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Personally, I hope as a chapter member we met your needs this year and over summer we will send out a chapter needs assessment. I would highly encourage you to fill it out so we can meet your needs as a chapter member. I hope you have a great rest of summer.

This year I have had the incredible opportunities to work with fantastic, creative and very dedicated board members. I am very excited that we have the opportunity to have new board members joining the board for the local chapter. We do have some members who this will be the last year they will serve: Mary Sayler, Becky Aleckson, Laura Genzler, Leo McNamara and Amber Herzina. Thank you very much for all the hard work you put in to make this chapter so successful. Continued on to page 4.

July 2015

In this issue:

Presidential Address

Election Results

New Year, New Theme

Professional Ethics

Upcoming Events

Certification Corner

Connect with us!

The Greater Twin Cities Area Chapter - AACN

Presidential Address The 2014-2015 is wrapping and I could not be more proud of a chapter what we have accomplished as a group such as a two day symposium with a certification review, many educational offerings, increased awareness of organ donation and midwinter educational offering. As I reflect on the great year the chapter has had I would like to focus on our local chapter board and the new AACN theme (see below and page 2).

A new year brings a new theme and new

board members! Here are the results from

this year’s election:

President: Ramona Friederich

President Elect: Vacant

Secretary: Anita Anthony

Treasurer: Shannon Bunkers

Treasurer Elect: Jessica McAdams

Education co-chair: Carol Amis

Education co-chair: Lainey Sundborg

Education co-chair elect: Angela Engberg

Membership: Gina Mikish

Research: Mary Fran Tracy, Ian Wolfe

Publications: Kathi DiGregorio (currently

seeking replacement)

PR/Legislative: Vacant

Progressive Care: Vacant

Pediatrics: Kathi DiGregorio

We would like to

thank our departing

board members for

their hard work and

service!! A big

thanks goes to

Laura Genzler,

Amber Herdzina,

Leo McNamara,

Mary Saylor and

Angelika Smirnitsky.

Looking for an opportunity to become more involved with the critical care community?

Looking for a resume builder? We are actively seeking members to fill our current va-

cant positions in the board. For more information contact us at info@gtcac.org.

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Symposium Update:

Key Note Speaker

Mary Kay Bader

We are proud to announce our Key Note

Speaker for our 2015 Fall Symposium. This

year’s Key Note Speaker will be Mary Kay

Bader MS, RN, CNS, CCRN, CCNS from

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Name sound

familiar? Well it should be!! Ms. Bader is the

recipient of a number of AACN Circle of

Excellence Awards. She is one of the leading

voices in Neuro/Trauma/Cardiovascular Care

with being an editor, contributor, and researcher

for many of the protocols and practice

standards we use in critical care medicine. She

has been a professor at Georgetown University

and Loyola University of Chicago. Currently,

Ms. Bader serves on the Neuro Critical Care

Society Board of Directors.

The Brain Trauma Foundation. (2010). Biography of Mary Kay Bader. Retrieved from

https://www.braintrauma.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mkb-bio.pdf

July 2015

The Greater Twin Cities Area Chapter - AACN

Courageous Care It’s a new year here at the AACN; which means it is time for the unveiling of the

new theme: Courageous Care. The following is

an excerpt from the new AACN President

Karen McQuillan in a statement released about

the new theme.

“This year’s theme reminds us of the strength

that is in each of us,” President Karen

McQuillan said as she announced at NTI 2015

that Courageous Care would be AACN’s

theme for 2015-2016.

“For us as nurses,” McQuillan said,

“Courageous Care means doing what is

necessary to provide the best possible care for

our patients and their families. Period.”

Continued on page 4.

Certification Corner

Have you ever considered becoming a

certified nurse? Consider taking the CCRN/PCCN review course. We will be offering the CCRN/PCCN review course

during our Fall Symposium. We will also be offering bulk registration for the ex-am; further decreasing the cost of the

exam. Also, did you know most MNA contracted hospitals offer MNA dollars for education?! Take advantage of the

all of these opportunities to become a certified nurse!

The following are some practice ques-tions from the CCRN review:

Remember Fall

Symposium is

October 22 & 23

at the DoubleTree

Hotel in Saint

Louis Park, MN.

