Tennessee Nurse - May 2021

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Page 6 Tennessee Nurse May, June, July 2021 CALL FOR CANDIDATES TNA Members – Help Lead and Shape TNA Policy Nominations Accepted Now for Several Elected Positions Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE, TNA Executive Director The Tennessee Nurses Association Nominating Committee is actively seeking nominations for several positions that will be open for election on the TNA ballot at Membership Assembly on October 15. A nomination to one of the Board of Directors’ positions allows you to lead and make a difference in your state professional association. YOU are the Voice of TNA! Positions Available: • Secretary – 1 to be elected • ANA Membership Assembly Representative – 3 to be elected • Director, Government Affairs – 1 to be elected • Director, Operations – 1 to be elected • Director, Practice – 1 to be elected • Nominating Committee – 3 to be elected I encourage ALL TNA members who are interested in serving on the Board of Directors to submit the online Call for Candidates form, available at https://form.jotform. com/211174777262155. The link is also available at TNAonline.org/Events. The submission deadline date is June 25, 2021. No handwritten, faxed, or mailed Call for Candidates Applications will be accepted. All Call for Candidates applications will be reviewed and selections made by the TNA Nominating Committee. Thank you in advance for your willingness to serve. Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE There is a call for resolutions posted in this issue of Tennessee Nurse. Last year several members asked how resolutions are formatted for consideration by the TNA Membership Assembly. I hope that this brief article provides you with some guidance on how to write a resolution. The information below is garnered from Robert’s How to Write a Resolution Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th Edition and the TNA Policy and Procedure Manual. A resolution or a long or complicated motion should be prepared in advance of the meeting and should be put into writing before it is offered. The deadline for submission of resolutions this year is August 13, however, TNA policies and procedures allow for resolutions to be submitted to TNA no later than 30 days prior to the Membership Assembly. Resolutions shall then be referred to the Reference Committee for appropriate review. Resolutions cannot be submitted from the floor of the Issues or Bylaws Forums, or Membership Assembly except by affirmative vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the Membership Assembly present and voting. Any resolution submitted from the floor and accepted for presentation must be submitted in written form. Resolutions must be submitted adhering to the following guidelines: • The Resolution shall deal with a single topic. • The Resolution shall be accompanied by an action plan in sufficient detail to allow a financial impact statement to be delivered. CALL FOR RESOLUTIONS The Tennessee Nurses Association is issuing a formal Call for Resolutions for the 2021 TNA Membership Assembly to be held during the TNA Annual Conference on October 15 – 16, 2021, at The Chattanoogan Hotel, Chattanooga TN. Resolutions can be submitted by any TNA member. If you wish to submit a Resolution, please submit by email to Diane Cunningham, at the TNA office, diane.cunningham@tnaonline.org, no later than August 13, 2021. • The Resolution and accompanying action plan shall be concise and clear. • The Resolution shall have relevance to the Tennessee Nurses Association and/or citizens of the state of Tennessee. • The Resolution shall not duplicate existing Association policy or Bylaws or be redundant. TNA resolutions include a preamble, a preamble consists of brief statements of background and reasons for the resolution. A preamble consists of one or more clauses beginning with “Whereas,…” To avoid detracting from the force of the resolution itself, a preamble generally should contain no more clauses than are strictly necessary. The last paragraph of the preamble should close with a semicolon, after which a connecting expression such as “therefore” or “therefore, be it” is noted. The preamble is then followed by the actions being requested of the Membership Assembly. These actions are written as “Resolved” clauses, the resolved is generally in italics, followed by action clauses, not in italics. If there are more than one resolving clause, each of them should be a separate paragraph. The resolution format therefore is as follows: Whereas, The (text of preamble), Whereas, Text of additional background/reason….; now, therefore be it Resolved, That (text of action). Additional actions should be in additional resolved statements. TNA resolutions, therefore, should be submitted using the following template. TENNESSEE NURSES ASSOCIATION MEMBERS ONLY REQUEST FOR ABSENTEE BALLOT - 2021 TNA Member Agreement: I understand that mailing the TNA ballot to me in the manner and form that has been approved, discharges TNA’s responsibility to me in the matter of absentee voting. I further understand that requesting an absentee ballot removes my name from the list of eligible voters at the TNA Annual Conference. Absentee ballot requests must be submitted online through the TNA Request for Absentee Ballot JotForm at https://form.jotform. com/211174722236146. The submission deadline is September 14. The absentee ballot with return