Code News
ENA...Defining
the future of Emergency nursing and Emergency care through advocacy, expertise,
innovation, and leadership.
June 2001
Volume 3, Issue 2
Inside this issue:
Child Passenger Safety
IN ENA Delegates
Community Injury Prevention
Government Affairs
Impaired Nurses Program
A Word From Our President
Dear
Colleagues:
It’s hard for me to believe that it is already June
and my term of office is half over!
Where did the time go? Our duty
at hand now is the selection of officers for 2002 at both the national and
state level. Those of you who have your
email addresses registered with national should have received information about
the process to vote electronically.
Others will receive a paper ballot in the mail in the very near
future. Whether you vote electronically
or by paper, I urge you to take the time to vote. Historically, less than
10% of ballots are returned. The impact
of this small ballot return is that it makes a difference in our leadership and
may effect the representation of Indiana Emergency Nurses at the national
level. If you don’t know who the
candidates are, please visit the ena.org web page, where you will find links to
candidate statements. Candidates for
offices are not allowed to campaign by methods other than word of mouth. If you would like to discuss which
candidates may have a more positive impact for Indiana, feel free to contact any of the State
Council Officers . You can access our
State Council Officers via the indianaena.org web page.
At the state level, the Nominations Committee does an
excellent job of preparing a slate.
However, the process only becomes democratic when our membership votes
on the slate. Please take the time in
the next few months to return our Indiana State Council paper ballot which you
will receive in an upcoming newsletter.
On another note, Patty Sandor, our State Council
Education Chair; has planned several courses that will be of interest to
Emergency Nurses. The Triage Course and
the CEN Review Course planned for this summer, are open to all interested
nurses. You will find brochures for
these courses in this newsletter.
Please contact Patty at psrn@gte.net if you have
any questions about these two programs. Thank you for the opportunity to serve.
Have a great summer! Joie
5th
Annual International Child Passenger
Safety Technical Conference
The
5th Annual International Child Passenger Safety Technical Conference was held
in Indianapolis on June 2-6 at the Indiana Convention Center. It was sponsored
by the International Center for Injury Prevention. Jackie Richey, RN, EMT-P,
Quality Assurance and Training Manager for Rural/Metro Ambulance (and staff
nurse at Wishard), addressed the controversial hot topic of transporting
pediatric patients in ambulances to a large group on Tuesday, June 5th.
This
issue has been the focus of several recent articles citing the dangers of
pediatric patients being unsecured and/or improperly secured in an ambulance.
While these studies cite the dangers, little is being done in inventing safe
devices to transport children.
The message that Jackie sent
home with the participants, who ranged from EMTs and Paramedics to Child
Passenger Safety specialists, was clear: It is not accept-able to place an
adult on the ambulance cot and have the adult hold the child in their arms.
EMTs and Paramedics must evaluate each situation and determine the best method
available to them to secure the child in the safest manner possible.
The best method (according to crash testing) appears to be to place a
convertible seat rear-facing on the ambulance cot with the head of the cot
elevated to be flush against the back of the car seat, place two cot straps
through the two pathways (front and rear facing paths), and secure the straps
using your weight to tighten the straps as much as possible.
Car
seats should not be placed sideways on a bench seat, nor should you place an
infant carrier in the 'jump seat' or airway seat. Many ambulances are equipped
with a passenger side airbag, so you cannot transport in the front of the
ambulance.
The
car beds that are designed for neonatal or premie transports can be placed on
the cot in a sideways position if the car bed has been modified to have the
loop straps installed on both sides of the car bed. Then two cot straps can be
placed through the loop straps to
secure the car bed.
It is obvious that on a
national basis a great deal of education needs to take place, training EMTs and
Paramedics as well as emergency room nurses in the best methods of transporting
these patients. There are many challenges relating to this issue and technology
needs to catch up with current knowledge so that better methods can be invented.
The
following ENA members have been selected to be delegates to the 2001 National
ENA General Assembly in sun splashed Orlando, Florida. They will representing Indiana as ENA voters on
proposed resolutions and other ENA business.
Delegates
Joie Bertram
Wendy Hums
Susan Remaly
Mike Seaver
Larry Addison
Debbie Bair
Tracie Pettit
Tina Dixon
Jo Harger
Rosemarie Schwartz
Alternates:
Paula Reiss
Terrie Will
November 8th and November
9th the Emergency Nurses Association will hold a course in community injury
prevention.
