Wisconsin Nursing Today

By: Peter Kallio, DNP, CRNA, APNP

  Hello fellow nurses of Wisconsin. Here is another iteration of the Chair’s Corner. As many of you may know, I have been on a medical leave from the board for the past couple of months. I have been in treatment for cancer and have recently completed my treatment. I am pleased to announce that I will be returning to the board in February. My experience on the patient side of healthcare has been eye opening. I must say that the nursing care and the physician care that I have received through my journey has been amazing. I can honestly say that every nurse and physician that I have encountered has gone above and beyond in terms of compassion and care. I say this in an environment of the pandemic and with the known staffing shortages. I say thank you to all who cared for me over these months. I also want to thank Rosemary Dolatowski for stepping into the chair’s role on the Board of Nursing in my absence. She has done an amazing job with very little notice. I am forever indebted to her.

   Meanwhile, the pandemic does not seem to want to go away. A new variant and a new surge. ICUs are at capacity. Many of you are working extra shifts and longer hours. I am worried about how long the system can absorb all this stress. Please take care of each other and get help when you need it. You are the heroes of this pandemic, but people need to know when you are at a breaking point. Your work in these unprecedented times is remarkable and I am proud to be part of this profession.

   There is important nursing legislation on the horizon with the Assembly and Senate Bill on APRN modernization. This bill has passed through the Senate with an amendment and was reviewed by the Assembly Committee on Health who has offered amendments. Hopefully it will make the Assembly floor in February.

Links to the APRN Legislation: 2021 Senate Bill 294 / 2021 Assembly Bill 396

   The Nurse Licensure Compact now has 39 states with more states in the legislative process. For more information you can go the NCSBN nurse compact website:
https://www.ncsbn.org/nurse-licensure-compact.htm

   The Board of Nursing meetings are always open to the public and we value your input.  Information on meetings can be accessed using the link below. We have several new board members. We welcome them and I look forward to working with them.

Link to Board of Nursing meeting information:
https://dsps.wi.gov/Pages/BoardsCouncils/Nursing/Meetings.aspx

The holidays have come and gone. I hope that all of you were able to have some family or some down time. Please take care of yourselves and your coworkers. Until next time.

By: Janice Edelstein,
Registered Nurse Member

Focus on the work of the Community/Public Health Nurse:

   The role of the public health nurse (PHN) has never been as important as at the time of a pandemic. Throughout history, PHN’s have been involved with surveillance of communicable disease, advocates for change, policy development, maintaining and promoting health of communities, and addressing issues relating to the social determinates of health. The social determinates of health are those non-medical aspects that impact one’s health such as food insecurity, early childhood development, and work-life conditions. Public health science includes those areas as epidemiology, disease investigation, surveillance, and restoring to optimal health.

   I became interested in public health while living in a rural community in Oklahoma where medical care was limited by transportation and lack of services. The need for prenatal care, basic health care needs, and lack of health services promoted my shift in medical nursing care to an interest in community care. I expanded my education at the University of Oklahoma, Health Science Center. Traveling to the university was a three-and-a-half hour trip one way from my rural community of Poteau. In 1980, distance education was not an option. Living in a rural community, I saw the need for getting out into the community to work with all age groups in providing accurate health information to promote health and wellbeing.  

Favorite aspect:

   What makes PHN practice unique is a nurse will partner with other community partners who are dedicated to improving the health of communities through networking, collaborations, and coalitions.

The challenge:

   The first challenge is meeting people in their own environment and listening to their stories. There are many needs that people have and sometimes getting to better health is meeting the basic needs first. Understanding where people are coming from is eye opening. Sometimes, people just need guidance in helping to navigate through life crisis. My favorite aspect is watching people become empowered in taking care of themselves and their families.

   Community/Public Health Nursing requires a special set of skills, so the educational needs require building resources at the local, state, and national level. One resource is the Wisconsin Public Health Association. All nurses can join initiatives within WPHA to advance the profession through the Public Health Nursing Section and align their skillset for special projects, such as public health nursing modernization, workforce and mentorship, and racial equity in our profession and in Wisconsin.

Side Note: The Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA), is an association of over 500 public health professionals, including public health nurses, that seeks to build a healthier, safer Wisconsin through policy and partnership. WPHA identifies eighty-six local public health agencies in Wisconsin where our public health nurses do many tasks to better the community’s health. Each year, WPHA sponsors both an annual public health conference, as well as public health nursing conference to share ideas, network, and learn best practices amongst the public health nursing profession and across all sectors.

Special Thank-you to Jamie Michael, WPHA, for her contribution on WPHA:
https://www.wpha.org

By: Barbara Nichols, PhD (h), MS, RN, FAAN

   The 2020-2030 National Academy of Medicine (NAM) report posits that the various roles that nurses fulfill are critical in achieving health equity for all. They further assert that the achievement of health equity in the United States must be built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise.

   The report includes a developed framework which identifies key areas for strengthening the nursing profession to meet the challenges of the decade ahead. These areas include the nursing workforce, leadership, nursing education, nursing well-being and emergency preparedness response in acute care, community, and public health settings.

   The report predicts that the demand for nurses will grow in the years ahead due to health needs of the aging population, increases in behavioral and mental health conditions, limited access to primary healthcare, high maternal and infant mortality rates, worsening healthcare professional shortages and other sociodemographic factors, and health workforce imbalances. In the current and future healthcare systems nurses provide care coordination that helps ensure seamless care, serve as advocates for patients and communities and assist in increasing individuals’ trust in and engagement with the healthcare system. *

*National Academy of Nursing, “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030, Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity”, (May 2021) Washington, DC