I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of a project that the New York State Emergency Nurses Association (NYSENA) is currently undertaking to recognize those veterans who seek care in Non-VA facilities.

            In recognition of their service, our project involves giving embroidered stars from retired American flags to those veterans who seek care in non-VA facilities. To provide this type recognition, our organization is in need of retired American flags; the stars of these flags must be embroidered not printed. Our organization is will remove and distribute the stars to all non-VA emergency departments across the state on behalf of the NYSENA so that they are able to recognize all veterans.

            After the stars are removed, they will be properly disposed of according to U.S. Flag Code, which requires flags be "destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."

            Our organization would like to work together with you on this project so that we are able to recognize all that our brave men and women have, and continue to do every day in service to our country.

Thank you for your consideration.

Board Liaison Report

 

Greetings New York State ENA members. It is such a pleasure to be serving as your board liaison again in 2017. I enjoyed meeting so many of you in Binghamton last October. I was very excited to be asked to provide your keynote address for this year's state conference in Sarasota Springs in April. That brings me to the subject of my communication today. My keynote will center around ED preparedness to care for kids. This is such a timely subject for New York ED nurses. We will be talking about the Guidelines for Care of Children in the ED (guidelines). This joint policy statement, published in 2009 and co-authored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Nurses Association, established the standard for ED preparedness to care for kids. In 2013 the National Pediatric Readiness Project (NPRP) a quality improvement initiative, assessed readiness to care for children in over 4,100 ED's across the country. Many ED nurse leaders in New York completed the NPRP assessment. The beauty of this process was the automatic response from the assessment that provided ED nurse leaders with a gap analysis based on the guidelines. I will share specific strengths and weaknesses from New York's assessment with you in April. Exciting news on the horizon in New York is the development of a medical facility recognition program for emergency departments. The EMS for Children Innovation and Improvement Center located at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston is leading this national effort.  A Quality Improvement Collaborative of 14 states, including New York, has been working since April of 2016 to build state champion teams to bring medical facility recognition to their respective states. Your EMS for Children State Partnership Manager, Martha Gohlke, is leading the NY team. The New York state team is very interested in having New York State ENA as a partner in this effort. I look forward to bringing you additional information about these efforts in April. I will be meeting with representatives from the 14 QI collaborative states in Las Vegas at the State and Chapter Leaders Orientation (SCLO) in February to help educate ENA leaders from those states about the EMS for Children efforts and the State Champion Teams in their states. It is my hope that most of the states have already engaged their ENA leaders and if not, that we can facilitate that moving forward.

It is 89 degrees in North Central Texas today, I hope you all are enduring the cold and snow and that it's all gone by the end of April. Until then.........

 

Respectfully,

 

Sally K. Snow, BSN, RN, CPEN, FAEN

2017 ENA Secretary Treasurer

Board Liaison to New York

Needed: Energetic, motivated emergency nurses to run for a coveted spot on the NYSENA Board of Directors.

Positions available: President-elect

                                Secretary

                                Director at Large

Nominations are being accepted, election will be in Oct. 2017. Join the board, make a difference!!

Contact Jacquie Glendinning, Immediate Past President at [email protected]

"The first meeting of the newly formed New York State Coordinating Council of the Emergency Department Nurses Association was held at the Holiday Inn west on August 28, 1975 with the State Chairperson Jerrie Van Every presiding". What a day that was. Ten ED RN's sitting all over a hotel room on the beds, in the chairs and on the floor. Yes, we were not very sophisticated and had no funds at this point. So we gathered where we could just to get us started. Four chapters were represented, Tri-County of South East NY, Genesee Valley, Adirondack and Western New York and the pending chapter of
Southern Tier was also present.

 

"Carol Brown made the motion that we form a temporary council until after the meeting of the national assembly where national bylaws concerning state coordinating councils will be discussed". A question at this point of the progression to become a coordinating council came forward because at that time national EDNA had not made the decision if the council should be a governing body rather than just a coordinating body. "All agreed the council should only serve as a coordinating council". The council remained in this capacity until 1985, after the recommendations of the first national Blue Ribbon Commission was instituted.

 

It was identified at this first meeting we needed to have emergency nurses on the New York State Emergency Medical Services Board. Zana Coates had the vision and requested that a letter be sent to the Commissioner of Health who at that time was Dr. Whalen. This became a struggle for the Council. It took a long time and much "pushing" for the Council to be recognized as a specialty voice for emergency nursing in New York State before the position was granted and then it was only one nurse. It is rewarding to know that even today we do have a representative to that Board.

 

"Bonita Shaw made a motion that we suggest to national headquarters that they put additional information on membership lists concerning local chapter membership if any and place of employment of each member". It is hard to imagine now, that in those days, all the information shared came thru the mail (snail mail that is). They did not have instant electronic information. It took months to contact potential members and communicate information.  

 

"Officers were elected as follows: Vice Chairperson, Carol Brown, Secretary, Bonita Shaw; Treasurer was held until after National Assembly with the moneys until that time to be held by State Chairperson Jerrie Van Every. Two hundred dollars has been allotted us from National to form the NYSC." "Question was raised where money would come from for council activities. It was agreed we should not assess local chapters". We certainly did start with a very small amount of funds but it was clear that those beginning officers did everything possible to lay a foundation to assure we would be successful in the future.

 

It was not possible to send information to everyone at that time due to the funds. "Copies of the minutes of the Coordinating Council meeting will go to each chapter president, National president and our regional representative. I am not sure if in those early years, the officers and members even had an idea what their potential for membership would have been.

 

Finally, at that meeting, "A statement of purpose of the Coordinating Council was formulated.

1. Coordination of chapters and with allied health fields
2. Information distribution
3. Advice
4. Legislative watchdog
5. Communication
6. Council as a whole review and forward requests for local charters"