ANA Delegates Focus on Health Care Reform, Nurse Fatigue, Public Health, Human Rights Issues (6/16)

MEDIA ADVISORY

June 16, 2005

ANA Delegates Focus on Health Care Reform, Nurse Fatigue, Public Health, Human Rights Issues

Event: More than 600 nurses from across the country will gather to discuss issues and set policy for the American Nurses Association (ANA) on a range of items affecting nurses, their patients and communities at the organization’s annual House of Delegates (HOD) meeting. ANA’s HOD meets annually; this year, the HOD convenes in Washington, DC. Nearly 2.7 strong, registered nurses (RNs) comprise the largest of the health care profession, yet this country is experiencing a shortage of nurses that is expected to grow to 80,000 by 2020, according to the United States Deptartment of Health and Human Services. Shortages of skilled nurses affect both access to and the quality of care.
 
Opportunity: This year’s HOD session will consider such far-reaching issues as the implications of nurses working while fatigued; nurses’ ethical obligations in protecting the human rights of prisoners and detainees; the need to create infant and child safety awareness programs; and how nursing practice should be viewed in the age of telehealth and other technological advances.

Also key among proposals is that ANA use its leadership role to drive badly needed reforms in the health care industry. ANA recently released its Health Care Agenda – 2005, a new report that further reaffirms ANA’s support for universal health care access through a single-payer mechanism.

In addition, ANA has joined other medical and health care professional groups in filing a lawsuit against EPA for failing to preserve public health standards under the Clean Air Act, which, if left alone, will achieve at least a 90 percent reduction in mercury air emissions from coal-fired electric utilities by 2008. (For details, see http://www.nursingworld.org/pressrel/2005/pr0614.htm).
 

Date/Time: June 17-19, 2005
Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road, NW
Washington, DC 20008, Park Tower Suite 8228 (press room)
Contact: Cindy Price, 301-628-5038 or Carol Cooke, 301-628-5027 (American Nurses Association)
Press office (onsite) – 202-745-2123

HOD Schedule
 
Fri., June 17
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.: HOD


3:30 – 5:00 p.m
Reference Hearing

5:00 – 6:30 p.m.:
Forum on Fatigue and Overtime

8:00 – 9:00 p.m.:
Reference Hearing		 Sat., June 18
9:00 a.m. - Noon: HOD


1:30 – 5:00 p.m.: HOD		 Sun., June 19
7:00 – 8:30 a.m.:
Practice/ Education Forum

8:30 a.m. – Noon: HOD

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The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million registered nurses through its 54 constituent member nurses associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.