NASN Director's News

The NASN Affiliate Director is our liaison with the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). Although any officer or member has access to the personnel at NASN, the director receives regular reports from the president and Executive Director of NASN which are to be shared with FASN's Executive Board and stakeholders. In addition, each Affiliate Director is assigned to work on one or more task forces that look at school nursing trends and issues on a national level. Many of NASN's Position Statements are a result of these task forces. Twice a year, Affiliate Directors from all over the country meet together with NASN's President and Executive Director, as well as their respective Task Force Committees. After these meetings, the Affiliate Directors share the focus and direction of NASN with their states.

Our Affiliate Director is Charlotte Barry and she is serving a four year term, from June 2007 through June 2011.

Charlotte Barry Photo Dear Colleagues in School Nursing,

Thank you for electing me to represent you at the national level as the NASN Affiliate Director. I was inducted at the June 2007 national conference.  I attend Board meetings twice a year and committee meetings by phone as required. In this position, I serve as the liaison between the national board and you, the NASN Florida members. I will bring news to you from the NASN Board members and will bring your news and concerns to them. My responsibilities are the Co Chair of the Research and Awards Committee; the Co Chair of the Poster Session and the Chair of the School Nurse Educators Special Interest Group.

NASN Director
Charlotte Barry, PhD, RN, NCSNNASN

February 2011 Report

Greetings from the NASN leadership and thank you all for being here, the members are the heart and soul of our organization.
I have just returned from the NASN Board meeting in Washington DC.  And will share highlights the of that meeting.  
Highlights of the Board meeting:

  1. In 2008, in response to the health care reform proposals, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) commissioned the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the impact nursing could and should have on health care. The Patient Privacy and Affordability Act signed into law in April 2010 contains the most sweeping change in health care since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid. The IOM and RWJF have prepared a report on the Future of Nursing (see attached)  to assure nurses’ place in leading change and advancing health.  See the NASN.org  for the NASN Position Statement on Health Care Reform.  Highlights of the Future of Nursing report are:
  2. Nurses should practice to the full extent of law;
  3. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education;
  4. Nurses should be full partners with physicians and are the heart of the health care team;
  5. There needs to be a better data collection and information infrastructure.
  6. The NASN School Nurse of the Year Award and the School Nurse Administrator of the Year Award have been eliminated. They have been replaced with Excellence in School Nursing and Excellence in School Nursing Administration Recognition. A process is being developed to give national recognition to the affiliates’ School Nurses of the Year. The submission deadline to have the FASN award recipient recognized by NASN is March 1, 2011.
  7. NASN has many CE Programs on the NASN web site. Some are free and others are minimally priced for members.
  8. The 43rd Annual Conference will be held in Washington DC on July 29-July 3rd. Part of the conference will be visits to the Congress.
  9. Applications for poster presentations are due February 11, 2011.
  10.  The NASN Endowment Fund raises money to be used for school nursing research and other projects. At the Conference in Chicago in 2010 a fund raising event titled “Purses for Nurses” raised over $5000.00. The Endowment group has asked each affiliate to bring and donate a purse to the cause. We participated last year, I donated a Kate Spade purse. Anyone interested in donating a purse let me know and I will bring it to DC for the auction.
  11. The NASN Membership drive “1000 new members in 100 Days” has been successful nationwide. Participated in the NASN Membership Initiative and added 52 new members October – December which is over a 20% increase in membership. 
  12. NASN has developed a legal document titled an Amicus Brief to show support for the California Supreme  Court decision that supports that the State Board of Nursing remains the authority over nursing practice and not the Board of Education. These proceedings are related to caring for children with diabetes at school and the delegation of care of these children to unlicensed assistive personnel.  Many states do not allow delegation of health tasks to others.
  13. Dr. Tares from UC San Diego has written an article promoting nurses as the most competent to care for children in schools with diabetes. See attached.
  14. NASN provides very valuable services to its members including Awards for Research, School Nurse Educator, Legislative Actions and others are available, see the web for details.

ADVOCACY ON THE HILL

  1. The unfolding of the latest version of the Ruler “How does your state measure up?”

     Florida ranks 47th of 50 in school nurse to student ratios and gives a graphic look at 
recognized quality indicator of children’s health care in Florida.  Find the new Ruler on
the front page of www.NASN.org

  1. This new ratio calculation sends out a clarion call for advocacy  on behalf of  school nurses and children’s health.
  2. The ruler was distributed to Florida Senators Nelson and Rubio and Congresspersons West, Deutch,  Wasserman-Schultz, and the legislators were asked to support the Student to School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2011. It died in the last Congress and has to be reintroduced.  It is supported by Senator Schumer from NY and Congresswoman McCarthy also of NY. The National School Nurse/Coordinated School Health position within the of Leadership of the US Department of Education; we asked for support of putting into law, that employees must grant 7 sick days to workers each year. Child Nutrition Act was passed in the last session with recommendation revisions of the 1970’s nutrition standards recommended by the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA).
Let’s bring Advocacy efforts to Florida and speak on behalf of the students in Florida schools.

Important notice about the NASN Web site login:

The Web site login scheme has been changed.  You will now login as follows: 
Username: NASN ID
Password: Lastname
Example:
Username: 12345
Password: Smith

Let me also point out that your lastname is NO longer in all lowercase letters.
It should be typed just as you would type it using an uppercase first letter and an uppercase letter wherever else is appropriate, for instance: DuRant.
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