Spring 2014
CONTENTS
Happy Spring Nursing Students! It’s great to finally be enjoying this beautiful Georgia weather! Congratulations on finishing up the 2013- 2014 school year and a round of applause to all of our graduates! Best of luck on your NCLEX exams, we can’t wait to see where your prestigious, new careers take you!
COSL is just a few days away, May 15-17th, and we are thrilled to be having such a great crowd of Georgia leaders joining us! Be sure to check out page 7-8 for more information, including the week- end’s schedule and what to bring.
Last month, the GANS board, along with several students from Georgia traveled to Nashville, Tennessee for the National Student Nurs- es’ Association’s 62n Annual Convention. With a large number Georgia representation, multiple speakers, exhibitors, and focus sessions, the convention was a success! If you were unable to attend, you will definitely want to read more on pages 2-6 for more on fundraising, Georgia awards and elected officers.
As you can tell, the GANS board has been very busy over the past few months and hope this EKG catches you up on all you need to know! And as always, you can go to
www.ganursingstudents.orgfor more informa- tion! Enjoy your summer break, take advantage of the beautiful weather and of course, get lots of rest!
Thank you for representing Georgia so well!
Radhika Kadakia EKG Director
The Heartbeat of GANS
Volume 10 No. 2
NSNA Awards 2
NSNA Elections 3 Pictures from NSNA 4 Georgia- Florida Caucus 5
Fundraising 6
COSL 7-8
Stellar School Recognition 9 Legislation 10 GNA Announcement 11 GA Dept. of Public Health 12 Congratulations Grads! 13
Georgia Association of Nursing Students PO Box 941863 Atkanta, GA 31141
The National Student Nurses’ Association’s 62nd Annual convention was a great success! Georgia returned home with several awards, including Disaster Preparedness, BTN, and the State Excellence Award. Kennesaw State University became a Stellar School Chapter, how exciting and commendable! An additional round of applause goes to Asma Agad, student of Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nurs-ing of Emory University for beNurs-ing named one of three International Photo Contest winners! Be proud Georgia, we’ve done great! Way to go!
GANS President accepting the Disaster Pre-paredness Award from Jamie Allen, Community
Health & Disaster Preparedness Committee Chair
Sakina Mahama, GANS BTN Director accepting the BTN award from TJ Tekesky, NSNA BTN
Di-rector
Asma Agad along with the other International Photo Contest winners
Luaren Cedor, GANS and Kennesaw State Uni-versity Nursing Association President accepting
the Stellar School Chapter award from NSNA President, Jesse Kennedy
And The Winners Are…
One of the most exciting moments of the convention was the revelation of the 2014-2015 NSNA Board of Directors and Nominations and Elections Committee! Best wishes to our elected Georgia member. Georgia has made quite an impression over the years! We could not be more proud and excited for the future of NSNA!
Rebeka Rivera - Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University
With her “Success Express” slogan and previous expe- rience while a student at UGA, Rebeka
impressed the House of Delegates and was elected as the NSNA Secretary/Treasurer.
Valerie Wellman- Georgia Reagents University, Augusta Campus
Valerie’s plans and goals for NEC South were well re- ceived as she spoke to the House of Delegates and answered any questions that came her way.
Craig Reuscher - Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University
Craig’s engaging and energizing speech quickly captured the attention of the House of Delegates and made him your new South District Director.
Georgia is
#1
Melissa Thompson, GANS 2nd VP with
2014-2015 NSNA President, Kelly Hunt
GANS President with Florida State Nurses Association President, Blake Lynch
Florida-Georgia
Caucus
For the first time, nursing students from the Georgia Association of Nursing Students and the Florida Nursing Students Association teamed up fro their state caucus meeting at the NSNA Annual Convention. It was a great time to come together as two powerhouse states and discuss the current events happening in each state as well as to hear from the candidates for the 2014-2015 NSNA Board of Directors and NEC. We have a great time and hope to continue this collaboration in the future!
Kelly Hunt, 2014-2015 NSNA President, speaking at the Florida- Georgia Caucus
The Georgia Association of Nursing Stu- dents is known for using Penny Wars. Once again, they brought the fundraising event to the annual NSNA convention in Nashville. Jars repre- senting each state were set out on a table. The goal for each state was to earn the most points. Pennies were positive points and other money counted as negative points.
Pennies upon pennies were dropped in jars for those supporting their state and dollars and other coins were dropped into the jars of ri- val states. Additionally, students could buy points or pennies and place them in the jars of their choice. Competition continuously grew throughout the week, causing quite the uproar. The leader board changed consistently and Idaho and Hawaii were battling it out for first place up until the final second. Idaho beat Hawaii by 30 cents ending up with half of the pot of $454.14. Such fun! Can’t wait to what fun this brings at the Mid Year Convention in Portland, Oregon!
Idaho Wins!
Fundraisi
ng at
NSNA
To find these great products, including t-shirts, tumblers, and baby onsies, make sure
to attend the 62nd Annual GANS Convention
Going to COSL?
The annual Council of Student Leaders will be held at Camp Twin Lakes May 15-17th. All students are encouraged to attend, as it is a retreat aimed at leadership development and skills necessary during nursing school and beyond.
