News

The MN NACNS welcomes Shari Frueh, BSN, RN to the Student Representative Role! Shari, a Clinical Resource Nurse at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, supports the GI Endoscopy units. She currently attends Winona State University in the Adult-Gerontology CNS Master’s Program. The MN NACNS looks forward to your assistance in helping us stay connected to and support the CNS students in MN!

The MN NACNS welcome Mary Gerchman-Smith, MA, APRN, CCNS, to the MN NACNS Board of Directors as the President Elect. Mary, a critical care CNS at Essentia Health, focuses on early mobility, trauma, burn care, delirium prevention, ECMO, suicide prevention, organ donation, and HAIs. Mary successfully co-led several multi-disciplinary teams to implement a system-wide suicide screening tool, a behavioral emergency response team, and development and implementation of an ECMO program. Mary is also not new to the MN NACNS, she has previously volunteered her time serving on MN NACNS planning committees. Thank you Mary for your previous contributions to the MN NACNS and welcome to the Board of Directors. We are look forward to working with you over the next 3 years!

The MN NACNS welcomes Mary Gruber, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC into her new role as the President on the MN NACNS Board of Directors. Mary, a cardiovascular CNS, works across the service line for MHealth Fairview supporting practices from cardiovascular procedural areas to cardiac telemetry and leading system-wide alarm management projects and being an expert in cardiac monitoring and telemetry. Thank you Mary for serving as the MN NACNS 2020 President-Elect and volunteering your time on the planning committees. We look forward to your great leadership as you enter your new role as the 2021 President on the MN NACNS Board of Directors.

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Petty, PhD, RN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CCNS, on receiving the Mary Fran Tracy Award from the Minnesota Affiliate of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (MN NACNS) on October 2, 2020. Dr. Petty was nominated by 2 M Health Fairview APNL colleagues who have worked with him for many years, recognizing his longstanding contributions to the profession of nursing, the CNS role, and the nursing department at M Health Fairview. He is well respected at the hospital, system, state, national, and international levels where his contributions are significant and numerous. Key areas highlighted in the nomination include his work to advance and share specialty expertise regarding cardiothoracic, circulatory assist, and heart and lung transplantation patients and their families as well as his leadership to advance nursing practice through implementation of evidence (e.g., CA-UTI prevention) and to generate new knowledge through nursing research.

In his role as advanced practice nurse leader at M Health Fairview, Dr. Petty works with the cardiothoracic population and solid organ transplant specialty. He is also the lead for the complex care clinical grouping within Practice & Education and has been a preceptor for many CNS students over the years. This award is particularly meaningful as it is named for Dr. Mary Fran Tracy, a respected colleague who worked for many years at UMMC in the CNS role and other nursing leadership positions. Dr. Tracy was the co-founder and charter president of the Minnesota Affiliate of the MN NACNS, and has worked tirelessly throughout her distinguished career to advocate for advancing the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist. The award is given to a recipient who exemplifies excellence in education or practice, including:

• 1.       Commitment to advancing expertise in their clinical specialty.
• 2.       Demonstrating leadership in promoting evidence-based practice.
• 3.       Demonstrating quality patient outcomes as a result of his/her practice.
• 4.       Supporting nurses in the delivery of patient care and the advancement of nursing practice.
• 5.       Promoting change or collaboration at the system level to improve or impact patient care.

After much deliberation, planning, and working with various partners, the Fall Conference Planning Committee and the Board is pleased to announce that we will be hosting an abbreviated annual virtual conference this year.  October 2, 2020, from 08:00-12:00 via Zoom.  3.0 CEUs will be available.  No pharmacology credits will be offered, but plan on the pharmacology conference filling this need!   

APRN Bill Passed into Law!

The Minnesota APRN Coalition bill, the largest statutory alignment bill offered by the coalition, was passed on May 17, 2020.  This is a “clean-up” bill which updated language to include APRNs in addition to physicians and other Advanced Practice Providers where applicable, to better align with current practice.  This bill is article 4 of the omnibus health and human services bill, S. F. 13.

Click here for more information:  https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2020/0/Session+Law/Chapter/115/

Mary Fran Tracy Award of Excellence:

Deadline: July 31, 2020

Award will be presented to the recipient at the Annual MN NACNS Conference on October 2, 2020.

For more information and nomination form, click here

Background: the Minnesota Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Coalition is supporting legislation to align multiple outdated state statutes to current APRN practice. State statutes still contain restrictive language that can impede care.

APRNs provide care to individuals from birth to old age, and in many cases serve as a primary care provider. We serve Minnesotans throughout the state, often providing care to underserved communities in all settings. This legislation furthers the goal of updating outdated statutory language to reflect the current practice of APRNs.

These changes will:

• ·         Increase efficiency for patients. Care delivery and form completion can be addressed in the same visit, thus reducing delays in care and unnecessary costs incurred due to delays with form completion.
• ·         Promote productive use of the health care workforce. Some of these changes eliminate the need for two health care providers to sign, stamp, certify, or endorse one patient’s care forms.
• ·         Update outdated statutory references. These changes align statues with current APRN practice.

Removing outdated signature laws is consistent with recommendations from major policy organizations such as the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and the Federal Trade Commission.

Recommendation to our MN legislators: Support and advocate for SF 1966/HF 1914 in your committee or in a floor vote.

Contact information:      MN APRN Coalition: admin@mnaprnc.org www.mnaprnc.org

                                                Maureen O’Connell, JD

                                                Lisa Fink, CNM, JD

                                                Government Affairs Consultants

                                                moconnell@oconnellconsulting.net

You can find your legislator at:  

Representatives Contact Information | Senators Contact Information

Find out who represents you.

Please join in congratulating Carol Manchester, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, BC-ADM, CDE for being inducted into the 2020 Class of Fellows of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Institute (of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists)!  

Full press release here. 

Calling all CNS Students!  Do you have a project to share?  Show off your work at the National CNS Conference in Indianapolis next year !  

https://nacns.org/2020-call-for-abstracts/