PLEASE PASS THIS NOTE ALONG TO THOSE YOU KNOW WHO MAY NEED TO KNOW!!!!!
The main topic areas are:
COMMUNITY ACTIVIST/"CRASH COURSE" IN INJURY PREVENTION
GUN SAFETY
BIKE HELMET AND BIKE SAFETY
DOMESTIC ABUSE
SAFE DRIVING/ALCOHOL AND DRUGS COURSE
CAR SEAT SAFETY
Your facility or community can then run with any or ALL the organized programs with the assistance of an international organization and the strength and support of the Emergency Nurses Association
IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN INJURY PREVENTION read on!
The Emergency Nurses Association Injury Prevention Institute will be holding a statewide CRASH COURSE in Injury Prevention.
This 8 hour course will enable you to go into your communities and spread the messages of injury prevention using the Emergency Nurses Association ENCARE materials and assistance.
IF YOUR COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE FACILITY ALREADY HAS AN ESTABLISHED ENCARE GROUP, YOU MAY ATTEND TO BECOME AN ACTIVE VOLUNTEER IN THAT ORGANIZED GROUP. THERE WERE, AT ONE TIME OVER 300 ACTIVE IN INDIANA, SO ASK YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT MANAGER IF YOU DO NOT KNOW "ENCARE"
IF YOUR COMMUNITY HAS THE DESIRE TO BECOME ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN PUTTING OUT ESTABLISHED AND TESTED INJURY PREVENTION MESSAGES IN YOUR COMMUNITY BUT ARE NOT YET PART OF AN ENCARE GROUP YOUR FACILITY CAN BECOME AN ENCARE GROUP.
Contact me for further questions or for further information
Thanks,
Meredith Jaye Addison RN, MSN, CEN
Indiana ENCARE state director
The
Indiana Department of Education sponsors a conference for registered nurses,
"School Nurse Emergency Medical Services for Children." Jackie
Richey, RN,EMT-P, Quality Assurance and Training Manager for Rural/Metro
Ambulance has been assisting in instructing this course for the past three
years.
Triage,
assessment of medical and trauma patients, and mass casualty incidents are
discussed. Jackie explains the Incident Command System and how to interact with
fire departments and Emergency Medical Services. The nurses receive three days
of instruction and hands-on patient assessment skills as well as practice in
triage and treatment in scenarios. Fire department personnel and EMS providers
join the nurses on the third day and interact with them in some of the
scenarios.
The
conference has been held in various places around the state to enable as many
school nurses as possible to attend. Jackie is concerned about the continuity
of care for the patients being transported from our schools and recommends to
the school nurses that they call the charge nurse at the receiving emergency
department to give a nurse-to-nurse report on the patient.
The
school nurses often times do not receive feedback from the emergency department
to reinforce their treatment. By calling report to the emergency department,
they are opening the lines of communications so they can receive follow up
information.
So don't be surprised if your local school nurse calls you the
next time she is sending a patient to you!
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
If you are interested in helping to maintain and
strengthen your Indiana State ENA Council, now is your chance. We are looking for dedicated and hardworking
Emergency Nurses who would like to assume a leadership role at the State
level. The following positions are up
for nomination for the calendar year 2002:
President-elect (this position will be the President in 2003)
Treasurer
Secretary
We are also seeking individuals who would like to be part
of state committees: Membership;
Education; ENCARE; EMS; Fundraising;
General Assembly; or Government Affairs/Nursing Practice.
If you are
interested in applying for consideration for any of the above positions, please
send an e-mail to: Debbie Bair, President-elect & Chairman of the 2001
Nominations Committee: deb@the3bairs.com or call at 812-265-0615. You may also contact the following
Nominations Committee members: Marijane Smallwood: mbsmall@hendricks.org or Michael
Seaver: GoofyERRN@aol.com .
Nominations deadline is July
30, 2001.
112th Indiana
General Assembly
Government Affairs Update
By Pam Jahnke
Government Affairs Chair
The following bills have become law and became
effective July 1, 2001:
HB1600 Requires
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training using a training program approved
by the American Heart Association or an equivalent nationally recognized
training program.
