State Boards of Nursing: Can They Protect the Public from Unsafe Nurses? An Audio Interview with Dr. Maryann Alexander, RN

alexander0491 (Diana Mason Interviews Maryann Alexander)

The March 2009 issue of AJN includes a study by Dr. Elizabeth Zhong and her colleagues at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). This study of nurses who were put on probation for professional misconduct by six state boards of nursing found that nurses with a history of a criminal conviction were more than four times more likely to recidivate than nurses without such a history. The obvious conclusion: state boards need to do background checks on nurses applying for licensure or license renewal. […]

2020-02-07T11:23:50-05:00March 13th, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

At the IOM Integrative Medicine Conference: Nursing Crucial to Model of Care

barbaraglicksteinviewpoint2

On February 25-27, 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened the “Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public” in Washington, DC, to advance the science, understanding, and progress of integrative medicine (“health care that addresses together the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the healing process”). 

             I’ll cut right to the chase—I have a problem with the term “integrative medicine,” and I’m glad to report that I wasn’t alone. On day one a number of the 650 diverse practitioners chimed in about the lack of inclusiveness in that terminology. Dr. Beverly Malone, the CEO of the National League for Nursing, voiced a strong statement that the term was not inclusive and requested that “integrative health care” be used instead. She reminded everyone of the historically critical role nursing and other health care professionals have played in the development of this model of care. By the end of the meeting the consensus was that the field should be called integrative health—not CAM, not integrative medicine. […]

2020-02-07T11:31:04-05:00March 10th, 2009|career|2 Comments
Read More

President Obama: Where Are the Nurses?

I was delighted to see President Obama nominate nurse Mary Wakefield to head up the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) (see my posting about this on  February 20th at www.disruptivewomen.net).  I was expecting him to understand the value of having the nursing perspective represented in meetings focused on health care reform. So I am quite disappointed to be told by colleagues that there will only be a token nurse at today’s Health Care Reform Summit. Lots of physicians and insurers are there, but only the president of the American Nurses Association will represent nursing. (While I expect that Wakefield will be there, she will not be there to represent nursing.) My message to the president and those he has charged to lead health care reform: You can’t reform health care without nurses. And nurses have a lot of solutions to our ailing health care system. For examples of these solutions, look at the American Academy of Nursing’s Raise the Voice Campaign.

–Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, Editor-in-Chief

2009-03-26T21:19:13-04:00March 5th, 2009|career, health care policy, nursing perspective|2 Comments
Read More

Be a Nurse. Be a Writer. Don’t Be a ‘Nurse Writer.’

I adore nurses. If I thought I could handle the math (or another round of schooling), I might become a nurse. I respect the profession and understand that 95% of the hands-on care provided by our health care system is provided by nurses, not physicians.

            That said (and I know this is going to irritate a lot of people), I think that the nurse who describes her- or himself as a “nurse writer” (or a nurse poet, nurse researcher, nurse attorney, and so on) is doing a disservice to both the writer and the profession. To me (and not to some of my colleagues here who are nurses, I hasten to add), adding “nurse” before “writer” is a bit of a cop-out. […]

2016-11-21T13:38:31-05:00March 4th, 2009|career, nursing perspective|21 Comments
Read More

Obama’s Reversal of Conscience Rule

Last Friday, the Obama administration took a first step to reverse one of the most disconcerting policy changes made by the Bush administration during its 11th hour on a topic that I’m sure will be controversial among nurses, as it has been in society—the so-called “conscience rule.” There is a 30-day public comment period before the rule can be rescinded. […]

2016-11-21T13:38:37-05:00March 3rd, 2009|career, health care policy|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Go to Top