I am very excited to introduce our new microsite, the Skin Care Network! This site was developed by the clinical and editorial team of Lippincott's NursingCenter.com in collaboration with the Dermatology Nurses' Association and the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses. Our goal is to share with you all the dermatology and skin care content from Lippincott's vast collection of nursing journals and keep you up-to-date with the latest research, news, and information your patients may be reading or hearing about in the media.

Here are some highlights of the Skin Care Network that I don't want you to miss:

• In News, you'll discover the latest research findings and evidence-based practice recommendations, as well as links to related mainstream media items that your patients may ask about.
• In Tools & Resources, we've organized content by clinical topic, created a page with all our dermatology and skin care continuing education opportunities, and compiled patient education tools for you to share with your patients.
• In Multimedia, find podcasts of presentations from Lippincott's nursing conferences. More resources will be coming soon to this section!
• Also learn more about the Dermatology Nurses' Association and the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses on our Society Partners page and the Journal of the Dermatology Nurses Association (JDNA), Plastic Surgical Nursing (PSN), and The Nurse Practitioner by visiting the Journals page.

Take some time to explore the site ~ I hope you find the Skin Care Network to be a valuable resource to meet your professionals needs!

The National Conference for Nurse Practitioners (NCNP), sponsored by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, the publisher of The Nurse Practitioner Journal, is well under way at the Las Vegas Hilton. NCNP began on Wednesday, May 11 with a keynote address on The Implication of Health Care Reform for Nurse Practitioners by Eileen T. O'Grady, PhD, RN. Dr. O'Grady is a visiting professor at Pace University's Graduate School of Nursing in New York City where she teaches health policy. Her energizing presentation outlined the many opportunities that nurse practitioners have in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 including funding for education and nurse managed clinics.

Also at NCNP, the conference chairperson, Margaret A. Fitzgerald, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP presented the Nurse Practitioner of theYear Award to Margaret L. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN, Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. Dr. Campbell is noteworthy for her contributions, not only to nursing, but to health care for her pioneering work in the palliative care specialty.

Through Saturday, May 14 nurse practitioners will engage in hands-on workshops to build skills in common office procedures, orthopedic procedures, dermatology procedures, and suturing. Participants will also update their practice at numerous sessions on the latest evidence-based diagnostic and treatment recommendations for acute and chronic care for patient populations from children through older adults. For more information about the National Conference for Nurse Practitioners, visit www.ncnpconference.com.

National Nurses Week starts tomorrow and continues until May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. This year we are celebrating all that you do by opening up some of our journals for you to read free and offering coupon codes for free articles and continuing education credits. I hope that you'll check back to our National Nurses Week page each day to access our content and use your coupon codes. Here's what we have in store:

Friday, May 6th ~ Read the current issue of Nursing2011 free!
Saturday, May 7th ~ Take any CE test up to a $21.95 value for free!
Sunday, May 8th ~ Get your coupon code to purchase any non-CE article (up to $9.99)!
Monday, May 9th ~ Read the current issue of Nursing Made Incredibly Easy! free!
Tuesday, May 10th ~ Get your coupon code to purchase any non-CE article (up to $9.99)!
Wednesday, May 11th ~ Read the current issue of AJN, American Journal of Nursing free!
Thursday, May 12th ~ Take any CE test up to a $27.95 value for free!

I hope that you'll take advantage of these exciting offers. You must be a NursingCenter member and logged in to access the free journals, take the CE tests, and use the coupon codes. Not yet a member? Click "register" at the top right of this page. Membership is free and has many benefits! Have a great week everyone!

This week is Patient Safety Awareness Week, an annual education and awareness campaign led by the National Patient Safety Foundation. I did a quick search of articles from our nursing journals to bring you some of the great content we have related to patient safety...

• Creating cultures of safety: Risk management challenges and strategies
• Preoperative communication to improve safety: A literature review
• An overview of error-reduction options
• Cut down on SSIs
• Legal Department: Hand-Off Communication Does Affect Patient Safety
• 10 Organizational Characteristics That May Prevent Falls in Home Healthcare and Hospice
  

Want to read more? We also have an entire collection of resources devoted to the topic of patient safety. In addition to articles and continuing education opportunities, Focus On: Patient Safety includes a PowerPoint presentation on medication error prevention and a quick reference on pressure ulcer prevention. Have a good week!

