The College Network Blog

Charles Fox here signing in for the very first time!  I will be posting weekly to keep you up to date on happenings related to nursing, education and The College Network.  There will be plenty to say about these topics - but first, a little about myself!

I moved to Indianapolis in 2008 to attend IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis).  I completed my MA in Museum Studies in 2010, and my focus was on contemporary art.  My undergraduate study took  place at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.  I graduated in 2008 with a double major in English and Spanish, and I also studied abroad in Costa Rica and the Bahamas.  I am originally from Oak Park, Illinois but I am proud to call Indy home right now!

I have only worked at The College Network for a short time, but it has been an interesting and rewarding experience.  Besides my recently added responsibility as a member of TCN's new Social Media Task Force, I am an Appointment Coordinator.  I call people on the phone who have expressed interest in degrees that TCN offers, qualify them, answer some of their questions, and set them up with Program Advisors in their area who can supply them with further information and help them to enroll if the program is a good fit for them.   I am a textbook extrovert, so I enjoy talking with people while I am at work.  Helping people move forward with their education and careers is very gratifying, and it is also nice to think about the high quality of care that patients will receive in the future from nurses who complete the quality programs offered by The College Network.

I love social media, and I am excited and honored to be blogging for TCN now.  Keep an eye on the blog, as there is a lot of interesting content to come!  Until later...

-Charles

An excerpt from an article that appeared in The Dallas Morning News appears below. The article highlights how nurses can both lower healthcare expenses and help to ease the primary-care crunch. Sandy McCoy, recently named nurse practitioner of the year by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, shares some interesting views on nursing. If you are an LVN in Texas looking to take advantage of these fantastic career opportunities, the good news is that LVN to Bachelor’s Degree of Nursing from Indiana State University in partnership with The College Network is now available in your state and is a great first step!

“A nurse practitioner can do 80 to 90 percent of what a primary-care doctor can do in the office. But it depends on their skill level,” said Sandy McCoy, a nurse practitioner who has treated patients in the Dallas area for 19 years. From McCoy’s perspective, the easiest solution to the state’s primary-care crunch would be to allow advanced RNs to have stand-alone practices that provide basic medical care for patients who have no doctor. Anything complicated would be referred to a physician, she said.

“Many nurses would work in rural areas if the state would relax some of the restrictions on their practices,” said McCoy, who also serves as president of Texas Nurse Practitioners, a statewide organization representing the interests of about 8,000 RNs. Currently, 19 states allow nurse practitioners to work independently of doctors. An additional 20 states allow some lesser form of collaboration between the doctors and nurses. Texas is one of 11 states that require physician supervision for nurse practitioners.. Studies show that specially trained RNs, who are paid less than doctors, could cut national health care expenses by billions of dollars. Such nurses include RN anesthetists, certified nurse midwives, certified clinical-nurse specialists and nurse practitioners.

 

 

Nurse practitioner Sandy McCoy (left) watches as Gracie Hood rings a bell for being a good patient after her examination. 

In a previous post on The College Network Nursing Blog, I introduced the nursing career path of Nurse Practitioner. As the healthcare landscape evolves, an increasing amount of the burden of care falls on Nurse Practitioners, and this is a fantastic career goal for those thinking of becoming an RN. This week is National Nurse Practitioner Week; hats off to all the NPs who consistently deliver a high level of care! The information and image below come from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners:

National Nurse Practitioner Week, November 11-17, 2012 is a time to celebrate these exceptional health care providers and to remind lawmakers of the importance of removing outdated barriers to practice so that NPs will be allowed to practice to the full extent of their experience and education. Nurse practitioners are informed, in touch and involved, making them the health care providers of choice for millions and a solution to the primary care crisis in America.

 

 

Applications of the Lean Six Sigma methodology are limitless, but I thought that this recent example was of special interest. Mayo Clinic's Department of Laboratory Science Program applied Lean Six Sigma to the admissions process, and earned a national award at Lab Quality Confab for a poster presentation about the project. The result of the project was a significant reduction of the time between a student's application to the program and their acceptance. 

