A message from ANA-NY’s president
Welcome to Nurses Week! Nationally, the American Nurses Association (ANA) chooses a theme to focus the week’s activities. For Nurses Week 2018, the theme is
In this supplement you will become acquainted with the accomplishments of some of the 33 New York members of ANA’s Hall of Fame (90 honorees) and current nurses’ practice related to informatics, the opioid crisis, #MeToo in the hospital culture, human trafficking, and the use of visual management to assure continuous improvement.
Recently, I attended with ANA-New York Board Member, Linda O’Brien, the 25th Anniversary Gala and Annual Meeting of the NY Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders (NYONEL). At the NYONEL Gala, we were proud to see ANA-NY members receive recognition for their leadership: Claire Murray shared the Transformational Leader Award with Patricia Valoon, and was named a BS in 10 Pioneer with other ANA-NY nursing leaders, Karen Ballard, Dianne CooneyMiner, Deb Zimmerman and Barbara Zittel.
ANA-New York and NYONEL believe in collaboration on issues of concern to the profession and have been working together for years on the Advancement of Nursing Education (BS in 10) legislation that was signed by Governor Cuomo on December 18, 2017. The Advancement of Nursing Education law will ensure a future nursing workforce that and is prepared to meet the many changes in health care, nursing practice and the delivery of patient care.
There are some misconceptions about the new law that I wish to clarify. It is based on a NYS model requiring that teachers in public schools acquire additional education within five years of their initial licensure. For registered professional nurses (RNs) the new law is not a requirement for a baccalaureate degree for entry into nursing practice; the law preserves the diploma and associate degrees as viable options for entry into the profession. Also, all RNs licensed in NYS as of December 18, 2017 are automatically “grandparented” by the new law; it will never apply to these current RNs.
Furthermore, it does not apply to students currently enrolled in nursing programs. However, future students who enroll in diploma or associate degree nursing programs and RNs who enter the state with less than a baccalaureate education in nursing (BSN) seeking their initial NYS licenses will still be licensed, but must meet the new requirement for a baccalaureate degree in nursing within ten years. Our future nurse change-agents will be making a difference in every encounter; one patient, one issue at a time, in every practice venue! For information regarding the new law and ANA-New York, you can contact Executive Director Jeanine Santelli at executivedirector@anany.org or visit our website at ana-newyork.org. President Elisa A. Mancuso,
MS, RNC-NIC, FNS, AE-C Professor, Suffolk County
Community College