SIUE School of Nursing

“The ability of healthcare providers, and in particular, nurse practitioners to appropriately serve a patient population struggling with opioid use disorders within rural areas of Illinois is of critical importance.”

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (PRWEB)
March 26, 2020

It’s consistently clear that nurses play a huge societal role as educated, compassionate medical professionals and abundantly so in the midst of the current world health crisis. Whether on the frontlines, as administrators, educators or aspiring healthcare workers, nurses continuously seek new knowledge and skillsets that will add value for their patients.

One of the latest examples of this dedication is the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Nursing’s (SON) innovative Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) program. Despite the suspension of on-campus activities at SIUE as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the ANEW program held its first continuing education conference on Saturday-Sunday, March 21-22 in a virtual format.

Almost 300 attendees, comprising regional Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) and students, participated remotely in the regional conference as nationally-renowned speakers presented on topics of opioid crisis, non-opioid pain treatment options, recognizing addictive behavior, rehabilitation of the opioid dependent patient, and long-term follow-up strategies.

“The ability of healthcare providers, and in particular, nurse practitioners to appropriately serve a patient population struggling with opioid use disorders within rural areas of Illinois is of critical importance,” said SIUE SON Family Nurse Practitioner Clinical Site Coordinator and Instructor Melissa Bogle, DNP, FNP-BC, ACNP-BC. “I was incredibly impressed with the level of participation, engagement and best practice sharing from attendees. Despite the virtual environment, you could sense the collegiality of the group.”

“We received so much interest from healthcare providers in the bi-state area for this conference, so it meant a lot to us to be able to deliver on our commitment to provide educational credits to this group, despite current COVID-19 challenges,” Bogle added. “The majority of attendees are required to have this type of opioid-focused education to renew their licenses within the state of Illinois.”

SIUE SON Instructional Designer Jodie Nehrt helped with the successful transition to a virtual format, primarily through the use of Zoom and Mursion.

“We were fortunate to have a collection of speakers who were motivated to share their content, despite the last-minute change in venue, and attendees who were eager to engage and participate from the comfort and safety of their homes,” Nehrt said.

“Zoom was the technology that saved the day for us,” she explained. “We were able to schedule the sessions and offer virtual attendance to this free conference using a free communication tool. We coordinated with our presenters to fulfill their needs for attendee participation and question-and-answer management. Additionally, one of the sessions was a dynamic demonstration of a software we use on campus, called Mursion, which offers mixed reality for the practicing of professional skills.”

“Dr. Melissa Bogle worked nonstop on developing this conference from the beginning. Jodie Nehrt came in to work last week when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and we knew that our live campus event would likely be canceled,” said ANEW Program Director Valerie Griffin, DNP, PPCNP-BC, FNP-BC, PMHS, FAANP, assistant clinical professor and director of nurse practitioner specializations in the SON. “These incredible, dedicated women were able to transition this large event to a virtual format without exhibiting worry or stress over the process. They remained positive that we could pull this off, and we did!”

Attendees expressed their appreciation to the SON for their creative online management and successful execution of the ANEW Conference.

“During a time when faculty are stressed to get their classes online, I am amazed at your commitment to those who registered for this meeting,” noted Margaret Faut Callahan, CRNA, PhD, FNAP, FAAN, senior vice president of Strategy and Innovation at Loyola University Chicago, in a post-conference email. “The skills required to make this happen so quickly, in just a week, are remarkable. Further, the lectures were of high-quality both from a content perspective and the technology used to bring this to us virtually. It was clear to those of us who participated that your faculty and support staff worked long and hard to provide this excellent conference.”

Funded by a four-year $2.75 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the ANEW program is a multi-faceted educational effort that is creatively designed to increase the number of nurse practitioners who practice in rural and underserved communities throughout Illinois by promoting a smooth and natural transition from the student role to practicing APRNs into those areas.

The SIUE SON and its clinical partners collaborated on the conference’s development. Clinical partners bolstering the success of the ANEW program are Chestnut Health Systems, OSF HealthCare, Southern Illinois Healthcare, Synergy Healthcare Solutions, LLC., and the SIUE We Care Clinic.

The SIUE School of Nursing’s programs are committed to creating excellence in nursing leadership through innovative teaching, evidence-based practice, quality research, patient advocacy and community service. Enrolling more than 1,700 students in its baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders in pursuit of shaping the nursing profession and impacting the health care environment. SIUE’s undergraduate nursing programs on the Edwardsville campus and the regional campus in Carbondale help to solve the region’s shortage of baccalaureate-prepared nurses and enhance the quality of nursing practice within all patient service venues. The School’s graduate programs prepare nurses for advanced roles in clinical practice, administration and education.

Vosita Telemedicine

PARAMUS, N.J. (PRWEB)
March 25, 2020

Vosita Healthcare, Inc. https://vosita.com/ – a startup Telemedicine firm providing an online medical care appointment booking service as a Telehealth appointment or standard office appointment.

Vosita Healthcare Inc. – located in Paramus, New Jersey – announces the release of Vosita Telemedicine FREE of charge. Telemedicine services allow a medical provider to quickly evaluate and diagnose patients who may be separated geographically or are trying to reduce the risk of infection, AKA “Social Distancing,” but still need first-rate medical care.