I enjoyed putting together our first Editorial round-up last month and I hope you enjoyed reading them! Here are the latest thoughts and opinions from our editors. All are free to read ~ take a moment or two to learn from these leaders of our journals!

• In Get on the road to professional development, Richard L. Pullen EdD, RN shares his views on the importance of clinical experience, maintaining CE credits, and certification. In his editorial you’ll also find special tips for developing career goals.
• In Building healthy bodies one child at a time, editor-in-chief of The Nurse Practitioner, Jamesetta Newland, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FNAP, asks “Why is federal legislation needed to address concerns about child nutrition?”
• In This is The Decade For Nursing, Kathy A. Baker PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CGRN, FAAN encourages us to be involved in shaping the future of our profession and shares ways that we can.
• Did you know that there are only 12 states in the U.S. that allow APNs to practice without arbitrarily assigned limitations? In It's time: Lift restrictions on APN practice, Richard Hader PhD, NE-BC, RN, CHE, CPHQ, FAAN shares his views about this.
• From the Journal of Infusion Nursing, Mary Alexander MA, RN, CRNI®, CAE, FAAN updates us on The New Gold Standard in Infusion Nursing.

That’s all for now ~ enjoy!

The 25^th Annual Clinical Symposium on Advances in Skin & Wound Care was held from September 30, to October 2, 2010 in Orlando Florida. This gathering of top wound care clinicians and presents clinical skill-building sessions for beginners in wound care as well as advanced sessions for expert clinicians and researchers. Some presentations addressed issues including inadequate education of general practitioners and misconceptions that have detrimental effects on patients and possible costly consequences including reduced reimbursement and malpractice claims. Reflect on your own practice setting to examine if these problems or misconceptions exist regarding pressure ulcers.

o   Pressure ulcers cannot be staged in the reverse.

o   Not all pressure ulcers form from the outside and become deeper. Pressure ulcers can be caused by deep tissue injury and form from the inside out.

o   Pressure ulcers are not considered “never events” by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services because not all pressure ulcers are avoidable.

o   Pressure ulcer staging cannot be used for other types of wounds

Take action to improve awareness by discussing these issues in journal clubs, inviting the wound care specialist in your organization to provide education, and implementing appropriate clinical practice guidelines. For more information on this subject and educational materials, go to the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel website at http://npuap.org/.

In the latest issue of the Journal of Christian Nursing, Anthony Hoffman BSN, RN, describes his experiences as a diabetic educator in Nouakchott, Mauritania (located on the west coast of Africa). In his article, Universal Principles for Culturally Sensitive Diabetic Education, we are reminded of the importance of cultural awareness.  While most of us might not travel abroad to work, we care for and will continue to care for patients from other countries or with different faiths and traditions that impact how they manage illness. Mr. Hoffman shares the following “universal principles” which truly can apply to any patient in any setting:

"1. Patients own their culture. A patient needs to be allowed and encouraged to describe his or her culture. I found travel guides and documentaries useful as a starting point in understanding culture, but quickly learned the danger of stereotyping. Having an inquisitive attitude helps us be students of our patients' cultures and avoid stereotyping.

2. Patients own their bodies. In every culture, patients have the right to make their care decisions. Sometimes cultural mores and values will make adherence to the plan of care more challenging, but the final course of action belongs to the patient. We must continue to respect and offer the best to our patients regardless of their healthcare decisions.

3. Patients own their care plans. We need to help patients design their own care plans. Let them suggest ideas for how to follow the recommended plan of care. Set small and incremental goals with the patient for lifestyle modifications and celebrate the achievement of goals. In this way, nurse and patient become teammates working together.

4. Patients are their own best advocates. Teach patients the hows and whys of diabetic care, not just the "shoulds" and "musts." A patient who understands the basic physiology of diabetes is empowered to make informed decisions regarding his or her care plan and to adhere to that care plan.

