Massachusetts Report on Nursing - December 2020

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4 • <strong>Massachusetts</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on Nursing November 2020 clio’s corner ANA’s first position on nursing education Mary Ellen Doona <strong>Massachusetts</strong>’ nurses opened their December 1965 issue of the American Journal of Nursing and found a six page article: American Nurses’ Association (ANA) First Position on Education for Nursing. That position was: Education for those who work in nursing should take place in institutions of learning within the general system of education [and specifically, the] minimum preparation for beginning professional nursing practice at the present time should be baccalaureate degree education in nursing. Some nurses were startled at ANA’s calling for baccalaureate education for entry into nursing practice because the National League for Nursing had been responsible for the accreditation process since 1949. ANA had a prior claim on nurses’ education. Objective two in its Article of Incorporation stated that ANA aimed “to elevate the standard of nursing education.” 1 In Part One of this article, we will review some of the history of the relationship of the ANA and the development of the educational requirements for Registered Nurses. Nurses established the ANA because hospitals and Medicine had taken over the emerging profession. Sophia F. Palmer, an 1878 graduate of the Boston Training School (the forerunner of <strong>Massachusetts</strong> General Hospital School of Nursing), provided advice to ANA’s Founding Mothers as they sought ways to recover nursing. She told them that the power of the nursing profession was dependent upon its ability to maintain the cooperation of individual nurses who had the ability to influence public opinion. 2 She advocated forming Alumni Associations first. Twelve Alumni Associations were founded soon after and were invited to send delegates to the proceedings in 1896. ANA’s original name emphasizes their importance. ANA was originally called the Associated Alumnae of the Presents Domestic and Sexual Violence Training for healthcare professionals Meets MA DPH and BORN Requirements Classes every 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the Month! https://www.bostonnursinginstitute.com/courses WWW.BOSTONNURSINGINSTITUTE.COM United States and Canada, a title it held until 1911 when the organization was renamed the American Nurses Association. Nursing history was a required course in a student’s curriculum. Accordingly, most <strong>Massachusetts</strong>’ nurses would have known of, and perhaps would have taken pride in Palmer’s stellar career in keeping nurses across the country together. Her pointed editorials in the American Journal of Nursing kept nurses informed and cheered them on as they gained laws to protect nursing education. The RN-Registered Nurse- after a nurse’s name from that time to this, signifies that history. By 1911 nurses were concerned that nursing was under the control of the hospital and the medical profession. Nursing had prospered and provided valuable service, but the gains they had made were subordinated to the needs of hospitals and medicine. By this time medical education had been restructured into a postbaccalaureate endeavor, and limited the number of its’ schools, and thereby the number of individuals admitted to the medical profession. Nurses wanted for nursing the restructuring that the Flexner <strong>Report</strong> had achieved for medicine. Philanthropists rejected nursing’s proposals possibly because the applicants were women. (Men were the power brokers in the early years of the twentieth century.) Women spent seven decades to gain the right to vote and decades more to be at the table where decisions were made. Nursing’s not being a university endeavor was probably as significant as its’ being a woman’s profession. Gertrude Weld Peabody, a member of Boston’s social elite, daughter of a Harvard professor and relative of a Boston doctor had no compunction about using her advantage for the benefit of public health nursing. That advantage was her family’s summertime connection with John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Following her note, he overrode the Rockefeller Foundation’s rejection. The Foundation then agreed that funding public health nursing fit into its goals. Nursing finally had its’ own Flexner-like report with a study formally known as Nursing and Nursing Education in the United States (1923) though commonly referred to as the Goldmark <strong>Report</strong> in honor of its investigator. Josephine Goldmark was the sister-in-law of Louis D. Brandeis and had collected much of the data for his Brandeis Brief in a 1908 Supreme Court case that decided long hours were detrimental to the health of women. 3 The Goldmark study was governed by a committee of nineteen members including; ten physicians (two of whom were hospital superintendents) outnumbering the six nurses of which Mary Beard of the Boston Instructive Nursing students in class at McLean Hospital District Nursing Association (VNA) and Helen Wood then Acting Superintendent at MGH were members. The two lay members were Julia Lathrop of the Children’s Bureau and Mrs John Lowman. C. E. A. Winslow, a Professor of Public Health at Yale, chaired the study of 23 schools and 2406 students. Goldmark reported among other things that the average hospital training school was not organized on a solid enough basis to be compared favorably with the standards required in other professions. There were too many students and too few of them were being adequately prepared. Often the health of the students was sacrificed to hospital service demands. Once Harvard declined implementing the study’s recommendations, the Rockefeller Foundation turned to Yale University and funded its School of Nursing to make the requisite changes. In 1934 its dean, Annie Goodrich, prophesized that in a decade, 1944, every school of nursing should definitely be associated with a college or university or be discontinued. 4 In Part two of this article, we will explore whether the optimism of Dean Goodrich was justified. 1 Lynda Flanagan, (compiler). One Strong Voice: The Story of the American Nurses Foundation. (Kansas City: American Nurses Association, 1976),32. 2 Flanagan, One Strong Voice, 30. 3 Kalisch, Philip A. and Beatrice J. Kalisch. The Advance of American Nursing, 2nd edition. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1986),313. 4 Mary M. Roberts American Nursing: History and Interpretation, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1959), 515-516.