“Usually labs apply Lean and Six Sigma methods to improve work processes that involve how specimens are handled and tested,” said Fazi Amirahmadi, Ph.D., who is Systems Engineer Manager at Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. “Lean and Six Sigma techniques are not used much for work processes in the office or for graduate school admissions. But when we applied our Lean improvement methods to our rolling admissions process, the results were eye-opening for everyone. They found there is no limitation as to how and where we can use Lean and all of these process improvement tools." Information in this post came from an article on Dark Daily.

The College Network can help you to gather information and assist you with the enrollment process for Lean Six Sigma online and earning your certificate from Purdue University. Give me a call, I'm here to help. 

Charles Fox, Program Advisor

1-800-307-1006 ext 4767

I would like to share the following list by Eric Bloom, President and Founder of Manager Mechanics, of his top 10 reasons to become a PMP. If you are on the fence about obtaining Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, read Eric's list and reconsider the opportunity that PMP certification affords.

The College Network offers a Project Management Certificate course through Corporate Education Group that gives fantastic preparation--and the Professional Development Units (PDUs) required--to take the PMP exam. Corporate Education Group is also on the Global Executive Council of Project Management Institute (PMI), which is the global governing body of project management and the administrator of the PMP exam.

Eric's list is as follows: 

 

If the PMP certificate is a goal for you, give me a call at 1-800-307-1006 ext 4767.

-Charles Fox, Program Advisor

Understaffing is an issue that symbolizes both opportunity and challenges for current and aspiring nurses. The daily reality for hospitals that are understaffed is an environment that leads to nurse burnout, fewer RN hours per patient per day, and adverse patient outcomes. When the hospital is understaffed, the RNs who are on duty must pick up the slack and both themselves and their patients suffer as a result. Nurse burnout also results in hospitals losing money due to medical costs. 

 

The bright side of the problem in this case is the solution: hire more nurses! 

"It's a great time for hospitals to implement evidence-based staffing standards, said Dr. Linda Aiken, Director for the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. Aiken suggests staff ratio benchmarks such as those used in California be adopted nationally. . "It's not like being a waiter, where you have too many tables, which is stressful, but no one's going to die if they don't get their entree in time,"  RN Theresa Brown points out. As the nursing profession grows and staffing gaps are filled, new nurses will take advantage of opportunity and hospital environments as well as patient outcomes will improve.   Information for this post came from an article in The Huffington Post. Stay tuned to The College Network Nursing Blog for updates on the world of nursing! 

image courtesy of www.soliant.com

According to the National Association for Law Placement, only 65.4 percent of current law school grads are working in a job that requires passing the bar exam, and 12 percent are unemployed. "What is going on in the market is absolutely catastrophic," said Craig Boise, dean of Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. "It is not short-term. It has been precipitated by what is going on in the economy, which is a long-term dislocation caused by the way legal services are being delivered.”

It is often said that when one door closes, another opens; in this case, new opportunities for the positions of paralegal and legal assistant are now more abundant in the changing legal field. The role of the paralegal now includes significant responsibilities including research and direct client contact. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts an 18% increase in the profession’s workforce, which means 50,000 jobs added between now and 2020. If you are interested in paralegal career training through online education, give me a call at 1-800-307-1006, extension 4746.

Information in this post came from an article on AllVoices.

 

An exciting new technique is in use at Pittsburg State University to instruct nursing students: the First Annual Nursing Safety and Mobility Olympics. The event focused on the safe transportation of patients and their IV pulls. The 76 students were divided into eight teams and had to transport a patient over a certain distance, help them into a walker, and proceed 25 feet to the finish line, without letting the IV pull leave the ground. Safety technique was emphasized over speed. 

First-year nursing student Melody Nelson said about the event, “It’s nice that they’re changing it up so we can have fun,” Nelson said. “And it’s important to know how to keep the patient safe. If you don’t co-ordinate your care, you’re putting the patient at risk and you’re putting the staff at risk.” The education involved in becoming an RN has is certainly changing! Kudos to Pittsburg State University for making getting a nursing degree fun.  Information in this post came from an article on morningsun.net. 

