National Nurses in Business Association 2007 Conference

NNBA 18th Annual Conference Details: October 20-21, Charlotte, NC

Four simultaneous pre-conference workshops: Oct. 19, Charlotte, NC


Early registration: Must be received one month before the conference (Sept.19).


$199 NNBA member


$300 Non-member


$99 Bring-a-friend: Each NNBA member attending may bring one friend for $99.


Note: Pre-conference sessions are not included in general registration


See pre-conference workshops


Caution: Membership is verified. Non-member purchases at the member price will not be processed until additional payment is received. (click here to purchase membership for $99 )

Late registration: Received within one month of conference Non-member $350 NNBA member $249 Bring-a-friend $149: Each NNBA member attending may bring one friend for $149.


October 19, 2007, four pre-conference seminars


See the four pre-conference workshops


October 20 and 21, 2007, two-day annual conference


Click here to see the conference agenda and speaker schedule


Special events:


* Nurses in Business Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony


* Evening networking reception Saturday October 20, 2007


Reserve your hotel room NOW. Group rate ends Sept. 18.


The group rate is $89 for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (October 18, 19, and 20).


The rooms are limited and on a first come, first serve basis. When the rooms run out, the non-group rate can be as high as $230 depending on the demand.


Click here to reserve your room at the Sheraton Airport Hotel

3315 Scott Futrell Drive

Charlotte, North Carolina 28208

Phone: (800) 325-3535 or (704) 392-1200

Continuing education: The conference is approved for 12 hours of nursing continuing education. To receive the continuing education credit, there is an additional $15 charge that you will pay directly to the CE provider. Pick up a request form at the conference. The provider (recognized nationally) will mail you a certificate, maintain your records for five years, and replace certificates at no cost to you.


Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, BRN Provider number CEP-3285, for stated contact hours credit. CE credit is accepted in all states and for many national certifications; call 1-800-743-4006 for CE information.


Refunds: Full refund less $30 processing fee if notified SEVEN DAYS BEFORE the conference. No refunds or credits given after the conference.

Changes: Schedule and speakers subject to change. The NNBA reserves the right to cancel this conference. In the event of cancellation, all registration fees will be refunded in full. Please check with NNBA prior to booking your flights in case of changes.


Money back guarantee – If you are not satisfied, notify us at first break and we will refund your registration fee, no questions asked.



Journal of Nursing Administration To Publish Nurse Staffing Study

In the July 30 edition of ASA’s Staffing Week E-newsletter, contributing editors reported that the highly antitipated temporary nurse staffing research of Dr. Linda Aiken will be published in the July-August issue of the Journal of Nursing Administration. Read below to get the full scoop on Dr. Aiken’s work and her findings…

 

“Imagine your whole work force dogged by a rumor—a persistent shadow that follows your temporary staff and your business. Health care staffing companies have lived with that shadow for years: the perception that temporary nurses provide lower quality of care than permanent nurses. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit organization, went so far as to declare temporary nurses “a threat to patient safety.”

 

To counter this perception, ASA contracted with the University of Pennsylvania to examine the relationship between the use of temporary staff and patient outcomes (including quality of life, length of stay, and health status). Linda Aiken, Ph.D., RN, director of the university’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, led the study. Nineteen health care staffing firms joined ASA in sponsoring it.

 

Aiken and her team concluded that nurses employed by staffing companies are as well or better qualified than permanent nurses employed by hospitals and that the higher use of temporary nurses does not lead to safety and quality problems for patients or nurses.

 

The results come as no surprise to members of the ASA health care section. “The nurses we provide are a tremendous asset to hospitals that need to have adequate coverage for nursing care,” says David Savitsky of ATC Healthcare Services, chairman of the section’s policy council.


While Aiken’s research continues, the findings of her team thus far will be reported in the July–August issue of the Journal of Nursing Administration, which goes to 6,000 nurse executives and their associates in hospitals and other health care settings.

-Lindsay Estes”

 

With the current nurse shortage looming in today’s healthcare facilities, Dr. Linda Aiken’s findings will show just how valuable temp nurses are to the survival and success of the American healthcare system.

 

Healthcare Staffing Firms Needed to fill Gaps from Dissatisfied Workers

One in five health care workers will leave their job this year, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey. Some other interesting statistics from the survey are as follows:

 

In regards to health care workers in 2006,

 

17% were dissatisfied with their jobs

 

57% said better pay and/or career advancement are the main reasons for leaving

 

36% were dissatisfied with their pay

 

26% did not receive a raise

 

71% did not earn a bonus

 

23% felt they deserved a promotion and did not receive one

             

29% are not satisfied with the training and development options of their current employer

 

This situation presents a huge opportunity for temporary health care staffing agencies to step up and offer appropriate incentives for workers to join ranks and help fill vacancies.

ASA offers new certification program to health staffing members

We saw this in the American Staffing Association’s (ASA) Staffing Week members e-newsletter, and thought we should share the information:

 

Learn the Laws That Affect Your Business

To help medical staffing professionals understand the complexities, ASA recently released a new state component to its certification programs, enabling staffing professionals and others to study the laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

 

ASA offers two certification programs for individuals, both of which include the new state employment law component. The Certified Staffing Professional™ program reviews the myriad employment laws and rules that affect the staffing industry. The Technical Services Certified™ program reviews the many employment laws specifically relevant to technical, information technology, and scientific staffing.

 

Getting certified is easy.

1. Prepare for the exam by purchasing the study materials:

* Employment Law for Staffing Professionals

* Co-Employment: Employer Liability Issues in Third-Party Staffing Arrangements

* Federal employment law workbook

* State employment law workbook

 

2. Study at your own pace, and when you’re ready, take and pass the online exam.

 

3. After you have passed the exam, display your credentials on your business cards and stationery, and maintain your designation through continuing education. For more information, visit the ASA Web site.

