Time and Place

A meeting of the Nurse Executives of Polk County was held on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

Attendance

Those in attendance were: Walter Lupke (President), Susie Hart (Secretary), Lisa Schlagel, Mary Jo Schreiber, Nancy Sallman, Iris Lawrence and Robin Testerman from WHH/Regency;   Heather Carter, Julie Collins, Cateria Davis, Cindi Dean, Janet Fansler, Katherine Handlin-Rowe, Pat Hartley, Theresa Horne, Terri Jones, Glenda Kaminski, Pam Kennard, Margie Voyles, Jackie Wallis, Beverly Roberts, and Diane Booth from LRMC;  Maggie Lazarre from Advantage Home Care; Ruth Wheeler from Bartow Regional Medical Center; Sandra Swain from Lake Wales Medical Center and Annette Hutcherson from Polk Community College.

Call to Order

Walter Lupke, President, called the meeting to order at 8:02 AM.  Walter explained that almost every Patient Services meeting at WHH begins with someone telling a ‘caring story’ that reaffirms why we became nurses and continue to serve.  Julie Collins then related a very touching story of how the LRMC staff rallied around a patient and family who were in crisis.  She told of the support and care given the family and how at the end of the patient’s life, how the family and staff were able to support each other in their grief.

Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the January 20, 2009 meeting were approved as written.

Treasurer Report

Katherine Handlin-Rowe presented the treasurer’s report for November/December 2008 and January/February 2009 in written and verbal format.  Final balances:

Checking: 2/28/09 $3669.84

CD: as of 9/08 $4469.69

Pimco Funds: as of 12/31/08 $6764.43

Total: $14,903.96

Education Committee

• Cindi Dean reported that our educational program scheduled for March 21 from 9am – 1pm at Florida Southern College was cancelled due to lack of participants.  There are no plans to reschedule it.  The Education Committee is considering offering outreach programs consisting of small workshops that would be held in places that nurses already meet, i.e. at work.  Workshops would be free of charge, CEs could be offered and the programs could be held in collaboration with the research consortium.

By-Laws Committee

Kathy Hunt reported that no new revisions were suggested by the membership.

President’s Report

Legislative Update/FONE Report –

• FONE met 2/27 and discussed legislative issues.  FONE is opposed to Nurse Staffing ratios developed by the House (HB 241) and are not supporting the Senate version.  FONE and FHA are supporting the Safe Lifting Bill which is very flexible and allows individual institutions to implement their own strategies.  They are also supporting increasing license fees to support the Florida Center for Nursing.  FONE opposes HB 1209 which repeals the BON authority to approve nursing programs.  Denise Grimsley a graduate of PCC authored this bill.  Annette Hutcherson from PCC spoke at length about the consequences of this bill and the affect it will have on the quality of nursing.  Annette will forward details to the NEPC members.
• FONE Spring Conference will be held in Gainesville May 28 & 29.

Hot Topics

• Too Many Nursing Graduates for Number of Open Positions!!?? Janet Fansler, LRMC brought this topic.  With the constraints of the recession and news of nurses being ‘laid off’ she is wondering what local healthcare agencies are doing to ensure our new graduates are hired.  Mary Jo Schreiber described efforts at WHH to ‘overhire’ or ‘hire up’ to compensate for the usual turnover in RN staffing.  Other creative strategies such as ‘summers off’ were also discussed.  Jackie Wallis suggested that it is time to build a real ‘internship or residency’ for new nurses.  Hire them at a reduced rate while they learn.  We should be holding nurses accountable, ‘raise the bar’ and assist those not meeting standards to improve or ‘free up their future’.  RNs need to be viewed as a resource, not an expense.  Nursing is the “core service” of hospitals.  If we can’t have it all, what do we give up to ensure nursing care is preserved?  This is a time to expect and support advanced education.

Old Business

• Polk County Nursing Research Consortium – Ruth Clifford reported that the first meeting will be immediately following the NEPC meeting today.  The agenda includes developing a charter, goals and objectives.

New Business

• There will be no NEPC meeting in May due to Nurse’s and Hospital Weeks.
• After some discussion, it was voted to award two $1000 Scholarships at the May Nurse’s Consortium Banquet.  Applications are to be turned in to Leslie Medders.

Roundtable Discussion

• Annette Hutcherson announced PCC’s partnership with Florida Southern College to offer a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing.  Once a student is admitted into the nursing program it will take 3 years to complete.  However, the prerequisites to the nursing program will take at least a year, so it is still a 4 year program.  Also the SW Team of the Florida Center for Nursing has set a statewide summit in June to discuss how to increase the number of nurses by increasing capacity in Nursing programs.  Funds are available for students and faculty, but there is limited capacity for clinical rotations.  They are writing a letter to the BON to ask eliminate the requirements that mandate the number of clinical hours in OB, Peds and Psych.  Kudos were given to Annette for pulling this all together.
• Theresa Horne announced that they just opened their OB ED in conjunction with their OB Hospitalist program.
• Maggie Lazarre reported that steps are being taken to bundle Federal payments for acute and continuing care effectively eliminating funds from Home Care.
• Jackie Wallis reported that the LRMC Education department has received two Best In Education Awards presented by FSHET (Florida Society for Education and Training) which is a state-wide member group of FHA.  One award was for Streamlining General Orientation and the second for Building a Leadership Institute from the Ground Up.

• one for Best Educational Practices and one for their Leadership Program.
• Sally Raiden reported that Mary Jo is speaking in South Carolina at Jean Watson’s Caring Consortium in April.  Sally and Sherry Skoglund, Manager of MICU are in training to become Caritas Coaches.  Almost all Pt. Services meetings now start with a caring story.  Jean Watson will be the keynote speaker at the WHH Research Conference this November.  Volunteers from Nursing Units are adopting caritas factors and planning a way to express the factor to others for Nurse’s Week.  Some units are doing posters, some telling stories, some reading poetry, etc.  The journey to Magnet Re-designation has begun.  A mid-cycle report will be sent in 2010.  Every nursing unit must be above the mean in all core measures and patient satisfaction.  75% of all nursing leaders must have a BSN or MSN.  By 2013 all must have a BSN or MSN.
• Congratulations to Glenda Kaminski from LRMC who just received her Doctorate!!!
• Sandra Swain from LWMC reported that they are getting ready to open 36 private rooms this summer in the Hunt building.  She is working on an internship for new graduates.  They are due for their JC survey this year.
• Ruth Wheeler at Bartow Regional Medical Center is working on a Chest Pain Center.  They sometimes hold 14-15 in the ED and have hit record numbers of admissions this year.  They expect the JC to visit this year.
• Cindi Dean reported that FSC was granted a Sigma Theta Tau International chapter.  Members can request transfer from their current chapter to this one.  Annual dues are $95/year beginning in May.  The Chartering ceremony is scheduled for May 12 from 4-6pm.

Schedule of meetings:

2009 NEPC Meetings-

• July –  Polk Community College – Room WST (Student Center) 127
• Sept – Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center
• Nov – Bartow Regional Medical Center

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00am.

Respectfully Submitted,

Susie Hart, Secretary