instructions will be mailed to you by September 17. Your completed ballot must be received at TNA headquarters by the close of business on October 7, 2021. If you have questions, please contact Diane Cunningham at Diane.Cunningham@TNAonline. org or call 615-254-0350 ext. 4. NOW HIRING Registered Nurses - ALL AREAS including FULL TIME and WEEKEND ONLY We are currently recruiting RNs in Lexington, KY in all areas of UK Chandler, UK Good Samaritan, Eastern State Hospital and Kentucky Children’s Hospital, all part of the University of Kentucky HealthCare system. BENEFITS INCLUDE: • Education opportunities • Nurse residency program • Tuition benefits • Nursing professional advancement program • Comprehensive benefits package including retirement plans with match APPLY NOW: UKJOBS.UKY.EDU | careers.esh.ukhc.org INSERT NAME OF RESOLUTION HERE WHEREAS, Insert Resolution Information, and Continue using WHEREAS until you have covered all background/reasons; and now, therefore be it RESOLVED, Insert Resolved Information, and Continue using RESOLVED until you have covered all action issues. Submitted By, Insert Name(s) Insert Submitter’s email address *Resolutions requiring resources must include a financial impact statement We invite you to submit an abstract to be considered for oral or poster presentation at the 2021 TNA Annual Conference, Year of the Nurse 2.0 – One Year Wasn’t Enough in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Poster abstracts may be on any topic. The focus/content of your oral abstract should relate to one of the following themes: • Palliative Care Role in COVID • Mental Health & Well-Being/Self-Care • How you survived 2020: Practical Solutions to Helping Others • Recruiting/Retaining & Caring for a Diverse Workforce • Leadership • Bullying/Violence • Care of the Elderly/Dementia • Alternatives/Complementary Therapies for Pain CALL FOR ABSTRACTS TNA Annual Conference Year of the Nurse 2.0 One Year Wasn’t Enough October 15 – 16, 2021 The Chattanoogan Hotel Chattanooga, TN (Office Use Only) Resolution ________________ MA Disposition _________________________ • Topics for Educators • Topics for Bedside Nurses If you have an innovative project or topic that does not quite fit into any of these categories, please submit, as a few innovative presentations outside those boundaries will be considered. ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Abstract submissions must be received by 4:30 p.m. CST, on June 25, 2021. SUBMISSION ACCESS LINK Submit abstracts at: https://form.jotform. com/211174317727151 or visit TNAonline.org/Events. If you have questions, please email TNA@TNAonline.org.
May, June, July 2021 Tennessee Nurse Page 7 Government Affairs It’s A Wrap For 2021 Legislative Session Kathleen Murphy TNA Director of Government Affairs and Lobbyist The State Legislature has gone home for the first part of the two-year General Assembly. We actively supported four specific pieces of legislation: full practice authority for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, restoring the increased penalties for assaulting a nurse performing official duties, increasing funding for school nurses through the BEP school funding system, and allowing Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to order home health for their patients. We also negotiated and participated in advocacy on legislation that needed to be improved, changed, or defeated in order to protect nursing practice. Kathleen Murphy HB 184 / SB 176: Increasing Access to Care for Tennesseans: This bill was introduced on behalf of TNA and the Coalition for Access to Care for Tennesseans. The legislation was heard in the Senate Commerce Committee and was rolled to the first calendar of 2022 by bill sponsor Senator Lundberg. Given the circumstances surrounding this past year and this legislative session, we believe this was the right decision and will better position our legislation for passage in 2022. Please understand that while our work is not done, we are making good progress. To help gain support of the legislation, TNA accepted an amendment to the bill that created a transition to prescribing. Other amendments issued by the health department were also added to the legislation. Having the prescription amendment added and on record is a great win, as it gives us an opportunity to continue to educate members on the issue leading into next year’s legislative session. Legislators were very clear that the bill would not advance without some transition to prescribing included. The bottom line is this: we are in a better position to continue to educate members and advocate on the importance of this legislation. SB19/HB864: No nurse should have to choose between protecting themselves or caring for their patients, and this legislation will help nurses feel more empowered to report actual or threats of assault. Last August, during the Special Session, the legislature rewrote the assault code and removed nurses from the increased penalties section. #EndNurseAbuse SB19/HB864 restored nurses into the assault code and increases the visibility that physical assault against nurses will not be tolerated. A big thank you to Jimmy Closser, RN, who testified about his firsthand experience with assault as part of the committee hearings. His willingness to share his experience has undoubtedly helped this legislation pass. SB582/HB537: Unfortunately, this legislation to increase funding for school nurses did not pass