March 17, 2006 - Tenth Edition

ENA State Grant Stories

We have been reporting in Connection the various ways the states have chosen to use the $2000 State Grant money that was provided by ENA in July 2005. For those of you who do not receive Connection, we are reprinting the initial article that was published in the December 2005 issue. We will also republish continuing Connection articles in the future.

Every hospital in Vermont may send one staff person to a free TNCC (Trauma Nursing Core Course) or ENPC (Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course) course. Ohio will distribute complimentary manuals to nurses who take the instructor course at its 2006 symposium. Arizona will finally be able to purchase mannequins for its ENPC courses, saving instructors from relying on host facilities to provide the vital piece of equipment. ENA state councils are finding innovative ways to use the $2,000 grants distributed to each state this summer as part of the 2005 Course Grant Program at the recommendation of the Course Administration Task Force. The ENA Board of Directors set aside $100,000 to help states support TNCC/ENPC/CATN. Each state council was free to determine the best use of this additional resource; state officials are enthusiastically reporting how the funds have helped them support and expand their TNCC, ENPC, and CATN programs. Vermont will have 15 more people who have taken TNCC or ENPC by the end of spring 2006 thanks to the Course Grant Program, said State Council President Maureen Heyder, RN. “We sent each hospital a complimentary registration for either ENPC or TNCC,” Heyder shared. The free registration was a deciding factor for some course attendees, she added. “We probably got some people who would not have come otherwise,” Heyder noted. “People are interested in the courses, but a lot of them have to stay overnight to attend, and it gets expensive.” The grant money will save ENPC faculty in Arizona from having to use rolled-up sheets for mannequins. Arizona State Council Secretary/Treasurer Sandy Michie, RN, said an instructor had to make do with sheets when one host facility failed to provide a mannequin for a recent course. This badly needed equipment is the first priority for the state; Michie anticipates that the mannequins will cost between $1,200 and $1,600, leaving a few hundred dollars with which to offer discounted ENPC and TNCC registration to nurses in low income and rural areas. “We are hopeful that we will be able to offer this ‘scholarship’ to several nurses in our very outlying areas, thus giving them much-needed education,” she wrote.

When the Ohio State Council holds ENPC and TNCC instructor courses at its spring symposium next April, it will use some of its Course Grant Program funds to provide free manuals for participants. “It helps us to help our members,” explained State Council Secretary Dee Hart, RN, BSN, CEN. “Otherwise it would come out of the instructor’s own pocket.”

Maine State President Sandie Weagle, RN, reported that the state council is still working on its plan, but one proposal involved polling the state’s ED nurse managers to gauge interest in sending staff to a free ENPC or TNCC instructor training course. The state’s grant money would pay for running the courses and for attendees’ travel expenses, wrote Weagle. “Hospitals will then have instructors who can hold TNCC and ENPC courses in their facilities, inviting others when there is room,” she added. “Remote hospitals now have to send staff away on overnight trips to attend courses. This would spread courses to more areas of the state and be cost effective for the more remote hospitals.” The Maine State Council is awaiting feedback from the ED nurse managers on this proposal.

Other state councils are invited to share their ideas for using the 2005 Course Grant Program funds. Send your stories to Maureen Howard at mhoward@ena.org. Feedback from states will help determine the future of the grant program.

Topic ideas for future issues and feedback are welcome at CourseBytes@ena.org. If you know of anyone who should be receiving this e-mail but is not, please ask them to e-mail us at CourseBytes@ena.org with their name, current home address and home and work e-mail addresses.