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NURSES LOOKING TO COME BACK TO THE PROFESSION SHOULD:

Contact the state nursing board to determine requirements for re-activating a license.

Look for a refresher program that offers a good balance of classroom and clinical time.

Volunteer in a health care setting to help sharpen skills and learn new ones.

A Call for Nurses to
Return to the Profession

Over the past decade, numerous nurses have been leaving the profession to pursue expanded opportunities outside of the traditional nursing profession.

This mid-career flight only served to compound the ongoing nurse staffing crisis, now in its seventh year. Fortunately, better pay, greater flexibility and career opportunities, as well as a growing number of specialized nursing needs are drawing thousands of nurses back into the field.

However, the services of thousands more registered nurses are still needed. According to a recent national nurses survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it is estimated that there are 500,000 inactive licensed registered nurses who, for a variety of reasons, are not currently active in a health care provider role.

"Transitioning back into the workforce after an extended period of time can be challenging, as there are requirements for continuing education and new technology that is constantly changing the health care community," said Andrea Higham, director of The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future. "As more re-entry programs are designed to address the needs of nurses returning to work, we hope many will consider returning to the field."

Several nursing schools and organizations are making a concerted effort to reach inactive nurses and prepare them for re-entry by offering recruitment and refresher courses, as well as re-entry placement programs. For details and more information on how to re-enter the workforce, visit discovernursing.com.

Post-Disaster Baby Boomlet Raises
Need for Obstetric Nurses

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, the need for labor and delivery nurses has been magnified--particularly in New Orleans where hospitals have experienced a significant increase in child births over the past few months, spurring what some are calling the "Katrina Baby Boomlet."

Following Katrina, the city's birth rate increased 39 percent. Last July, Ocshner Health Systems experienced a 100 percent increase in child birth. In the same month, the maternity unit at St. Tammany Parish Hospital New Family Center hit a one-day record of 15 babies in 24 hours.

"We are particularly heartened as our population returns to New Orleans, as well as by the growth governed by new births," said Joe Ann Clark, executive director of the Louisiana State Nurses Association. "However, we must remember, these new babies will place added demands on an already faltering health care system and creates the need for additional efforts to help our health care system meet those demands."

This surge has occurred despite the city of New Orleans losing between a third and a half of its population prior to the hurricane and its aftermath. New Orleans and the state of Louisiana also lost Charity Hospital, the state's largest indigent care facility in the wake of the storm.

Fortunately, there are new educational resources and programs readily available to train nurses for the delivery room and follow up obstetric care.

The Compendium of Postpartum Care and Emerging Issues in Near-Term Infant Care, both published by the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute and the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), are dedicated to educating nurses and others who care for new mothers and offer continuing nursing education credit. For more information or to order copies of these publications, visit www.jjpi.com or www.awhonn.org. Patient handouts on these topics are available for free on both websites. To learn more about labor and delivery nursing, including training and certification, visit discovernursing.com.

New Orleans Gala to Honor Nurses and Benefit
Recruitment and Scholarships

Nurses who spent the night on parking garage helipads and provided around-the-clock critical patient care for days following Hurricane Katrina, as well as hundreds of others who continue to work long hours daily due to an extreme nursing shortage in Louisiana post-Katrina, will be honored at a special Promise of Nursing for Louisiana gala on Wednesday, November 8 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.

The gala, sponsored by The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future, along with the Louisiana State Nurses Association and supported by numerous corporations and non-Louisiana based businesses, will raise thousands of dollars to fund nursing student scholarships, faculty fellowships and nursing school grants all in the state of Louisiana.

Since 2002, funds from nearly twenty Promise of Nursing galas across the country have raised more than $9 million in regions where the nursing shortage is most acute. For more information or to support another gala, please contact Lorie Kraynak at 732-524-1716 or lkraynak@corus.jnj.com.

Sara S. -- Miss North Dakota 2004
RN; Family Birthing Center
Grand Forks, ND

I was inspired to become a nurse when my older brother and younger sister both had to have open heart surgeries to correct congenital heart defects. The nurses who took care of my siblings were intelligent, articulate and highly skilled, but what I remember most is how they cared. I was only ten years old at the time, but I knew that I wanted to be a nurse and care for people the way these nurses cared for my family. I followed this dream, worked hard at my education, and now work as a labor and delivery nurse where I make a difference in peoples' lives every day. One of the great things about the nursing profession is that there are so many career paths to choose from-the opportunities are endless. Choosing to be a nurse has been one of the best decisions of my life.

Nursing Faculty Fellowships Available

The Foundation of the National Student Nurses Association (FNSNA) is pleased to announce applications for the Promise of Nursing Regional Faculty Fellowship are now available. Funding for these nursing faculty fellowships is raised at the Promise of Nursing galas sponsored by The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future. Registered nurses enrolled in post-graduate education programs in preparation for a nurse educator role may be eligible for awards up to $7,500 for tuition, academic fees and books for the 2007-08 academic year. To obtain an online application, visit www.nsna.org. Applications are due by Friday, March 9, 2007. For more information, contact the FNSNA at (718) 210 -0705 or nsna@nsna.org.