In dealing with a crisis such as the Coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19, our goal is to provide modern services like telemedicine to the public in order to decrease the risk of infection. Telemedicine allows those who are immunocompromised or quarantined to get doctors’ advice from the safety and comfort of their home. It can also keep patients who believe they may have the virus but have only minor symptoms out of the emergency room where they could spread the disease to others.

President and CEO of Vosita Healthcare Inc., Robert Gabriel, commented, “Our goal is to help our physicians, patients, and communities overcome the crisis and flatten the curve of infections by providing Vosita Telemedicine services.” Mr. Gabriel is a proud believer in giving back to the providers as a small price to pay in order to contain such a pandemic. Mr. Gabriel has been working with providers for 23 years serving as the CEO of Microwize Technology, a healthcare IT firm since 1997.

The use of Vosita Telemedicine will be free for providers and medical groups for one year, with no obligation to continue to use it after the free period. In order for patients and providers to use the service, they need to go to https://vosita.com/ to join, no credit cards or any financial commitment needed.

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Communities Collect Medical Supplies

We must work together to win this war. And, together, we will. — Rebecca Love, MSN, RN

MARBLEHEAD, Mass. (PRWEB)
March 24, 2020

In continued rapid response to the national emergency to combat COVID-19, the Society of Nurse Scientists Innovators Entrepreneurs & Leaders (SONSIEL) has marshalled both national collaboration and media to help better protect frontline healthcare workers. In mere days, tens of thousands of pieces of protective gear have been donated and swiftly distributed to healthcare facilities in at least eight states. With a frantic need for immeasurably more, SONSIEL now has added a direct-sourcing, non-profit campaign to the already burgeoning grassroots program effort.

The countrywide call-to-action began with a March 17, 2020 urgent plea, requesting that non-hospital inventories of personal protective equipment (PPE) be shifted to hospital and healthcare facilities. Using a program deemed SHARE—Strengthen Healthcare Ability to Respond to Emergencies—SONSIEL and its members quickly raised action to amass existing inventories of PPE and transport items to the front lines of care. In less than one week’s time, 12,000 N95 masks, 8,000 surgical masks, 1,000 face shields, 1,200 isolation gowns, 60 pairs of goggles, 50 hazmat suits, 6,000 pairs of gloves, 35,000 shoes, gallons of hand sanitizer, and 40 bottles of cleaning supplies have been identified, sourced, and moved to facilities in California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Items have arrived from all over the country and from every walk of life. Contributors include non-profits, corporations, individuals, municipal organizations, pharmaceutical labs, veterinarians, dentists, construction, cleaning, retail, and landscaping companies—all in an effort to ensure that staff caring for COVID-19 patients are protected and safe. Volunteer groups are sewing masks in Florida. Engineers are fashioning new infection-prevention designs in Illinois. It’s a classic American wartime effort.

A March 20, 2020 ABC News Nightline episode, “Communities help collect medical supplies as coronavirus threatens shortages,” featured SHARE. Since the show aired, SONSIEL has received an even greater number of incoming appeals from desperate nurses and physicians working at healthcare locations in virtually every state in the nation. As a result, on March 22, 2020, SONSIEL launched a GoFundMe campaign to also help temporarily source supplies restricted by hospital purchasing constraints. Nearly $20,000 in donations have poured in during the initial hours of the campaign.

Remarked Rebecca C. Love, MSN, RN, SONSIEL President & Co-Founder, “Nurses and towns are mobilizing, setting up collection sites; frontline staff are stopping by and picking up supplies. We need this strategy and tactic replicated in every town across America. So many of our peers, the healthcare troops, from the ranks of doctors and nurses and every role on a team, are seriously affected by and at risk due to this dire shortage of protective gear. We cannot lose our healthcare workers to sickness as a result of exposure to this invisible enemy. With all of your help, with the efforts of active and retired nurses, military veterans, tech workers in Silicon Valley, tradespeople in our neighborhoods, shop owners, co-workers, our family and friends, with all of your help, SONSIEL is locating and delivering PPE where it is needed, as fast as we are able, at no cost, until the country’s manufacturing and supply chains can adjust to the new PPE productions levels demanded in today’s war against the virus.”

Said Marion Leary, MPH, MSN, RN, SONSIEL Board Member, “So many of you have given, personally and corporately. There are just far too many of you to name. And yet we’ve so much more to do. We must not only sustain but significantly grow our force. Large urban hospitals, small medical practices—from New York City to New Hampshire, from Los Angeles to Maine, in Idaho, Boston, Philadelphia, and everywhere—healthcare staff need our help, so they can help us in this once-in-a-lifetime battle. Please add more power to SONSIEL’s fight. We ask everyone across the country to get out the word, to continue to research where appropriate supplies might be found, and to fully support the SHARE and GoFundMe efforts. If you have any PPE or money to spare, please free them up, understand how one act will help your local hospitals and healthcare providers, the people in your community.”

Concluded Love, “We must work together to win this war. And, together, we will.”

To contribute to the SONSIEL GoFundMe campaign, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/nurses-ppe-supplies. For more information on SHARE, please visit https://sonsiel.org/coronavirus. To view the Nightline episode, please visit https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/communities-collect-medical-supplies-coronavirus-threatens-shortages-part-69724499.

ABOUT SONSIEL

SONSIEL is a national and international platform for nurses, to engage and advocate for nursing’s role in influencing and directly impacting health through innovation and entrepreneurship. Nurses are on the front lines, working with all healthcare team members to keep patients and the community safe. For more information about SONSIEL, please visit https://sonsiel.org/.

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