Websites of interest

Connecticut Nursing News, Jun-Aug 2001

Palliative and end-of-life care

Sigma Theta Tau International and the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing have created a new Website focused on palliative and end-of-life care. This online resource provides you with access to networking, funding, educational opportunities, guidelines and resources to help you transform palliative care rendered to patients worldwide.

Go to:

http://www.palliativecarenursing.net

HIPAA Website

The Health Care Finance Administration has a HIPAA website that provides information about HIPAA rights and protections, guidelines and applicability. It also has an interactive tool "HIPAA Online" which helps answer questions about your rights and protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The URL for the HIPAA website is:

http://www.hcfa.gov/medicaid/hipaa/

National Student Nurses' Association Partners with Decision Critical for Online Nursing Leadership University

Decision Critical, Inc., a leader in the health care learning management market, and the National Student Nurses' Association (NSNA), have formed a partnership to create NSNA's online nursing leadership university.

The NSNA Leadership U provides formal recognition of the leadership and management skills nursing students develop through participation in the association's service-learning programs and shared-governance activities. NSNA members in participating schools receive course credit and earn an NSNA Leadership U certificate of recognition when they graduate from nursing school.

Students, faculty, alumni and mentors now have access to leadership content, threaded discussions, and chats. Subsequent phases include leadership web casts, e-commerce opportunities, and online assessment utilizing the Decision Critical Education Data Repository.

Go to: http://www.nsnaleadershipu.org

Nursing Spectrum's Website Receives Prestigious Sigma Theta Tau Award

Nursing Spectrum's Website, Career Fitness(R) Online, recently received the 2001 Nursing Electronic Media Award (Region 5) from Sigma Theta Tau International, nursing's honor society. Sigma Theta Tau called the website, which was nominated by the Global Society for Nursing & Health, "exceptional."

"We are honored that Sigma Theta Tau has chosen to honor our website," said Patti Rager, RN, MSN, MBA, president and publisher for Nursing Spectrum. "Web technology is an innovative way to connect nurses, and our website is a labor of love. It is user-friendly, colorful, and fim. More than 500,000 RNs visit our site each month to take CE courses, chat with expert hosts, get career advice, and belong to a supportive, exclusive nurse community. Go to:

www.nursingspectrum.com

IRSA Staffing Study

The Health Resources and Services Administration released a study finding a strong relationship between hospital -nurse staffing levels and outcomes in medical patients-urinary tract infection, pneumonia, shock,- upper gastrointestinal bleeding and length-of-stay. A higher number of registered nurses was associated with a 3%-12% reduction in the rates of these adverse outcomes, while higher staffing levels for all types of nurses were associated with a 2%-25% decrease in these outcomes. The URL is:

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dn/staffstudy.htm.

And, Web information of interest...

Nursing Shortage-"... Our Hospitals and schools have always been staffed by cheap female labor..."

Gail Collins' Op-Ed piece in the April 13th "New York Times" discusses some hard-hitting facts about the nursing shortage and women in the workforce. At one time, "Women, the authority figures decreed, had an innate capacity for nurturing - low-cost nurturing. Those days are changing and nursing is, leading the way. "But from now on, a fair salary is going to be whatever it costs to get qualified people in the profession."

Go to http://www.nytimes.com (registration required)

A federal measure takes effect 4/20/01 that will potentially save the lives of thousands of nurses and other front-line health care workers each year by protecting them from dangerous needlestick injuries, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA)

Go to: http://www.nursingworld.org/pressrel/2001/pr04 18a.htm

http://www.needle.org

New ANA Position Statements

The following position statements were adopted by the American Nurses Association Board of Directors in 2000:

Violence Against Women

Adolescent Immunization

Privacy and Confidentiality

Human Cloning by Means of Blastomere

Splitting and Nuclear Transplantation

Elimination of Medication Waste in Long Term Care Facilities

Adolescent Health

The position statements are. posted on ANA's web site at http://www.nursingworld.org/ readroom/position

ANA-Workplace Advocacy Commission

Clair Jordon, executive director, Texas State Nurses Association, chair of ANA's Workplace Advocacy Commission, reports that the commission continues to have conference calls while developing a work plan that was taken to the March meeting of the ANA Board of Directors. Primary issues of the work plan were:

Nursing Shortage - identified by states as #1 priority