Home - Live from San Antonio

9/25/2010

See You In Portland!

Annual Conference attendees left San Antonio with fresh, applicable knowledge, renewed spirits and a big helping of Texas hospitality.

“There were so many new things and new ideas,” said attendee Mary Powers, RN, MSN, of Corpus Christi, Texas. “The poster sessions addressed current ED issues, and there were some very innovative approaches. All the main speakers were just inspiring—they all touched on different aspects of emergency nursing and how to refresh and renew.”

“I loved it,” said attendee Elizabeth Waterman, RN, of Florida. “It was very well put together, and I think the staff did a great job of keeping us moving for the number of people who were here. I learned a lot.”

We are already planning several exciting education and networking events for ENA Leadership Conference 2011, Learn, Lead & Inspire, February 16 – 20, in Portland, Oregon. See you there!

Amy Carpenter Aquino

Posted at 7:21 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

ENA Academy of Emergency Nursing Induction Ceremony

Four fellows were inducted into ENA’s Academy of Emergency Nursing Friday during the Academy’s fifth ceremony since its creation in September 2004.

New inductees were James Jay Hoelz, RN, MS, MBA, CEN; Donna Mason, RN, MS, CEN; Debby Rogers, RN, MS, CEN; and Rebecca Steinmann, RN, APN, CEN, CPEN, CCRN, CCNS.

ENA President Diane Gurney, RN, MS, CEN, told the audience, “Many of us can recall when the Academy was just a dream, an idea to recognize those emergency nurses who excelled in their specialty …In this room are the leaders of our profession.”

Chairperson Laura Criddle, RN, PhD, CEN, CFRN, CCR, CCNS, FAEN, joked that the academy fellows were like the residents of Garrison Keillor’s fictional town of Lake Wobegan, “where the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” She hoped this comparison would generate a few smiles, but said that without a doubt, “fellows were well above average.”

The academy is a society formed to honor nurses who made specific, enduring, substantial and sustained contributions to emergency nursing. “Today we honor four new fellows for their contributions for what they gave to their profession, to their colleagues and to their patients.”

“This evening’s inductees are all uniquely suited by background, experience and education to the role of a fellow, and will proudly add the AEN honorific to their names. These four letters will signify to the world that these emergency nurses are the best in their profession,” Criddle said.

Ginger Burns

Posted at 7:07 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Town Hall Meeting

ENA members took the opportunity to address ideas and concerns in a one-hour Town Hall Meeting with the ENA board of directors.

Posted at 6:55 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

ENA Foundation River Boat Ride

What better way to end an evening at ENA Annual Conference than out with friends on a beautiful cruise down the San Antonio River. The fully narrated tour offered an entertaining perspective on the history of Texas and the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. Attendees enjoyed two and a half miles of relaxing and spending time with colleagues.

Night on San Antonio Riverwalk

A portion of each ticket price was a direct donation to the ENA Foundation and its mission to provide educational scholarship and research grants in the discipline of emergency nursing.

Posted at 6:42 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Friday, September 24 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Closing Session Looked at Future Possibilities

Satruday’s Closing Session EMBRACEed what is on the horizon for ENA members and the profession of emergency nursing.

ENA Executive Director David Westman, CPA, MBA, CAE, highlighted significant new member benefits that will roll out soon, giving members enhanced communication with and connection to ENA and their colleagues, as well as more user-friendly educational opportunities.

ENA President Diane Gurney, RN, MS, CEN, announced plans for an upcoming online ENA Center for Emergency Nursing Education that will house all ENA educational offerings in one centralized location. She remarked that ENA’s continuing leadership role will continue to change the health care landscape. Looking forward to the next decade, Gurney told the assembly that “the next 40 years are in your hands.” She also reminded members to redouble their efforts to support ENA’s 40^th Ruby Anniversary Recruitment and Retention campaign by encouraging colleagues to join ENA.

Keynote speaker Kathy Dempsey delivered a spunky and informative presentation about managing change in the emergency department. All left the ballroom thinking ahead to the ENA Leadership Conference 2011, Learn, Lead & Inspire, February 16 – 20, Portland, Oregon.

Jill Lewis

Posted at 6:42 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Fatigue: The Insidious Safety Hazard

Are you tired? If you suffer from fatigue, chances are that you do not even realize it. In Saturday’s Fast Track session, Ronald E. Fraley, RN, BSN, MBA, MFS, said people who are fatigued usually do not recognize their own symptoms.

Though no fatigue rating scale has been validated for health care workers, Fraley recommended the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, which requires rating your chances of dozing off in several different circumstances, such as while watching TV or driving a car.

Crowd

Humans need seven to nine hours of sleep each day, Fraley said. It is not possible to bank sleep, though some people are able to catch up on sleep.

Signs of fatigue include having difficulty concentrating or making wise decisions; feeling the need to constantly eat while making poor food choices; frequently catching colds; wearing your emotions on your sleeve; and being klutzy.

If you are feeling fatigued but can’t get a full night’s sleep, Fraley recommended a power nap. The naps must be either between 20 and 45 minutes or more than 90 minutes long to be effective, he said. “If you get into that gap of 45 to 90 minutes, you will have sleep inertia,” he said. Splitting up sleep hours is also effective for night shift workers.

Someone who drives a car after finishing a 12-hour shift that turned into a 17-hour shift has twice the probability of getting into an accident as someone who had a full night’s sleep, Fraley said.