A recent joint UK and South African study shows that nurses taking over duties for HIV patients resulted in no negative impacts and actually showed patient benefits, including improvement in tuberculosis detection rates, increased weight and white blood cell count, and better compliance with the treatment program. This could open the door to shifting responsibility from physicians to registered nurses, and serves to underscore the increased importance of nurses in the changing global healthcare system.

Becoming an RN today includes new challenges, opportunities and career paths that only serve to increase in the near future as the nursing role becomes more prominent. “Our findings show that with very little extra training and support nurses can deliver HIV care that is just as safe and effective as that provided by doctors,” said joint lead author Professor Max Bachmann, of Norwich Medical School at University of East Anglia. Read the entire article here, and continue to seek updates in the ever-evolving field of nursing on The College Network Nursing Blog. 

Lean Six Sigma is known to greatly improve efficiency and reduce waste, which increases profits. A less-documented benefit of the methodology is an increased employee satisfaction. In a recent post on The College Network Nursing Blog, I introduced the idea of Lean Six Sigma for the healthcare industry; now, testimonial evidence supports its usefullness in this arena. All 1,700 employees of Vincennes, Indiana-based Good Samaritan Hospital will receive Lean Six Sigma training. The effects have not just been in the bottom line, according to Brandee Hahn, a financial analyst and reimbursement manager at Good Samaritan Hospital and one of three people in the hospital's newly launched Lean Six Sigma department. "It's an avenue to have a voice and make change," she explains. The importance of employees feeling invested in their organization and feeling that they have a voice cannot be underestimated. Read more at FierceHealthcare. 

Learn more about the online Lean Six Sigma certification that The College Network offers in partnership with Purdue University here. If you like what you see, give me a call at 1-800-307-1006 ext. 4767. 

 

In a previous post on The College Network Nursing Blog, I wrote about the exceptional story of Navy trauma nurse  James Gennari, who risked his life in Afghanistan assisting a Marine who was brought in with a live rocket-propelled grenade lodged in his leg. Gennari said that the grenade's blast would have been powerful enough to demolish a car.

Now, I am pleased to report that Gennari has been honored with a Bronze Star.

The surgeon in charge told Gennari he did not need to risk his life, but he chose to anyways. “I said ‘I’m a nurse. That’s my job. I’m going.’” 

 

Trish Trangenstein

 

So far, I have posted about Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Researcher and Nurse Anesthetist on The College Network Nursing Blog. Today, I  am excited to share another fantastic nursing career: Nursing Informatics. This area of nursing is absolutely crucial to the developing healthcare field, and provides yet another great reason for someone who is on the fence to become a nurse. 

Below are excerpts from an interview with Trish Trangenstein from the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing website. The entire interview appears here. 

What does the term “nursing informatics” mean?
Nursing informatics is a specialty recognized by the American Nurses’ Association.  Nursing informatics transforms electronic information into knowledge and eventually knowledge into wisdom needed to improve outcomes.  Nursing outcomes can only be improved if you can apply wisdom across any number of areas, and a person needs advanced knowledge to interact with a spectrum of professionals in this way.  Nursing informatics is about getting the right knowledge and the right information to the right person at the right time to make the right decisions for patients and families.

What qualities does someone need to be successful in this field?

You have to enjoy technology.  You have to have that mindset and enthusiasm of enjoying new things.   This work also requires a lot of attention to detail because you are looking into an application and following pathways to find issues.  Most of my students say that you have to have a sense of humor and patience.  You also need to be willing to compromise because even if you come up with the ideal solution it may not get stakeholder approval.  And, you have to be able to translate between clinical providers and technology experts.  Nursing informaticists really walk between both worlds a bit.

What is the compensation?
A recent survey of nurses showed the mean nursing informatics salary as slightly under $100,000 per year.  In the last few years, we have also started seeing titles like “informatics nurse specialist” and “nursing chief informatics officer.”

What do you want everyone reading this to know about nursing informatics?
We are on the crux of such radical change in health care delivery and if you want to be in the middle of it, you want to be in nursing informatics.   There will be more data coming from different places and it’s exciting to see it coming together to help patients and providers and make health care delivery better.