Also the board of trustees
of the public employees' retirement fund to transfer the fund account of a
county funded hospital that is sold to a private entity to the fund account of
the county that funded the hospital and to add the transferred amount to the
county's fund account. Provides that the county assumes all of the assets and
liabilities attributable to the hospital's account, except for any liability
for employer contributions that arose before January 1, 2000. Cancels the
liability of the hospital for employer contributions that remain unpaid on July
1, 2001.)
HB1618 Reduces from 0.10% to 0.08% the percentage of
alcohol concentration equivalent in a person's blood or breath that is
necessary to constitute prima facie evidence of intoxication in a prosecution
for operating a motor vehicle or watercraft while intoxicated. But also has:
Allows a court to defer the prosecution of a person who is arrested for
operating a motor vehicle with an alcohol concentration in the person's blood
or breath that is at least 0.08% but not more than 0.09% if the person meets
certain conditions.
HB1628 Anatomical gifts. Requires a family to honor a
decedent's anatomical gift donation and provides that the decedent's family
does not have legal standing to refuse to honor the wishes of the decedent to
make an anatomical gift donation unless the anatomical gift was revoked by the
decedent before the decedent's death or by a guardian in the manner prescribed
by law. Requires a hospital, surgeon, or physician to honor a decedent's
anatomical gift donation and inform the decedent's family of the individual's
donation. Provides immunity from civil liability to a physician who follows a
donor's anatomical gift directive.
HB1770 Health care provider profiles. Requires the health
professions bureau to create and maintain profiles for providers under the jurisdiction
of the bureau. Specifies information that must be contained in a profile.
Requires the bureau to make profiles available to the public, including on the
Internet.
c) A provider profile
must contain the following information:
(1) The provider's name.
(2) The provider's license, certification, registration,
or permit number.
(3) The provider's license, certification, registration,
or permit type.
(4) The date the provider's license, certification,
registration, or permit was issued.
(5) The date the provider's license, certification,
registration, or permit expires.
(6) The current status of the provider's license,
certification, registration, or permit.
(7) The provider's city and state of record.
(8) A statement of any disciplinary action taken against
the provider within the previous ten (10) years by a board or committee
described in subsection (a). (d) The bureau shall make provider profiles
available to the public. (e) The computer gateway administered by the intelnet
commission under IC 5-21-2 and known as Access Indiana shall make provider
profiles available on the Internet at no cost to the public.
HB1829 Abandoned infants. Increases from 30 days to
45 days the maximum age of an abandoned infant that may be taken into custody
without a court order. Provides that a parent who leaves an infant with an
emergency medical services provider is not required to disclose the parent's
name. Requires a local child protective service that takes custody of an infant
to contact the missing persons clearing house to determine if the infant has
been reported missing.
HB1845 Indiana commission on excellence in health care.
Creates the Indiana commission on excellence in health care to study issues
related to the quality of health care provided to Indiana residents.
HB1872 Emergency services. Requires the Primary Care Case
Management program and the Risk-Based Managed Care program to cover and pay for
certain emergency services. Amends the definition of "emergency".
(This one covers the Emergency Dept costs) As used in this chapter,
"emergency medical condition" means a medical condition manifesting
itself by acute symptoms, including severe pain, of sufficient severity that a
prudent lay person with an average knowledge of health and medicine could
reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in: (1)
serious jeopardy to the health of: (A) the individual; or
(B) in the case of a pregnant woman, the woman or her unborn child. (2) serious
impairment to bodily functions; or (3) serious dysfunction of any bodily organ
or part.
“Emergency services"
means covered inpatient and outpatient services that are:
(1) furnished by a provider qualified to furnish emergency services; and (2)
needed to evaluate or stabilize an emergency medical condition.
The office, for purposes of the
primary care case management program, and a managed care contractor, for
purposes of the risk-based managed care program, shall: (1) cover and pay for
all medically necessary screening services provided to an individual who
presents to an emergency department with an emergency medical condition; and
(2) beginning July 1, 2001, not deny or fail to process a claim for
reimbursement for emergency services on the basis that the enrollee's primary
care provider's authorization code for the services was not obtained before or
after the services were rendered.
HB1951 Adds
gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) as a Schedule I depressant. Adds any drug
product containing GHB, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers, for
which an application is approved under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,
as a Schedule III depressant. Adds Zolpidem (Ambien) as a Schedule IV
depressant.
