New Hampshire Nursing News - December 2020

Page 16 • New Hampshire Nursing News December 2020, January, February 2021
NEW HAMPSHIRE NURSES ASSOCIATION -
A YEAR IN REVIEW 2020
Vision: Inspire New Hampshire Nurses as leaders to expand the impact of the nursing
profession to improve the health of the people of New Hampshire.
Mission: As a Constituent State Nurses Association of the American Nurses
Association, the New Hampshire Nurses Association (NHNA) exists to promote
nursing practice and the wellbeing of New Hampshire nurses by providing
professional development, fostering nurse innovation, and leading in health advocacy
to enhance the health of the people of New Hampshire.
Core Values: Autonomy, Collaboration, Respect, Professionalism, Innovation, Safety,
Integrity, Data-driven, Promotion of Evidenced-Based Practice (EBP), and Leadershipall
nurses are leaders
Board of Nursing and a group of long term care organizations to develop the role
of the Temporary Health Partner (THP). THPs work with LNAs to provide the
activities of daily living for residents in long term care facilities. This role will only
be in effect during the period in which the pandemic related emergency orders
remain in effect. The hope is to encourage these THPs to proceed with requisite
training to become LNAs.
Strategic Plan 2017-2020: 2018 Update
Strategic Goal #1: Membership: Growth and Sustainability
Goal: Strengthen and actively grow a relevant and financially secure organization.
NHNA is a volunteer led, staff supported organization and relies on engaged
volunteers to carry out the mission, vision and strategic plan. This report, based on
the Strategic Plan, provides a year-in-review of the hard work carried out by one FTE
in paid staff, and the many volunteers who make up the NHNA Board of Directors,
Commissions and Task Forces, to achieve the mission of NHNA.
NHNA’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic:
• With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the early months of 2020,
nurses have been confronted with unique challenges in caring for their patients
in the face of a novel virus, where transmission vectors, treatment guidelines
and standards of care were evolving rapidly. In addition, due to the highly
contagious nature of this novel virus, stay-at-home orders were issued in New
Hampshire (NH), along with the closure of schools and non-essential businesses.
Hospitals suspended non-emergent, elective procedures to save bed space for
anticipated COVID-19 patient loads, resulting in a significant financial impact
on NH’s healthcare organizations. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not
available in quantities needed across the entire continuum of care. NH nurses
faced truly unique challenges and they met these challenges face-on. NHNA,
like our member nurses, adapted quickly to the new normal in a time of a global
pandemic. NHNA staff reviewed information from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Nurses Association (ANA), the NH
Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) and other reliable sources to
post this information in a timely manner to help NH nurses stay abreast of the
ever changing information. As the pandemic evolved, along with ANA, NHNA
identified resources to help nurses combat the stress of working in different areas
of practice, working with reduced hours due to the financial challenges faced by
their employers, all while dealing with the challenges of children at home and
attending school via remote learning models or elder family members who are at
increased risk of becoming seriously ill.
• Investment in NHNA staff creating informational pages on the NHNA website.
Staff regularly posted updates from the CDC, ANA, DHHS and other reliable
sources. Additional webpages were developed providing self-care resources and
financial resources for nurses experiencing furloughs, layoffs and reduced hours.
• NHNA staff developed a public service announcement (PSA) to encourage
NH citizens to stay at home, to practice social distancing and to wash their
hands. This PSA was aired on WMUR ten times. NHNA wishes to thank our
collaborating nursing organizations for helping to make this possible: NH Nurse
Practitioner Association, NH Association of Nurse Anesthetists, NH School Nurses
Association, the NH Chapter of the AWHONN and the Southern NH Oncology
Nurses.
• In response to several inquiries from retired and furloughed nurses looking for
opportunities to volunteer during the coronavirus pandemic, NHNA conducted
a survey of members and followers to create a dataset of potential volunteers.
We shared this information with the NH DHHS, Public Health Departments and
nursing organizations upon request.
• During March and April, NHNA received over ten inquiries from the media,
including WMUR, NHPR, the Union Leader, Keene Sentinel, Seacoast Media
Group and Valley News. NHNA and NHNA members were featured in televised
and print media as a result of these outreaches.
• During this same time period, NHNA participated in conversations with Senator
Shaheen’s office, Congresswoman Kuster’s office and Congressman Pappas’
office. We shared concerns about inadequate supplies of PPE and raised other
issues that nurses had brought to our attention through our Contact Us webpage.
• NHNA was requested to speak before the Governor’s Office of Emergency
Relief & Recovery Committee. We shared concerns regarding PPE and need for
additional funding/procurement support for PPE based on the over 800 responses
we received from our survey of membership prior to providing this testimony. We
subsequently shared our survey results with chief nursing officers around the state.
• Senator Tom Sherman contacted NHNA seeking potential volunteers for the
Alliance Senior Support Team. The Alliance SST is a volunteer based organization
where teams of volunteers call on long term care facilities each day to check on
their COVID-19 status and inquire if there are any needs at the facilities (such
as PPE). This team of trained volunteers provides long term care facilities with
vetted information and resources to help them deal with COVID-19 related needs.
The information from each of the facilities is then collated and shared with the
appropriate departments within DHHS. NHNA assisted with identifying over 100
volunteers for this important initiative protecting NH residents in long term care
facilities. NHNA Past President, Judy Joy, leads the Alliance SST Liaisons who call
on facilities each day.
• Senators Jay Kahn and Tom Sherman reached out to NHNA looking to solve a
severe shortage of LNAs in long term care facilities due to quarantined staff and
self-terminations related to the pandemic. We worked with the New Hampshire
Note: peak growth occurred in 2014/2015 with the institution of ANA Value
Pricing Program, steady growth since. The significant growth in Apr/May
2020 r/t increase visibility of ANA/NHNA due to COVID-19.
Note: green line reflects what membership would look like with no
attrition, blue line is membership growth including the loss of cancelled
members.
Note: shows monthly incremental new/reinstated members compared to
monthly cancelled members.
The 2020 Business Plan was developed based on the Strategic Plan 2017-2020. This plan
reflected many investments by NHNA to achieve its strategic goals.
• Investment in the Membership & Communications Coordinator, Paula MacKinnon,
to design digital media campaigns, increase web presence, maintain a strong
organizational voice through social media, and develop a bi-weekly E-Flash to
provide updates on NHNA activities and events while reducing the number of
discrete emails to members. McKinnon also supports the Commission Chairs and
the Executive Director (ED), Joan Widmer. Between October 2019 and July 2020,
Facebook followers have increased from 934 to 1,147 (á 23%), Twitter followers have