What to Expect:
•• COSL is a three day/two night leadership retreat at Camp Twin Lakes. As such, we will be spending plenty of time outside and sleeping in cabins. Each cabin is climate controlled and sleeps approximately 10 people with two private bathroom/showers in each cabin.
••• We will hear from guest speakers, including the Georgia Nurses Association President and a representative from the Wounded Warrior Project. The schedule for COSL is attached to this email below.
What to Bring:
••• Attire for COSL is casual. As we will be outside: shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops are absolutely acceptable (bring extra clothes as you will definitely be getting a little dirty). You will also want to bring a pair of tennis shoes for use during the Low Ropes Course and COSL Olympics and don't forget some comfy/light sweaters for the evening bonfires!
•• Within cabins, each person will have their own bed and closet area. You will need to bring your own sheets (twin sized) and pillow as well as towels/washcloths and any toiletry items you will want. If you would like to see pictures of the cabins and camp, scroll through the pictures of Camp Will A Way HERE.
Also, this year we will be holding our first everBunk Decorating Contest! Get creative and make your space your own! Each attendee will vote on their favorite space and the winner will be announced at dinner on the final night.
••• For this year'sCOSL Community Project Event, GANS has teamed up with Out of Darkness, an organiza- tion that supports victims of human trafficking. When asked, a representative from Out of Darkness stated that "financial contributions are always needed, though we are also in need of gift cards to movie theaters (AMC and Regal) and any chain restaurants, Chilis, Red Lobster etc for the girls rescued to take out! Target and
Walmart cards are always needed also!!". Therefore, GANS would like to encourage all attendees to consider bringing a contribution for this organization - anything helps!
•• Other miscellaneous items you may want to bring: a flashlight for our evening scavenger hunt, notebooks/pens to take notes, business cards to trade with other school board members,
sunscreen, bug spray, phone chargers, and any medications you need.
Where to Go:
••• COSL will be held at Camp Twin Lakes in Winder, Ga. You can find directions HERE.
For questions or concerns, please contact
Congratulations
Kennesaw State University, WellStar
School of Nursing!
The NSNA Stellar School Chapter Recognition Program recognizes schools that demonstrate ongoing involvement in NSNA and a strong commitment to shared governance and professional development of their students and faculty. Congratulations to Kennesaw State University’s WellStar School of Nursing for earning this remarkable recognition!
Left: Kennessaw State Nurses Association President, Lauren Cedor presented with award along with advisors and colleagues. Right: Lauren presented the award by 2013-2014 NSNA President, Jesse
Previous GANS board members Kaitlin Chance and Lady Mendez worked effortless to help raise awareness for sex trafficking
victims. These victims tend to go unnoticed as many people don’t understand or recognize the reality and severity of human trafficking. By raising awareness, individuals can become more aware and knowledgeable about
recognizing victims and getting them the help they need. This resolution has brought so much attention to human trafficking to nursing students and NSNA attendees, we hope to see this spread to others in order to help these victims.
“It (Human Trafficking) is a $32 billion dollar a year business that is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise and that creates a large number of physical and mental health problems for a significant population of men, women, and children . Yet human trafficking is invisible to most Americans. Many of our evidence-based practices are irrelevant for trafficked people because they are not in control of their own bodies, time, or resources. This means that it is up to those who are likely to identify them to go beyond helping them escape to helping them heal. Nurses and other health professionals are among the first who are likely to find
themselves in a position to help, yet in the absence of policy and protocols we are rather helpless.
As future nurses, GANS is taking action now to educate nurses beyond simple awareness to actions that can make a difference.”
Written by Mary De Chesnay, author of Sex Trafficking: A Clinical Guide for Nurses, in support of our resolution titled, “IN SUPPORT OF HOSPITALS ADOPTING ESTABLISHED POLICY AND PROCEDURES FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING PATIENTS”.
Kaitlin Chance and Lady Collins, authors of the sex trafficking awareness resolution
Melissa Thompson, GANS 2nd VP speaking in
favor the resolution at NSNA
Kaitlin Chance, resolution co-author speaking at NSNA
Recently, Georgia Board of Nursing Executive Director Jim Cleghorn notified
nursing stakeholders that “significant processing delays” persist at the
Professional Licensing Board Division due to continued “system outages.”
Normally, licensing applications are reviewed in about a week, unfortunately,
the outages have caused delays up to 25 days
The Georgia Board of Nursing members are currently accepting increased
assignments to lower processing time as quickly as possible.
Nursing stakeholders who are experiencing significant delay in BON processing
times should :
- contact the Office of Secretary of State Brian Kemp to voice their concerns
at 404-656-2881
- visit http://sos.ga.gov/cgi-bin/email.asp to send an email message
articulating your specific problem or concern.
Do not call the Board of Nursing’s call center, as that system has been
inundated with inquiries and many nurses have been placed on hold for hours
and/or disconnected.
The GANS board would like to congratulate the December 2013 and Summer 2014 graduating glasses on their success completion in nursing school. We wish you all the best and thank you for being a part of GANS. Good luck on your NCLEX exams! We can’t
wait to see what great nurses you will be!
Bethany Yost, GANS 1st VP
Priya Patel, GANS Secretary
Left: Ida Curtis, GANS Legislative Director along with Mitchaleen Lannyon, (Right) NEC North Alyssa Nadji, GAMS Assistant to the District Directors Amanda Caldwell, GANS NEC West