“The moral is, get your rest before you get behind that wheel,” he said.

Amy Carpenter Aquino

Posted at 6:05 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

The Two-Sided Mind: How ‘Car Talk’ Can Be Used as a Model for Nursing Decision-Making

If you have ever listened to “Car Talk” on National Public Radio, you have laughed along with the hilarious brothers who listen to callers’ car issues, diagnose the problems and provide real solutions, all the while joking with and needling each other as only siblings can. Lisa Wolf, RN, MS, CEN, presenter of this Saturday Fast Track session, took the brothers’ decision-making process and applied it to the emergency department to teach nurses and preceptors how to use two-sided thinking, seriously. Wolf explained that there are two ways of thinking about nursing problems; both are useful, and both have drawbacks. System 1 is intuitive and the hallmark of the experienced nurse. System 2 is more linear and analytic, based on

concrete information, such as vital signs, physical examination, labs and radiological studies. One is faster, but takes shortcuts. The other takes longer, but is more accurate.

The two-sided-mind way of thinking uses both systems. It is circular and includes three steps. Step 1 includes information-gathering when the nurse identifies the actual problem and whether it is life-threatening, the age, sex, ethnicity and pre-existing conditions. Step II involves asking the patient for more information: What is different about your symptoms today? Ask yourself, “What if my original assessment is wrong?” Then, gather more information from physiological data. Step III uses decision trees and algorithms to give the nurse a second voice to think through the problem.

Educators can use role-playing to teach and reinforce this kind of decision-making.

Jill Lewis

Posted at 6:03 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Generational Expert Shares Management Tips

Jason Nagle At Saturday’s BCEN Certification Recognition Breakfast, generational expert Jason Dorsey delivered a high-energy, humorous presentation on how to manage the four generations in today’s workforce with a special emphasis on how Baby Boomer managers can work better with new employees from Generation Y.

While workers from the other three generations all had jobs in their teens, people born between 1977 and 1995 are on average one to five years older when they start their first job. “We’re excited, we’re nervous and we’re late,” Dorsey said. “If you had one moment on that first day of work of our first real job, what would you say?”

One attendee shouted out: “Put the cell phone down, and look at me when I talk to you.”

Dorsey said while Generation Y workers may do things at work “that you absolutely cannot believe,” he implored managers to make a giant leap and consider that they do not actually know any better. Members of Generation Y were raised with the most affluence, the most education and the least pressure to permanently leave their parents’ home.

Communication is key to Generation Y; they prefer text messages over e-mail and consider voice mail an invasion of privacy, Dorsey said. They also crave constant feedback from managers; 30-second conversations work well, as long as they happen on a daily basis.

Dorsey concluded with a touching tribute to emergency nurses, whom he thanked for saving his mother’s life after she was hit by a drunk driver and her car caught on fire. “I want to personally say thank you for what you do,” he said. “You are so important.”

Amy Carpenter Aquino

Posted at 5:24 PM by Deb Zirkle | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

IENR Announces Poster Award Recipients

The Institute of Emergency Nursing Research announced the 2010 ENA Annual Conference Research and Evidence-based Practice Poster Award winners Thursday.

Research Poster Award Winner

Title: How Do Temporal Artery Thermometers Measure Up?

Pictured (L to R): David M. Solomon, RN, BSN, CEN, EMT-P; Julie Carrigan, RN, BSN, CEN; Karen Drum, RN, BSN, CEN, SANE; Ann Moore, RN-BC, MSN, CEN; and Anita Penland, RN, BSN, CEN, of Catawba Valley Medical Center, Hickory, North Carolina

Evidence-based Practice Poster Award Winner

Titile: Operation Red Dragon: Improving National Security

Authors: (Pictured) Ann Kratz, RN, MSN, ANP-BC, APNP, and Jill Becker, RN, BSN, NA-BC, of Aurora Medical Center: Washington County, Hartford, Wisconsin

Posted at 4:04 PM by Thomas Barbee | Category: Saturday, September 25 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Returning from Iraq

The audience rose to a standing ovation after Maria K. Tackett, RN, EdD, MSN, MS, CEN, CCRN, told of her experience of recent deployment in Iraq as an emergency department nurse in a combat support hospital. Tackett showed photos and described the conditions and challenges of providing emergency nursing care in that environment. She reviewed approaches to trauma care and the relation of combat care advances to civilian work.

As support to the 1^st Marine Expeditionary Unit, the practice guidelines were to stabilize and return to duty injured American and coalition forces in three days, or return them to the rear. They treated 2,800 patients including marines, US soldiers, Iraqi army soldiers and police. Civilians and patients other than Americans were treated if life, limb or eye-sight were at risk.

Tackett described the weather as hot, hotter and hotter, with temperatures of 120 to 130 degrees. There was sand, sand and more sand, she said. To survive this environment, Tackett said they trained for ten days in Kuwait to acclimate themselves to conditions in Iraq. Sanitation and infection control were important issues, and she described organisms that were new to her: Leish maniasis and Acinetobactar. “I didn’t know them, but I knew they’re darn bad.”

The combat support hospital was a double wide trailer and triage tent set up outside. Tackett said they found a buried CAT scanner, dug it out, dusted it off and found it be a big help.

Implications to civilian work included re –thinking fluid resuscitation and plasma and blood as initial resuscitation fluid, Tackett said.

Ginger Burns

Posted at 12:56 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Friday, September 24 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

RSS Feed