 

Locum tenens professionals bring healthcare behind bars

Associate editor of LocumLife, Karen Tull, wrote an interesting article about a unique working environment that is gaining popularity among locum tenens–working in correctional institutions.

In her article, Correctional Medicine: Locum tenens professionals bring healthcare behind bars, Tull tells the story of two doctors who have been working in the field of correctional medicine, highlighting the career’s requirements and lifestyles. Among the perks of correctional medicine contracts are the potential for faster credentialing, the ability to use any state license to practice in a federal facility, competitive pay rates and quick turnaround on receivables.

With competition starting to heat up in the locum tenens marketplace, contracting with jails and prisons seems to be a niche worth pursuing, especially because these facilities tend to be great payers.

ASA annouced health care track at annual conference

The American Staffing Association (ASA) boasts eight different learning tracks for this year’s conference in San Antonio, TX, and health care is one of them.  To date, there are three specific health care staffing learning workshops available:

 

Recruiting That Works: Aggressive and Out-of-the-Box
Tom Zinda, director of recruitment and employment branding, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare
Wednesday, October 10 3–5 p.m.
Tom Zinda, director of recruitment for one of the Midwest’s largest health care providers, will share case studies demonstrating how he has successfully recruited market-sensitive candidates, sped up the hiring process, and improved the quality of employees for his company. And he’ll help health care staffing company owners set up similar strategies for your company.

 

Proper Credentialing in the Health Care Industry: Implementation to Impact
Panel moderated by David Savitsky, chief executive officer, ATC Healthcare Services Inc.
Thursday, October 11 1:45–3:00 p.m.
Join David Savitsky and a panel of health care and staffing professionals as they explore the best practices you should put in place to ensure your records and your employees’ credentials are kept in order.  Seasoned professionals and those seeking to start a niche business will learn efficient and effective ways to keep records, track employee recertification requirements and renewal dates, and follow technical practices such as drug testing and background checks.

 

Immigration Changes: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Helen Konrad, Esq., partner, McCandlish Holton PC
Friday, October 12 10:30–11:45 a.m.
Also in technical, IT, and scientific and industrial learning tracks
Helen Konrad, Esq., will lead temporary medical staffing participants in discussions of common immigration documents, questions you can and cannot ask at the recruitment and job offer stages, storing I-9 forms, what to do when you are faced with improper documents, a sensible line-by-line analysis of the I-9 form, and what-if scenarios that could occur during the I-9 process. Learn about the potential changes to the employer verification process pending in Congress and what they could mean to your medical staffing company.

 

How immigration reform will affect the nursing shortage

Each year there are about 12,000 to15,000 foreign nurses accepted into the USA through the current immigration system, and if the new proposal is approved, hospital recruiters worry that it will become even more difficult to fill the 118,000 nurse deficit.

 

Under the new bill, hospitals would no longer be able to seek out nurses with specific expertise, and American-bound nurses would no longer have to be screened by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS).

 

Click here to read the article: Hospitals fear the loss of control finding nurses.

Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) to stop using preset rates

In a settlement announced last month, the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) agreed to stop using preset rates for determining what its member hospitals will pay nurse staffing firms. The U.S. Department of Justice said the practice unlawfully prevented the firms from offering their services to higher-bidding hospitals.

 

A statement from the Justice Department’s antitrust division said that the hospitals’ rate-setting practice was illegally and unfairly depressing the wages paid to registry nurses, saving the hospitals up to $12.7 million a year at the nurses’ expense. The antitrust division statement asserted that the settlement would restore competition in the market for temporary nursing services in Arizona.

 

According to the lawsuit, AzHHA used advertising materials that estimated that the bill rates its members paid to nurse staffing companies were as much as 12% lower than they would have been if hospitals contracted directly with the staffing firms. Consequently, nurses working for the staffing firms that contracted with the hospital association made less money than nurses not hired through the AzHHA Registry, a group purchasing organization for temporary nursing services.

 

The proposed settlement deal would prohibit AzHHA member hospitals from exchanging information with other members about what each pays. As long as each hospital gets to directly negotiate rates with nurse staffing companies, the settlement allows the association to maintain its central registry for hiring nurses and to set standards for training, background checks, and insurance. The settlement must be approved by a federal judge.

-Anne Duffy


Q: If this settlement goes through, how do you think it will affect other group purchasing initiatives?

Nursing Shortage Inspires Legislation: Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act of 2007

In the beginning of May, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, introduced the Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act of 2007 (H.R. 2122), which will limit the amount of mandatory overtime a nurse may be required to work.

 

“Mandatory overtime exhausts nurses mentally and physically, placing patients’ lives at risk and driving nurses out of the profession,” said Stark. “We limit the time that truck drivers and pilots can work to protect public safety. Safe nursing is in the public interest as well.”

 

It’s good to know that legislation is being passed to improve on the conditions of overworked nurses and overall nurse shortages in the United States.  Temp medical staffing agencies offer another alternative to combating nurse burnout rates.  By delivering fresh employees to cover overtime and vacation shifts, everyone wins, including the patient.

Nurses OK contracts at 13 hospitals

Here’s an interesting article that we found about nurses unionizing in 13 metro-area hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MO.  The group of 10,750 registered nurses (RNs) approved new three-year contracts that provide 11 percent raises, preserve their health plans, and establish committees to address issues of safety and nurse staffing levels. 

 

Click here to read the entire article in the Star Tribune: Nurses OK contracts at 13 hospitals.

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