned the methods of nurse practitioners in making prescriptions, and has cited a survey that shows that only 10 percent of nurse practitioners feel qualified to deliver primary care.
But the American Nurses Association and other nursing groups have said that the information coming from the AMA is misleading and has many “factual misrepresentations.”
The real issue is supervision, according to the president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. He said physicians realize that healthcare professionals such as nurse practitioners have played an important role in providing healthcare. But, he added, the way to ensure that care is the most safe and highest quality is to make sure that a physician is giving oversight to the nurse practitioner.
The issue has gained increasing importance with the passage of healthcare reform legislation. The shortage will be greatest among primary care physicians under universal healthcare coverage.
But there are examples of nurse practitioners filling the care gap. When Massachusetts established universal coverage, for example, nurse practitioners were recognized by the state as primary care providers
Two public policy research centers have published reports advocating for the use of professionals like nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to help bridge the gap in primary care. The Center for American Progress stated that “maximizing the use of the entire healthcare workforce would increase quality while decreasing cost.”
Most states require nurse practitioners to get a master’s degree in nursing, but education and training requirements vary.
Take your nursing career to the next level — and help those who need it most — by enrolling in the Web-based MSN/FNP program at Western University of Sciences’ College of Graduate Nursing. A full-time student can complete the course in as little as two years while continuing to work as a nurse and studying at times convenient to your schedule.