committee, nor was it funded through the Governor’s budget. We will continue to work with a coalition of other advocates to push for increased staffing levels and funding for school nurses. SB478/HB743: APRN’s Authority for Home Health Orders bill passed and modernizes TN health care services by allowing patients to choose their provider and does not force a new relationship with a physician they have never seen just to meet an administrative requirement. This will ensure greater access to home health services. By eliminating a step in the authorization process, it will speed up the time for services and allow providers to have claims submitted and approved. Our fight for legislative changes to protect and promote the registered nurse is not over just because the legislature has gone home. The time and energy you have put in to contact these legislators and emphasize the importance of our positions are greatly appreciated and essential to our mission. We cannot thank you enough for your efforts and look forward to your continued support as we approach the next session. If you would like to get more involved, please email Kathleen Murphy at kathleen.murphy@tnaonline.org. TN Nurses PAC Want to protect and promote the nursing profession? Donate to the TN Nurses PAC today. When I am presenting workshops on nursing political advocacy, and legislative updates, one of the top questions I receive is, “why do the doctors or hospitals have so much power?” Of course, there are a number of answers to questions like that, but when it comes down to it, it’s politics. The Tennessee Nurses Political Action Committee not only allows nurses to have a strong collective voice during campaign season, but it also can support the legislative, lobbying, and coalition building efforts in and out of legislative session. We saw legislation passed that (HB1045/SB212) requires the board of nursing, upon learning a nurse was indicted for or convicted of certain criminal offenses, to restrict or revoke, respectively, the nurse’s ability to prescribe controlled substances and requires to suspend a nurses’ license upon finding they failed to comply with physician collaboration requirements; and requires facility administrators to report certain information. This is a serious change from our American tradition of innocent until proven guilty. We expressed our concerns to legislators on committees and leadership, but ultimately the bill passed. The Hospital Association brought legislation (HB1353/SB1267) that would authorize hospitals to hire nursing students who have graduated but had not passed their NCLEX or other licensing requirements yet. The pandemic was the main reason they cited for this legislation and the nursing shortage that has been growing for years. While we were ultimately able to get this legislation amended to where we took a neutral position on the legislation, it was a fight to get nurses voices heard. This legislation was a prime example of too many decisions being made about our profession and the care we provide, without nurses being involved and having a seat at the table. If nurses don’t get involved, other people will. The hospital CEO, administrator, doctors, or other medical professionals will gladly tell candidates and legislators that everything is perfect in the nurse’s profession or what changes they think should be made. But when nurses speak up and advocate, then nurses and patients win. These two pieces of legislation are only a few examples of what happens when legislators, other healthcare organizations, and associations do not involve nurses or consider the impact on nursing when drafting legislation and policy. Every day we read about working environments being compromised, hospital bottom lines, and nurses being pushed to the edge. Political Action is hard work and takes time, but the results are worth it. We must continue to work on developing relationships with all legislators even if they are not considered “pro-nurse.” We are in difficult times. But this is about your profession, the care you provide, your livelihoods, and your ability to protect your family and loved ones. In order to have a stronger voice at the state capitol, we need a strong political action committee that will reinforce our lobbying and advocacy efforts. To do that, WE NEED YOU. We need you to contribute to the Tennessee Nurses Political Action Committee today. Please help us promote and protect YOUR nursing profession. Donate today: https:// tna.nursingnetwork.com/page/94251-donate-to-tn-nurses-pac Southwestern VA Mental Health Institute SWVMHI is a 179 bed state-of-the-art inpatient Mental Health facility located in the beautiful mountains of Southwestern Virginia and is part of Virginia’s Dept. of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Nursing employees make a valuable difference in the lives of the individuals served on our Acute Admissions, Long- term Adult, or Geriatric Units. www.virginiajobs.peopleadmin.com Visit the website or use the QR Code above to apply today! Excellent Benefits Include: * $5,000 Sign-On Bonus for Registered Nurses * $1,000 Sign-On Bonus for Active Virginia Certified Nurse Aides * Shift Differential, Weekend and Holiday Supplements * Employer/Employee funded Retirement * State Life Insurance * Minimum of 28 Days of Paid Time Off/Yr.
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Tennessee Nurse - May 2021

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