SB63
Interference with medical services. Provides that a person who knowingly
or intentionally physically interrupts, obstructs, or alters the delivery or
administration of prescription drugs ordered or prescribed for a patient
without a prescription or order commits interference with medical services, a
Class D felony if the conduct results in bodily injury. Makes the offense: (1)
a Class C felony if it is committed by a person who is a health care provider
or licensed health professional; (2) a Class B felony if it results in serious
bodily injury to the patient; and (3) a Class A felony if it results in the
death of the patient. Provides for certain defenses.
SB80
Identification of offenders with DNA. Allows a prosecution for a Class B
or Class C felony that would otherwise by barred by the statute of limitations
to be commenced within one year of the date that the offender is first
identified with DNA evidence. Allows a prosecution to be brought before July 1,
2002 if the offender was first identified with DNA evidence after the date on
which prosecution was barred by the statute of limitations and before July 1,
2001.
SB308 Medicaid payment for emergency room services. Extends
for two years a statute requiring that, under the Medicaid primary care case
management program, certain physician services provided to a program enrollee
in a hospital emergency department must be at a rate of 100% of rates payable
under the Medicaid fee structure, if the service is authorized by the
enrollee's primary medical provider or managed care organization. Applies the
100% reimbursement requirement to the Medicaid risk-based managed care program
if the services are provided by a physician who does not have a contract with
the patient's managed care organization.
SB428 Health professions licenses. Provides standardized
requirements for health professions concerning: attesting and auditing compliance
with continuing education requirements; and reinstating a health professional's
lapsed license, certificate, or registration. (However the legislation
mandating reporting of CECHs by physicians and nurses did not become law. )
Sec. 3. (a) Notwithstanding
any other law, a board that is specifically authorized or mandated to require
continuing education as a condition to renew a registration, certification, or
license must require a practitioner to comply with the following renewal
requirements:
(1) The practitioner shall provide the board with a sworn
statement signed by the practitioner that the practitioner has fulfilled the
continuing education requirements required by the board.
(2) The practitioner shall retain copies of certificates
of completion for continuing education courses for three (3) years from the end
of the licensing period for which the continuing education applied. The
practitioner shall provide the board with copies of the certificates of
completion upon the board's request for a compliance audit.
(b)
Every two (2) years the board shall randomly audit for compliance more than one
percent (1%) but less than ten percent (10%) of the practitioners required to
take continuing education courses.
As you may be aware the
Indiana’s Impaired Nurses Program was up for contract renegotiation/renewal and
the previous contract recipient had
been found to be somewhat negligent in
administering the program with poor to non-existent follow-up for
impaired nurses. The new contract has been awarded to the Michigan Health
Professional Recovery Corporation.
“The Michigan Health
Professional Recovery Corporation (MHPRC) was incorporated in April 1995. MHPRC
was organized to educate Michigan health professionals about impairment due to
substance use and mental health disorders and to facilitate rehabilitation and
monitoring of impaired health professionals in the state of Michigan. MHPRC was
awarded a contract by the Michigan Department of Consumer and Industry Services
in November of 1996 to administer Michigan’s Health Professional Recovery
Program.
The MHPRC Board of Directors consolidates the expertise and experience
of five professional associations who represent health care professionals.
These associations have been addressing the needs of impaired healthcare
providers for many years. The associations are:
The Michigan Association of Osteopathic
Physicians and Surgeons
The
Michigan Nurses Association
The
Michigan Psychological Association
The
Michigan State Medical Society
The
Michigan Pharmacists Association
The MHPRC Board of
Directors, which is comprised of representatives of each of the five
associations listed above, is accountable for the governance and overall
direction of the organization. The Board of Directors will oversee this project
by adhering to MHPRC’s mission statement and organizational policies,
monitoring contract performance, evaluating the performance of the CEO, and
assuring that the Rehabilitation Service has the resources to accomplish its
mission. “
This information was supplied by
Ernest C. Klein, Jr., CAE
Executive Director
Indiana State Nurses Association
Pamella Jahnke RN, BSN, CEN, SANE
Newsletter Editor
Home: 317-849-8773
Work: 317-355-4660
Email: PBJahnke@aol.com
ENA...Defining
the future of Emergency nursing and Emergency care through advocacy, expertise,
innovation, and leadership.
Indiana State Council Newsletter
Code News
Next Newsletter Deadline
Sept. 4, 2001