5. Honesty is always the best policy. We are sometimes tempted to tell less than the "whole truth" in the name of cultural sensitivity. For example, I didn't like telling patients that dates have a high glycemic index or that fasting and binging during Ramadan can wreak havoc on their blood glucose. Withholding unpleasant information does not honor our patients or empower them to make wise decisions about their health."

You can read Mr. Hoffman’s article in its entirety here. Let us know what you think!

NursingCenter.com really is a portal of nursing resources. With over 50 leading peer-reviewed nursing journals, the amount of clinical and professional information available is tremendous. We recognize that searching for information regarding a specific disease, patient population, or nursing issue can be time-consuming, so we've taken the initiative to do some of that leg work for you.

Over the past year, our editorial team has been pulling together collections of articles around topics that you, our NursingCenter.com members, search for most frequently. We've also been adding supplemental content, such as PowerPoint slide presentations of our highly-viewed articles, handy Take5 references to keep in your pocket, and animations which illustrate physiology and pathophysiology in great detail. These "Focus On" collections are available as a bundle at a special price or you can easily peruse the collection and select specific items.

Take a look at what we've got so far! In each collection, you'll find several resources that are available at no cost. Also, as always, our CE articles are free to read. Is there a topic you'd like to see added to this list? Please let us know!

• Focus On: Stroke NEW!
• Focus On: Diabetes
• Focus On: Nursing Ethics FREE!
• Focus On: Asthma
• Focus On: Heart Failure
• Focus On: Pneumonia
• Focus On: Magnet Recognition
• Focus On: Trauma
• Focus On: Influenza
• Focus On:  RWJF Future of Nursing Initiative

As the Director of CE and Conferences, I have a bird's-eye view of the activities at the National Conference for Nurse Practitioner. While not being able to summarize the entire conference in this blog, I will share five notable observations and factoids that I learned this week in Chicago.

1. According to statistics presented by Kismet Rasmussen on Women in Heart Disease: 2010 Update, health care providers continue to be unaware of women’s high risk for heard disease and that more women than man die from heart attacks. For a full list of data go to: http://www.womensheart.org/content/HeartDisease/heart_disease_facts.asp
2. Mimi Secor shared that very few NPs are trained in the insertion of implantable and intrauterine contraception underscoring the importance of networking with colleagues and identifying willing preceptors.
3. The Michael Loughran, President of AON Affinity Liability Insurance and Bruce Dmytrow, VP CNA presented research data collected from a 10 year period from1998 to 2008 that debunks the myth that years RN experience prior to becoming a nurse practitioner is a predictor of avoidance of malpractice. The research shows that a greater number of years as an NP is more protection from malpractice claims.  
4. More health systems are tapping into the value of employing NPs as hospitalists for full-time coverage. Some conference participants shared examples hospitals that employ over 100 NPs. Consequently, acute care nurse practitioners need more continuing education related to their specific learning needs.
5. Last but not least, Chicagoans are extremely friendly and helpful. This may not be what you were expecting, but it is very important when conference attendees are navigating an unfamiliar city and complex convention space. Kudos to the Hyatt Regency hotel and convention staff, local security team, and registration workers!

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has designated March 19 as Certified Nurses DayTM. Nurses around the U.S. are celebrating and reflecting on the value of certified nurses. The research literature supports increasing the numbers of certified nurses because of their ability to improve patient outcomes including: earlier recognition of complications and fewer adverse events compared to nurses who are not certified. These are just a couple of the reasons that ANCC includes nursing certification in the criteria for Magnet Recognition.

There are also a number of benefits to nurses who decide to obtain certification. Some include:

• Personal satisfaction with being able to deliver a higher quality of patient care
• The ability to distinguish oneself from other job applicants
• Earning a higher income due to pay differentials or certification bonuses
• Achievement of credentials that allow one to advance on a clincial ladder or into management and executive roles

You can find a detailed list of nursing certification boards across many specialties in "Your Guide to Certification", located on the Professional Resources menu of Lippincott's NursingCenter.