November 2020 <strong>Massachusetts</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on Nursing • 5 from the executive director Cammie Townsend, DNP, MS/MBA, RN I am six days past deadline, struggling with a blank screen, and have the latest email from my gentle editor “looking forward to reading your column” prompting me to google famous quotes in a effort to find inspiration and direction. “You ask me why I do not write something.... I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.” ― Florence Nightingale I’m all set, right? Just kidding. As 2020 is winding down and the Year of the Nurse and Midwife comes to a close, we should think about the actions ANAMASS has taken and the results we have had this year in particular. In our last issue of the <strong>Massachusetts</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on Nursing, I wrote an editorial on racism in nursing; on November 9th ANAMASS had a zoom webinar Addressing Racism in the Nursing Profession: Be the Change. Because I am writing this editorial before the program is held, I can only anticipate that the outcome will be that each attendee brings an actionable step to his/her nursing practice and additional steps will be identified. Obviously, COVID-19 has created a whole new reality and changed how we live our lives as well as practice. ANAMASS has invested in infrastructure, with an updated website and social media account management to improve our virtual presence and communications. As early as February 2020, your professional association was contacting Congress and asking for PPE for nurses and other front line health care professionals; increased staffing levels; telemedicine/telehealth resources; addressing supply chain issues for PPE; and addressing the financial impact on nurses displaced by COVID-19. ANAMASS followed up with Governor Baker at the state level to address PPE, staffing, and support for emergency hazard health duty. We continue to advocate for these issues in multiple ways. Please visit the COVID-19 page on www.anamass.org for more information. We continue to dialogue with the governor to raise issues of importance to the Association and profession. View Commonwealth Conversations: Governor Charlie Baker on youtube to learn more. Overall, ANAMASS presented verbal and/or written testimony twenty times this legislative session. This is the most active the health policy committee has been and they should be recognized for their hard work on researching and analyzing the bills we supported as part of 2019-2020 ANAMASS Legislative Agenda, writing testimony, and supporting speakers at the State House. With the strangeness that is 2020 and extension of the legislative session to the end of December (past the election and into a lame duck period) a number of bills are still active and being lobbied for, including H. 2664/S. 701, An Act relative to the governance of the Health Policy Commission which would create a permanent seat for a Registered Nurse on the Health Policy Commission; H. 4916 An Act Putting Patients First (Telehealth/APRN Scope of Practice) in conference committee. Three of the bills on our legislative agenda passed – An Act to Provide Liability Protections for Health Care Workers and Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic; An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control; and An Act Designating United States Cadet Nurse Corps Day. The ANAMASS Accredited Approver Unit has once again achieved accreditation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This is the 19th year in a row that ANAMASS has held this distinguished credential. We are the ONLY Accredited Approver Unit in the Commonwealth, and one of just 35 accredited approver units across the country. If you are an RN who plans continuing nursing education activities and want to award contact hours that carry ANCC approval, please visit our AU website at www.anamassau.org for information on how to submit your program to ANAMASS to award contact hours in the future! Last, but not least, I am proud to announce the creation of the Foundation for Nursing Advancement in <strong>Massachusetts</strong>, Inc. It has long been a goal of many members of ANAMASS to create a charitable “sister” association which will advance the nursing profession through philanthropic activities that promote scholarship, nursing research, and innovation. For more information and to donate, please visit www.fnama.org and please watch for additional information as we create planned giving campaigns, establish scholarships, and identify grant opportunities for nurses. For someone who couldn’t think of anything to write about, once I read Florence’s words and decided to just chronicle the ACTIONS of ANAMASS on BEHALF of the NURSES of the Commonwealth and the RESULTS, I found my voice. behind the scenes Monique Heddens An important person Behind