As the issue of nurses' ability to provide anesthesia cycles through various state courts, I will strive to keep readers of The College Network Nursing Blog updated as verdicts are reached. Previously, I reported that California upheld the ability of Nurse Anesthetists to practice without the supervision of doctors. Today, I am happy to report that Colorado has done the same. 

Nurse Anesthetist is a fantastic and high-paying career option, and these recent legal decisions underscore the importance of this particular role in the modern healthcare field where nurses' responsibilities are increasing. If you are considering a becoming an RN, this is another great reason!

I recently read an article written by a nurse upon her retirement. As she reflected upon a career of caring for others, beginning with her training, going through her years of bedside care, and also mentioning futher degrees and an administration role, I felt inspired to share her story with readers of The College Network Nursing Blog. As Neonei Rees points out in her article, nursing is not easy and it is not for the faint of heart. It is my hope that by sharing stories such as hers, people who are on the fence about whether a nursing career might be a good option for them can gain some insight and hear some true stories told by nurses about exactly why they love what they do. Below is my favorite segment from Neonei's article; read the rest here. 

"And then it dawned on me: So this is what nursing is! It is the opportunity to be a part of the lives of strangers at their most personal and vulnerable moments. It is a short period of time to relieve pain, to comfort, to assuage fears, to honor dignity, to teach. It is just being there! It is the 'art' of nursing."

The benefits of Lean Six Sigma are not just for the manufacturing industry--other industries such as healthcare can also reap the benefits of the approach, as recent articles explain. The way space is laid out in a medical facility and how that relates to the number of procedures that can be accomplished, the way staff are utilized, and time from patient entry to procedure are all examples where an integrated Lean Six Sigma Approach has done wonders for implementers in the healthcare industry.

Give me a call if you are interested in learning more about the Lean Six Sigma Certification course program online through Purdue University. Find success with The College Network!

Charles Fox, Program Advisor

1-800-307-1006 ext. 4767

Medication errors in hospitals are the cause of 7,000 deaths annually, according to the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative. For nurses caring for patients requiring multiple IV lines, things can get jumbled and confusing, which increases the possibility of error. Terri Barton-Salinas, a California RN with more than 30 years of experience, had a creative idea of tackling the issue that she is now putting into production: IV lines that come in different colors. "There can be hazards in using clear, indistinguishable intravenous lines," Barton-Salinas said. "Like many nurses, I used to utilize color masking tape to differentiate the IV lines, but the tape often became snagged on the bed linens. I thought, if only IV lines came in different colors, it would make the process so much easier."

"Even one error is one too many and can put the patient’s life at risk," said Barton-Hay, who works as an OR nurse at the Monterey Peninsula Surgery Center in Monterey, Calif. "Instead of having to deal with a pile of confusing clear tubing, ColorSafe IV lines allow nurses to accurately, quickly and safely identify the patient’s IV lines. In emergency situations, when seconds count, this can make a profound difference in the outcome."

The colors are awaiting FDA approval, and the product is expected to hit the market this summer. For the entire article, click here. For more on the ColorSafe IV Lines, visit the website. The College Network supports innovation in nursing, and it is always great to see innovation come from within the field!

 

Some of our readers may not know that The College Network is based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. This news should be of interest to readers everywhere, but we are proud to see Indianapolis standing out as a paragon of healthcare. 

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has selected six Indianapolis hospitals to be the first participants in a new nurse leadership and innovation training program. Participating Indianapolis hospitals are Franciscan St. Francis Health, Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, Indiana University Health University Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health, St. Vincent Hospital, and Wishard Health Services.

“AACN CSI Academy offers tremendous potential benefits for nurses, patients and hospitals, from strengthening clinician confidence to preventing adverse events and shortening hospital stays," said Susan Lacey, PhD, RN, FAAN, who serves as director of the program. "The program is an important part of AACN's ongoing commitment to empowering direct care nurses and supporting their vital role in the transformation of healthcare."

Read more about the program here.

