Letters to the Editor

of a program in which the language of Letters to the editor should be submitted via E-mail instruction, or textbooks, or both, is not English. The nurse to [email protected]. Please include: (a) maximum 200-word must achieve a minimum score of 550 (paper-based exam- comment on a recent Journal of Scholarship ar- ination) or 213 (computer-based examination) or 79/80 ticle, (b) author’s name, location, and (internet-based examination) on the Test of English as a International chapter if applicable, and (c) statement of Foreign Language; or a passing score on the English portion permission to print. Letters might be edited to fit avail- of the CGFNS Qualifying Examination as evidenced by a able space. CGFNS Qualifying Examination Certificate issued before July 15, 1998. Logsdon Acknowledges Co-Author’s Contribution Graduation from an approved nurse education pro- With the June 2008 publication in JNS of our gram, English proficiency, and achievement of an NCLEX manuscript, “Testing A Bioecological Model to Examine pass score are among the conditions of Massachusetts Social Support in Postpartum Adolescents,” I realized that nurse licensure established by state law for foreign-educated an error was made concerning the order of the authors. nurses. The Massachusetts nurse licensure laws do not re- Because extensive statistical analysis was involved, the re- quire completion of a preliminary examination of nursing search team decided that the data analyst for the study, knowledge, such as the CGFNS qualifying examination, to Craig Ziegler, should be listed as the second author of the predict the foreign-educated nurse’s likelihood of passing study. I would like to publicly acknowledge Mr. Ziegler’s the NCLEX. As an agency of state government, the Board’s enormous contribution to the manuscript, and publicly state mission is to ensure that all nurses to whom it issues a li- that the research team considers him to be the second author cense are qualified to provide the citizens of Massachusetts of the study. with safe and effective nursing care. The speed with which Thank you for allowing me to make this correction. the immigration process occurs is irrelevant to the Board’s M. Cynthia Logsdon, ARNP, DNS, FAAN, public protection mission. Alpha & Iota Gamma Judith Pelletier, RN, MSN University of Louisville School of Nursing Nursing Education Coordinator Louisville, KY Executive Office of Health and Human Services [email protected] Department of Public Health Division of Health Professions Licensure Clarification to Brush Article Board of Registration in Nursing I read with interest Barbara Brush’s article entitled, Boston, MA “Global Nurse Migration Today,” which appeared in the [email protected] Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Volume 40, Number 1. Brush Replies However, I am writing to correct some inaccurate state- ments on page 21. The Massachusetts Board of Registra- Thank you for the clarification. I am aware of the tion in Nursing (Board) has not waived the Commission state’s practices and the paper should have more clearly on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) qualify- stated that the criteria have shifted to more of an “either/ ing examination as Ms. Brush indicates. Rather, the Board or” model, which typifies other states as well. I appreciate requires foreign-educated nurses to complete one of the fol- your careful reading of the article and your interest in this lowing CGFNS programs as a prerequisite to writing the subject. National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX): Barbara L. Brush, RN, PhD, FAAN, Xi & Rho • CGFNS Qualifying Examination Certificate (applicable University of Michigan School of Nursing to RN licensure only); or Ann Arbor, MI • VisaScreenTM Certificate (applicable to RN licensure [email protected] only); or • CGFNS Credentials Evaluation Report, including both Comments on von Krogh and Naden Article the Nursing & Science Course-by-Course Report and Regarding the article “A Nursing-Specific Model of EPR License/Registration validation option (applicable to Documentation: Organizational and Professional Require- both RN and PN licensure. ments,” by Gunn von Krogh and Dagfinn Naden, (First Completion of this requirement allows the Board to deter- Quarter 2008) the strong support of a NANDA-, NIC-, mine whether a foreign-educated nurse is a graduate of a and NOC-based nursing classification system for electronic government-approved nurse education program that main- health records seems to warrant the full disclosure that Gunn tains standards substantially the same as those required von Krogh is a member of the NANDA International Board of a Board-approved nurse education program located in of Directors. Massachusetts. I was disappointed to see the International Classifi- The Board also requires all foreign-educated nurses to cation for Nursing Practice (ICNPR ) described as lack- demonstrate English proficiency if the nurse is a graduate ing the capability for diagnosis, intervention, and outcome

300 Fourth Quarter 2008 Journal of Nursing Scholarship Letters to the Editor statements. These statements have always been considered von Krogh Replies the means by which clinical nurses will use ICNPR . In ad- The strong support of NANDA, NIC, and NOC ter- dition, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) ICNPR minologies is based on the fact that these terminologies Programme has aimed to develop ICNPR catalogues. These were developed to obtain cognitive representations of nurs- are subsets of the terminology presenting precoordinated ing knowledge. Because each concept represents a body of and coded diagnosis, intervention, and outcome statements knowledge, these terminologies are important tools in clini- organized according to heath issues, specialties or set- cal reasoning, and when used as interface terminology they tings, or phenomena sensitive to nursing interventions. might support workflow. Guidelines for Catalogue Development are available at Reference terminologies such as ICNP R are built as http://www.icn.ch/icnp_Catalogue_Devlp.pdf and the first hierarchical semantic networks aimed at coding informa- published catalogue (Partnering with Individuals and Fam- tion. The modeling of statements is based on semantic re- ilies to Promote Adherence to Treatment) can be ordered lations and rules to make valid combinations of terms. from http://icn.ch/store/wwwbook/allpubs.html#ICNP At Valid uses of ICNP R statements in clinical reasoning this time, three more catalogues are in various stages of can depend on an individual nurse’s former training in development. using terminologies developed as knowledge representa- I strongly disagree with the authors’ comment that tions. ICNPR has “problems finding its place in the healthcare Reference terminologies’ one area of use is mapping service and also will have no administrative significance as interface terminology into electronic information. The ca- long as it remains unincorporated in a reference terminol- pacity of mapping depends upon how many semantic com- ogy.” ICNPR is a reference terminology developed using binations the terminology processes. SNOMED CT is to- web ontology language in Proteg´ e´ software. It is a uni- day recognized as a powerful reference terminology with fied nursing language that allows other terminology to be the capacity to process information from interface ter- mapped with ICNPR .ICNPR is used by nurses and health minologies that are important for healthcare institutions information system vendors worldwide and Version 2.0 will worldwide. be launched at the ICN Congress in Durban, South Africa in June 2009. Gunn von Krogh, RN, MNSc Claudia Bartz, PhD, RN, FAAN Assistant Professor at Oslo University College Coordinator, ICNPR Programme The Faculty of Nursing International Council of Nurses Oslo, Norway [email protected] [email protected]

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