OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF THE FLORIDA NURSES FOUNDATION Volume 68 • No. 3 Quarterly publication direct mailed to approximately 10,000 Registered Nurses and delivered electronically via email to 310,000+ Registered Nurses in Florida August 2020 Mission Statement Advancing the profession of nursing and promoting a healthy Florida FNA does not endorse advertised products, services, or companies, nor any claims made in paid advertisements. The Florida Nurse is proudly brought to you by FNA dues paying members. President’s Message George Peraza-Smith, child to sickness and health to the end of our as calls to rebel under the auspice of freedom DNP, RN, APRN, GNP, AGPCNP patients’ lives. Our healthcare system has fallen and liberty. What about nurses’ and healthcare short in meeting the challenges this pandemic has workers’ freedom and liberty to live and work We are living and caused. As a nation we were unprepared to fight another day? Only World War II and the 1918 flu working in unprecedented this pandemic while maintaining the safety of our pandemics have caused more loss of lives in the times. As I write that nursing and healthcare workforce. We are living U.S. than the COVID pandemic. There were 3000 statement, I cannot help but in parallel universes with polarizing views from souls lost to the 9/11 attack and that tragedy feel it is an understatement. those who view the welfare and safety of others brought America to our knees and renewed our I often hear it from from the pandemic as paramount while others see sense as a nation that we are in this together. patients, families, friends, this as a hoax or have politicized the pandemic. There have been truly great acts of kindness and colleagues. The We, as nurses in the trenches of this pandemic, and individuals taking personal responsibility COVID-19 pandemic has understand all too well this is not a hoax. The view during this pandemic; however, as a nation, highlighted the courage of the pandemic as a hoax is a direct result of the we have fallen far short from other national and professionalism of decimation of public health nursing and the lack of tragedies in creating a sense of community and my fellow nurses. Even funding for public education and safety. that we are in this together, compared with the though we have been the most trusted profession This is a pandemic that could potentially actual number of deaths from this pandemic to for decades, nursing has been underrecognized and have devastating repercussions for decades to other tragedies. undervalued by society. In some respects, nurses come. We are losing nurses every day to this However, we can debrief our future have been taken for granted. I have witnessed pandemic. We have nurses losing their lives. opportunities at another time. Today must and heard so many overwhelming stories of While the lack of consistent safe workspaces has be focused on our survival and ensuring that selfless sacrifice from nurses just doing their jobs. led to some nurses choosing and having to leave all nurses have safe work environments and Nurses are dealing with personal safety issues our profession. There are health care leaders are provided the required personal protective and ethical dilemmas everyday as we struggle who are not living up to their responsibilities of equipment (PPE) to do their jobs safely to help our patients recover and for some even to protecting the nurses providing patient care. I and effectively. This pandemic has caused assist them in dying with dignity from COVID-19 can hardly blame nurses choosing to leave our psychological trauma for nurses. Nurses complications. Nurses are with patients during profession as we have a segment of society who their most vulnerable moments from birth of a see the wearing of a mask and social distancing President’s Message continued on page 3 Inside this Issue Non-Profit Org. President’s Message ................................... 1 Legislative Update ..................................... 10 U.S. Postage Paid Princeton, MN Notes from the Executive Director ......................... 2 State Employees ...................................... 11 Permit No. 14 Region News ........................................ 4-5 Welcome New FNA Members! ......................... 12-13 current resident or New Graduate Nurses Launch their Careers at SIG News ............................................ 14 the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville ........ 5 Nursing Community ................................. 15-17 Calendar of Events ..................................... 6 People with Disabilities, Nursing, and Disaster Management ... 17 News from Headquarters ................................ 6 Focus on New Grad ................................... 18 Focus on the Foundation ................................ 7 Board of Nursing ...................................... 19 FNPAC ............................................... 8 2020 Florida Nurses Association Membership Assembly Student Forum ........................................ 9 is Going Virtual! ................................... 19 Page 2 The Florida Nurse August 2020 Notes from the Executive Director Nursing Dimensions of a Pandemic: Owned and Published by, Florida Nurses Association 1235 E. Concord Street, What We are Learning Orlando, FL 32803-5403 P.O. Box 536985, Orlando, FL 32853-6985 Willa Fuller, BSN, RN, Executive Director a topic of conversation. Specifically, a question was Telephone: (407) 896-3261 raised as to whether healthcare facilities provided FAX: (407) 896-9042 As COVID-19 made its emotional support and debriefing for nurses caring E-mail: [email protected] ––debut on the American for persons with COVID-19 on a daily basis. Some Website: http://www.floridanurse.org landscape, information participants felt that there needed to be more than just Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., began pouring in from the availability of an Employee Assistance Program Monday thru Friday a myriad of sources. We (EAP). Some nurses termed their day as working in For advertising rates and information, please contact began being bombarded a “war zone.” They discussed being in exceedingly Arthur L. Davis Publishing Agency, Inc., PO Box 216, Cedar with media requests before hot PPE all day and being “dripping wet” by the end Falls, Iowa 50613, (800) 626-4081, [email protected]. FNA we really had a handle on and the Arthur L. Davis Publishing Agency, Inc. reserve of the day. We heard one report of a fairly new nurse the right to reject any advertisement. Responsibility for what was happening in starting on a COVID-19 unit and having seven patients errors in advertising is limited to corrections in the next the healthcare workforce. on ventilators and by the end of his shift, all seven issue or refund of price of advertisement. As a picture began to had expired. One interesting thing I have noted from Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement form, based mostly on my colleagues is that some nurses have contacted or approval by the Florida Nurses Association of products advertised, the advertisers, or the claims made. Rejection communication with front- faculty from their education programs to share what is Willa Fuller of an advertisement does not imply a product offered for line workers coupled with occurring in their workplaces. There has been concern advertising is without merit, or that the manufacturer the news media, we began expressed regarding the possibility of post traumatic lacks integrity, or that this association disapproves of to see the startling impact on our colleagues on the stress disorder and suicide risk related to the issues the product or its use. FNA and the Arthur L. Davis front lines. After many meetings, webinars, discussion Publishing Agency, Inc. shall not be held liable for any surrounding the care of these patients, particularly in consequences resulting from purchase or use of an groups and media sources, including blogs and social light of increased suicide among nurses recently. The advertiser’s product. Articles appearing in this publication media groups, it became apparent that this pandemic fact that some people are calling this a hoax when express the opinions of the authors; they do not had produced several areas of concern for healthcare nurses are steeped in the daily care of these patients necessarily reflect views of the staff, board, or membership workers and, specifically for our purposes, nurses. can be frustrating and disconcerting. of FNA or those of the national or local associations. Published quarterly, February, May, August and The themes that rose to the top were, workforce Some nurses reported feeling lonely and isolated. November by FNA, a constituent member of the American safety, work environment and leadership, ethical and They expressed that no one but other nurses Nurses Association. moral dissonance, emotional support and mental understood what they were going through and they Editor – Kaitlin Scarbary, 1235 E. Concord St., Orlando, health, personal, family and community health, had no one to talk to about it. One nurse had formed a FL 32803-5403 employment and income security. An additional Subscription available at $20.00 plus tax, per year. Zoom Support Group so she and her colleagues could Members of FNA receive the newspaper as a benefit of theme that rose repeatedly was the uncertainty just “get together” and talk about anything. membership. surrounding nursing education and how leaders and COPIES of The Florida Nurse are available on 35mm faculty would