In past posts on The College Network nursing blog, I have talked about nursing careers including Nurse Researcher and Nurse Anesthetist. Today, I want to introduce another great nursing career option: Nurse Practitioner. The modern healthcare landscape sees the importance of nurses rising, and Nurse Practitioners are some of the most visible agents of this change. Anyone who has taken advantage of the convenience and cost savings associated with visiting local clinics and saving a trip to the doctor's office in order to obtain antibiotics for an infection, for example, has likely encountered a Nurse Practitioner. Dorrie Fontaine, Dean of the UVA School of Nursing, wrote an article recently that sings the praises of Nurse Practitioners. Below is an excerpt from her article; read the full article here.

As gatekeepers of health, advanced practice nurses (those with at least a master’s or doctoral degree) are the perfect answer to our 21st century health care woes. With a well-documented drop in the numbers of American family practitioners – fewer than one in five physicians-in-training opt to be family practitioners – nurses stand ready to fill in the gap.

First, there’s the cost differential, critical to any discussion about health care delivery. In a physician practice, research has shown that nurse practitioners decrease the cost per patient visit by as much as a third. NPs typically earn less than physicians – about half of physicians’ $198,000 average annual salary – and are less costly to educate, as well.

Second, there is a boom in interest in nursing, which, if cultivated properly, will ultimately translate into an increase in access. People want health care that’s convenient, not cumbersome. We don’t have time to wait four weeks for an appointment, linger 45 minutes in the lobby, thumbing through tattered magazines, hoping for an old, outdated system to heal us. In a 24/7 world, health care must strive to become more immediate and accessible, or– like people scrolling through a web page, stepping into a store or flipping through a catalog– we’ll lose the opportunity to treat them.

In a previous post on The College Network Nursing Blog, I introduced the fantastic career option of Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). This nursing role's importance--and independence--has just been upheld by the court in California, where it was decided that CRNAs are able to administer anesthetics to patients without the supervision of a doctor. This decision will be especially important for rural areas. 

So, if you are in California and you were thinking about moving from LVN to RN, here is another reason! If you find yourself itching to make the change, give us a call at 1-800-39-LEARN today! Read more about the court decision here. 

 

Image from US Air Force ROTC

 

A recent article on Nurse.com offers an alarming statistic on the health of nurses: more than 50% of nurses are obese, and 10% are smokers. The article offers some interesting information and advice for working nurses on staying healthy. I have condensed some relevant points for readers of The College Network Nursing Blog below; the article in its entirety appears here.

 

Regarding behavior-change concepts used with patients: “We teach [these concepts] to students, but we don’t apply those same models when we want nurses to change,” said Bernadette Melnyk, RN, PhD, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP, FAAN, associate vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean at the Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus.

-Building breaks into schedules

Nurses work notoriously long, stressful and irregular/shifting hours. As this will not change, nurses looking to make behavioral changes to achieve greater health often find success by working short breaks into their schedule for walking, stretching or engaging in other types of physical activity.

-Planning for change and also for barriers

Before making a wide-ranging change in behavior, it is useful to document daily habits including time management, diet and water consumption, and activity. This will allow for clearer ways to make changes. It is also a good idea to think of potential barriers and ways to counter them preemptively.

Karen Gabel Speroni, RN, BSN, PhD, MHSA, director of nursing research at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, Va  and co-creator of  research program Nurses Living Fit. Her report, “Effect of ‘Nurses Living Fit’ Exercise and Nutrition Intervention on Body Mass Index in Nurses,” cites a recent study showing that patients have less confidence in wellness advice from nurses who do not appear to have followed their own advice. “Weight-appropriate nurses had more public confidence in their teaching,” according to the report.

Nurses and students from San Angelo State University recently took a trip to Kenya and held a five day medical clinic in an impoverished rural community. They were able to treat 600 people during the course of the clinic, which was located in the village of Kamuya, town of Kisumu on Lake Victoria, which is a little over 200 miles away from Kenyan capital Nairobi. Shoes, socks, baby dolls, soccer balls and games were also distributed to residents as a result of a shoe drive and donations from the company Hasbro. Project Humanity has made a five year commitment to the village, and paid for hospital admissions that occurred during the clinic.

It is encouraging to hear stories of American nurses expanding their grasp to parts of the world that are in great need, and it also allows students undergoing Registered Nurse training invaluable experience and perspective. RN education comes in many forms! This story came from the San Angelo Standard-Times.