Posted on 10/28/2006 8:35:21 PM PDT by 60Gunner
Recent natural disasters have underscored the need for skilled volunteer workers. In every state, there are hundreds- if not thousands- of Nursing students who can be useful to healthcare organizations during public health crises. Yet some states, such as Washington, ignore the large group of people who can effectively augment and enhance a disaster response.
In particular, senior-level nursing students can provide a broad spectrum of services due to their advanced level of training. Furthermore, senior Bachelor's Degree nursing students are capable of performing not only basic healthcare, but also of performing more advanced work such as community health assessments, research, and team leadership. (This is not a dig on Associate's Degree nursing (ADN) programs, but simply reflects the enhanced level of education that Graduate nursing students receive.)
It is not as if utilizing volunteer nursing students is without precedent.
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan and Frances, Florida State University School of Nursing Dean Katherine Mason offered the services of her senior nursing students, and the results were most impressive.
There are hundreds of student nurses in the metropolitan King County region in Washington State. Five of these programs provide Bachelor's Degree-level preparation. There are at least five more Associates Degree nursing programs in the same region. Figure an average class size of 34 you get between 60 and 70 students in every BSN nursing program. Now factor in the average class size of the other programs in the region, and you will arrive at somewhere between 600 and 700 student nurses (counting both juniors and seniors)in the Metropolitan King County region alone who can rovide much-needed assistance in a disaster; and the County will not use them if a disaster occurs.
And when you look at the entire state, that means that thousands of persons with at least fundamental nursing skills are forbade from serving their communities with the skills they possess if a disaster strikes. To that end, it is the opinion of this writer that a great disservice is being done to the citizens of Washington State through the government's failure to recognize and utilize a large and valuable resource.
(Note that I am not advocating unsupervised nursing practice here. I am posing the issue with due regard to existing laws as they apply to the supervision of nursing students.)
The subject of student nurse volunteers is not specified anywhere in the language of the Washington State laws specific to nursing education. Even Nursing Technicians (an interim licensure for senior nursing students) are barred from medical-related volunteer service simply because the possibility is not addressed in the existing law, and because medical disaster response teams are exluded from the group of approved facilities for employment of Nursing Technicians.
Nursing students in Washington State would jump at the chance to put their newly-gained knowledge and talent to use for the public service in time of crisis. As described above, the precedent for their use exists; likewise their effectiveness. Yet in the most densely populated region of the state, hundreds of them will be barred from volunteering to serve in a way that they have trained to serve.
L
WA ping
Does Ohio have similar restrictions?
Nursing students can fill a niche without giving them more leeway to practice nursing without a license. Precedent has proven that it is possible. Making it happen in Washington will give the state more than a thousand able bodies to assist with medical relief.
That's a good question; so far, my research has been confined to Washington State. I strongly recommend that further research be done in each state.
AFAIK, even EMTs can't give 'invasive' injections without being licensed to do so.
I think it's a good idea, but you want to be very sure you're on solid legal ground.
My Dept routinely recruits medical professionals for our Medical Reserve Corps for disaster situations. Nursing students are welcome in our training programs but we've made very sure that the legal limits are very closely adhered to.
L
According to existing state law, student nurses must perform their tasks under the direct supervision of a Registered Nurse and/or their clinical instructors (who are also RNs). I am not interested in changing that law in any way, shape, or form. I am only interested in utilizing NSs (at least senior-level) in a disaster response under the same guidelines: that is, performing duties under the direct supervision of a Registered Nurse. I don't want to change the scope of practice. I want to enhance the state's ability to respond to a community's public health needs while adhering to the laws that are already on the books.
So student nurses would not be practicing nursing; they would still be under the direct supervision of a Registered nurse, and would be prohibited from performing tasks that they had not been signed off for by their nursing programs. The restrictions would be quite stringent.
Lurker, can you point me to your state's guidelines? I would love to learn more about how other states are utilizing student nurses in emergency response!
We've been recruiting medical professionals and students into our MRC for the last year. They get training in SNS medical dispensing, site set up and operations and the like in case of any mass medical emergency.
We've already run 2 Full Scale Excersises this year and are planning 3 for next year.
Recently we did a simulated plane crash complete with a bunch of moulaged Professional Victims. That was fun.
Best of luck and I hope you get this program going.
L
I cannot tell you how many nursing students up here were chafing to help after Katrina when we heard about other programs doing so. Being told that they could do nothing made them feel useless. It also got me thinking...
Your description is perfect, and is exactly what I propose.
If they're not, encourage them to start one.
If you need any help, Freepmail me and I'll send you some of the information and material we've developed along those lines.
Check to see if you've got a Citizens Corps running in Washington State as well.
Best of luck.
L
OTOH, municipalities outside of the King County region have local Medical Response Team chapters. I will look into them and inquire about their acceptance of student nurses in any capacity.
Our program has been pretty succesful. The problem, as usual, is attracting enough volunteers. Everybody wants to turn out after a disaster but no one wants to sit through the hours of training before hand.
As I said, let me know if I can be of any service to you.
Good luck.
L
Interestingly, the farther away from Metro King County you go, the larger the body of volunteers seems to be. This is probably due to the fact that if a disaster hits the Metro area, nurses will be otherwise occupied in their respective hospitals. But still... no volunteers?! I wonder what's up with that? It needs looking into...
WA State ping, thanks IslandJeff!...JFK
Oops, the list would help...JFK
Nursing students can do simple assessments and obtain vitals, etc, but must be under the supervision of a licensed RN. In an emergency situation, it makes sense to use them.
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