. While reconciling the medication for a patient with type II diabetes who is scheduled for

PCI in the morning, the nurse should ensure the metformin (Glucophage) is held to

minimize:

A. Risk of hypoglycemia

B. Injury to the kidneys

C. Injury to the liver

D. Risk of heart block

Caution should be used in titrating nitroglyc-

erin (Tridil) in patient with ST elevation in

leads:

A. II, III, and aVF

B. I and V2-V6

C. aVL and V5-V6

D. aVR and V3-V4

***For answers see page 3***

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Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland, the call from nursing leaders was to branch out from our structural areas of practice and look at other determinants of health beyond the disease process. As the patient advocate nurses must look to social, economic, and structural determinants of health. Protecting human rights, promoting health, and reducing disparities that affect health were central themes throughout the symposium and are deeply entrenched in the language of the Code of Ethics. These provisions must be foundations for practice. As critical-care nurses we often see the result of failed health policy and poor distribution of resources. The Code of Ethics articulates the requirement of nurses to not only advocate for their patient at the bedside but to connect how other factors affect the health of patients as a whole such as environment, policy, and economics. Nursing is a wholly ethical profession and as critical-care nurses we make ethical choices everyday whether consciously or subconsciously. Being a critical-care nurse means having more responsibility over critically ill patients and their families as well as the responsibility to take on more education often with little extra benefit. I encourage us all to explore the new code of ethics, as I believe it provides some very realistic guidance for nurses in general but for critical-care nurses specifically as we are often practicing in challenging ethical environments. The Code of Ethics will help us expand our role to where it should be, as leaders of healthcare.

July 2015

The Greater Twin Cities Area Chapter - AACN

The Code of Ethics: Obligations for Practice By Ian Wolfe “This year the ANA released the updated Nursing Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics provides nine provisions for nurses. These provisions are not new but provide updated language and guidance for current practice of American nurses. The nine provisions can be found here: http://www.nursingworld.org/Mobile/Code-of-Ethics These provisions tie together the importance of nursing’s impact on and commitment to patients “…whether an individual, family, group, community or population (Provision 2).” During the release of these provisions at the ANA Ethics

We are currently accepting nominations for the

Katherine Brownlee Critical Care Nurse of the Year

Award. This award is given out each year at the

Fall Symposium. Know someone deserving;

nominate them today!!

Eligibility Requirements:

Current AACN and GTCAC member

Current licensure in the state of MN

Not a previous recipient of the Award or

National AACN awards

Not a current GTCAC board member

Currently employed as a Critical Care Nurse

Nominating Information needed includes name,

address, phone number, email, place of

employment, and no more that 250 word essay

about the person as to why the person deserves

the award. Submission are to be returned by

October 1st to info@gtcac.org.

Katherine Brownlee

Award

Answers to Certification Corner:

1. B 2. A

August 11—Bonefish

October 22 & 23 -

Fall Symposium

SIDEBAR SUBTITLE

DATES

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“We tend to the needs of

patients and their families at the

most vulnerable times of their

lives. We work to reshape the

very face of healthcare and to

reimagine the way healthcare is

delivered.” (McQuillan, AACN,

2015)

President McQuillan encourages each and every one of us to remind ourselves how

strong we are nurses, colleagues, and people of the community. She as wants us to

share our inspiring stories of Courageous Care for our patient’s, families, and

communities at courageous@aacn.org.

McQuillan, K. (2015, July). Courageous Care. Retrieved from

http://www.aacn.org/wd/nti/content/president-theme.pcms?menu=nti2015

July 2015

The Greater Twin Cities Area Chapter - AACN

Courageous Care Continued...

“We nurses show courage daily,” she said. “We

demonstrate Courageous Care each time we step up to

advocate for our patients, challenge the way we’ve

always done things, gain knowledge to care for

complex patients or have a difficult conversation with a

colleague who has lost their passion for nursing. We

also demonstrate Courageous Care when we recognize

our own needs and take the time to renew and

recharge ourselves.”

“I challenge us to show the world that we as nurses

don’t just provide care for people,” McQuillan explained.

“Courageous Care means doing

what is necessary to provide the best

possible care for our patients and

their families. Period.”

Presidential Address Continued

This upcoming year we do have some

vacancies on the board and if you have

ever thought about joining I would heavily

encourage you to contact us at in-

fo@gtcac.org. As a board member will get

a chance to network with other critical/

progressive nurses throughout the Twin

Cities, it is fun, looks great on your re-

sume and to make an impact on local criti-

cal/ progressive care nurses.

Last years theme of Focus the Flame is

changed to Courageous Care. Our new

AACN president Karen McQuillan says

“Courageous Care means doing what is

necessary to provide the best possible

care for our patients and their families.

Period.” As we go into a new year I hope

you can reflect how you can incorporate

the theme courageous care into your nurs-

ing practice will you attend a local seminar

(or NTI) or will you join a committee at

work to name a few. The possibilities are

endless.

Regards, Kent Karls

Happenings Around the

GTCAC

Our website is currently being

worked on and updated to make

more user friendly and serve our

community better!

The GTCAC just recently added a

pediatric chair position. The pediatric

chair is to be the advocate for

pediatric units such as the PICU,

CVICU, and NICU. We want to

incorporate these nurses in our

critical care community!

Here at the GTCAC we are looking

at different ways to connect with

you! Connect with us on our

Facebook page and our new

LinkedIn page. Both are listed

under AACN-Greater Twin Cities

Area Chapter.

We want to hear from you!!

If there is someway we can serve

you and the critical care community.

Email us at gtcac@info.org.