the Scenes is Monique Heddens. Monique was born and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She graduated from Cedar Falls High School and went on to receive an Associate of Applied Science Degree from Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, IA. Ms. Heddens spent the majority of her career in some type of position in the publishing field thereby gaining extensive experience. She began at Arthur L. Davis Publishing Agency, Inc. in September 1992 as Media Production Manager. She assisted with the proofing and production of newsletters and soon assumed heading the production department. In her current position, she is responsible for coordinating and producing 39 quarterly nursing newsletters and 16 annual convention books. Monique works extensively with publication sponsors and editors, setting and following up on deadlines, proofing and sending newsletter proofs to sponsors; composing all advertisements and client ad proofs; communicating with the printer regarding publication of all materials; maintaining and processing lists for all media mailing lists and email distribution. She is proficient in Filemaker, Adobe Acrobat, Excel, Word, Photoshop and InDesign software programs. When asked what she enjoys about the position, she responded that it was the constant variety and fast-paced nature of the work. And especially working with the extremely competent graphic designers that are part of the department and “make my duties flow so much smoother!” One of the challenges to her position is working with so many different people and circumstances, adapting to issues that arise when deadlines are not met. “As with many businesses in the last few months, our company has transitioned from a brick and mortar office to being totally remote; working from home has presented different challenges which we have all been working through, quite successfully I believe!“ Monique responded to a question about her wish list for current position/future positions, as follows “After 28 years in this position, I guess you could say I am totally happy with what I do every day! I have been very fortunate to have worked for the Miller family business for over 28 years!” For those interested in the more personal side of Monique she says “I have been married to my husband Rich for almost 40 years (May 2021), and have family members that live fairly close (in the Minneapolis area). She lived in Cedar falls for the first several decades of her life and now lives in Waverly, IA. When queried about what she does for fun, Monique responded “I enjoy reading, spending time in the kitchen, being outdoors, going for walks, spending time with friends, traveling (especially getting out of the Iowa winters to warm locales!), and doing some shopping. In addition, she is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, in which they do a lot of fund raising and projects for the veterans in her region. Full Time Psychiatric Nurse-RN 32 or 40 hours per week The Austen Riggs Center is internationally recognized for excellence in providing intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy in an open community. Located on a bucolic campus in the town of Stockbridge, MA, the Center provides a continuum of hospital, residential, and day treatment for people with a variety of complex psychiatric troubles. We are looking to add to our talented nursing staff. Position is full time primarily evening shift with ability to float to nights for coverage if needed. Requires weekend and holiday rotation. The nursing staff play a vital role in helping patients take charge of their lives through the establishment of a thoughtful and respectful therapeutic relationship that maximizes the dignity of the individual patient through support of their healthy, adaptive functioning. Staff Nurse requires current <strong>Massachusetts</strong> RN license, CPR, CPI, BSN and previous psychiatric nursing experience. Austen Riggs Center offers an excellent work environment, competitive salary and great benefits including generous time off and tuition support for higher nursing education. Austen Riggs Center is consistently ranked a “Best Hospital in Psychiatry” by U.S. News and World <strong>Report</strong>. Austen Riggs Center is committed to equal opportunity, a diverse workforce, and an inclusive environment. We seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. For consideration, please submit cover letter and resume to Jobs@austenriggs.net; mail to Bertha Connelley, Austen Riggs Center, 25 Main Street, P.O. Box 962, Stockbridge, MA 01262. Visit our website www.austenriggs.org/careers for more information about the Austen Riggs and to complete and submit our PDF employment application.
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Massachusetts Report on Nursing - December 2020

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