NASN Representative's Message

Winter 2005 | Fall 2006 | Spring 2007

NASN Representative's Message (Spring 2007) by Kathy Briggs RN, NCSN
This past winter I had the opportunity to attend a very busy and informative Board of Directors meeting in Washington DC.  The new office in Silver Springs, Maryland is very nice.  Our new Executive Director, Amy Garcia, is amazing.  She has many activities going, along with hiring and orienting new staff.  Mary Louise Embrey, Director of Government Affairs, has worked in Hill departments for 35 years and is very knowledgeable in the legislative and public relations areas, and is a valuable resource. 
           
While in DC, I meet with health aides in the offices of Senators Hatch and Bennett and Congressman Matheson to discuss health-related needs of students, school nurse ratios and added duties.  Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy is introducing a bill early this year on the 1:750 ratio, and the word we got is that Senator Kennedy is planning to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. I am assigned to work on a task force to study NASN BOD structure and governance including fiduciary responsibilities.  Being new on this continuing task force, I was relieved to have some information and definitions to review ahead of time.  I am also assigned to be on the Newsletter Editorial Advisory Board (hey, my name is officially listed in the Newsletter).  This is a great experience to be a part of the development of the Newsletter.  With the new leadership and staff at NASN, look for some new and exciting developments and changes in the Newsletter.    
           
The new membership data base is in the final preparation and testing stage and was launched in March ‘07.  It will allow members to access their own information on-line, update as needed, renew membership and print a temporary card.  For those people who prefer to mail in their information and dues, the turn-around time should be about 7-10 days.  Depending on individual security clearance (officers, etc.), we will be able to access and print different needed reports, and even set these up to be automatically sent.  We will be able to register for NASN conferences online.  In time the individual states will be able to use the system for their own conference registrations.  We were also informed / reminded that in June 2005 (before my time) the Board of Director’s  had voted to increase dues by $10 and “incrementally increase in two years by the total of the CPI for the previous two years, to begin in 2007/2008.  I will keep you informed as I get more information on what this will be.
           
On behalf of NASN we wish to express our thanks to those of you who completed the membership survey.  It will be exciting to see who among us received one of the (10) $750 conference scholarships that were awarded in a random drawing to those who completed the survey. For a complete list of the winners go to the NASN website at www.NASN.org and while there don’t forget to check out the new and updated position statements as well as the many other information areas.  In the “Members Only” section there are pages on Grant Resources and on Advocacy, to name a few.  There are also plans to add more CE classes so plan on visiting the website often so you won’t miss out on all the exciting new changes and additions.  I also want to encourage all of you to make plans to attend NASN’s Annual Conference which will be held June 28 – July 1, 2007 in Nashville, TN.  This years’ theme will be on Children’s Health: “Our Primary Investment”.  The conference schedule is divided into 4 tracks in 40 breakout sessions.  The tracks are:  Research, Practice, Leadership / Legal, Health Promotion. 

Please feel free to call or email me if I can be of help to you as your NASN Director.  I can be reached on my (cell) @ 801-580-2479  or email me:  Kathy.Briggs@Granite.k12.ut.us. Thanks to all of you for your continued support of NASN and our Utah schools. 
Kathy

NASN Representative's Message (Fall 2006) by Kathy Briggs RN
I got a call from Amy Garcia, NASN Executive Director, today.  She had gotten an email from Richard Scott, a Loss Control Consultant with the Utah Division of Risk Management.  He was looking for more information on the federal guidelines after reading the Wall Street Journal article.  She gave him information on Healthy People 2010 and the NASN position statement on caseloads.  She gave him my contact information as the Utah director.  When I hear from him, I will forward him to Carla if he wants to interview.     

I asked Amy where she got Utah's ratio that was in the article (the 1:4800 thing). She told the reporter that ratios vary dramatically from state to state and even within each state, depending on the district.  He decided to use the reported number of nurses to the number of students.  She did tell him that not all nurses are FTE, but with the varying numbers apparently he decided that was the best he could do.  I told Amy (and she relayed this on to Mr. Scott) that we have a wonderful study that was done in Utah last spring (thanks Carla!!) where it is all broken out for Utah.
      
Amy says: " *Better data coming**:  NASN has commissioned a scientific study of nursing care in schools which should be complete by January 2007". *  

Please review the attached message below from Mary Louise Embrey, NASN’s Director of Government Affairs related to the Wall Street Journal Article about school nursing. 

Just keeping you updated on what I hear and learn.
Kathy.briggs@granite.k12.ut.us   Tele:(801)-580-2479

NASN Representative's Message (Winter 2005) by Margie Golden RN
"The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) improves the health and educational success of children and youth by developing and providing leadership to advance school nursing practice."    (NASN)   represents over 13,000 school nurses from 49 states. (All but Hawaii).   The Utah School Nurse Association (USNA) represents approximately 120 school nurses in Utah, and USNA along with each of the other 48 states elects a representative to serve on the national board of NASN for a term of 2-4 years. I have been the Utah School Nurse Association NASN board member for the past 3 years and will continue to serve in this position until the fall of 2005.   A NASN Board Member's responsibilities include attending 3 day board meetings twice a year, in the summer and in the fall.   Expenses to attend these national meetings are paid by our state school nurse organization.

In the past 3 years, I have served in various capacities in NASN, including being on a policy making committee charged with writing a position statement on the use of "Rescue Medications" in the schools, being trained as an instructor for a Disaster Preparedness in the Schools course (and teaching that course twice in Utah), serving on the NASN Finance Committee, reviewing and assisting in writing an online educational module on Infectious Diseases, and currently serving as the leader of an Advocacy Task Force charged with developing a tool for showing the importance of school nurses in the schools.   There many diverse committees and task force groups a board member may be asked to serve on.  

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