Nebraska Society for Respiratory Care (NSRC) - Online

From March 28th Leadership Meeting. Held at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Lincoln, NE
Thanks to all that attended. Discussion was very good.

Sharing and Advertising Educational Opportunities:
Update information on the NSRC website.
1. Have a site consistent with calendar, event tab and educational opportunities. Make sure they all say the same thing.

2. Have an open door to advertise educational offerings on the NSRC website. Those organizing the event, to provide information to NSRC so that this info can be placed on the web site. Use NSRC site as a resource to identify educational events and get your message to other therapists.

3. If a therapist did not get their licensure update information in the mail, then they need to call and update their address at the NE State licensure office. Several mailings returned. State law requires the licensee to updated address changes. Failure to do so results in not getting this time sensitive information. Will post this as a reminder on the web site.

4. Recruitment kit. NSRC purchased the copy license for the AARC Life and Breath video. A kit that contains the video and brochure from each respiratory school is enclosed in the kit. Available on request by NE therapists only. Will have request information placed on the NSRC website.
Contact Bruce Campbell or Jenny Bush for a Recruitment kit. See contacts tab.

Joint Commission Chapter proposal for nursing executives to be responsible for coordination of respiratory care.

Bill Dubbs AARC director of education and management services sent the following memo some time ago.Joint commission is currently conducting a field review of their proposed standards for nursing services. These standards, if adopted as written, may have a dramatic impact on how respiratory care services are structured in hospitals. Therapist responses were completed on March 28th. We have not heard the results.
What is in the language?

1. The nurse executive coordinates the development of Organizational Wide:
i. Plans for providing nursing care and services
ii. Patient care programs. (programs are addiction, emergency room, and respiratory services, etc)
iii. Policies and procedures that explain how the nursing care needs of individual patients are assessed, med and evaluated.
iv. Approval of standards of nursing care, treatment and services before they are implemented.
v. Approval of nursing policies and procedures before they are implemented.

With this recommendation respiratory care will fall under nursing services. Some organizations already have this model, and some differ with organization and region.
The intent may not be to restructure respiratory care services. We should be aware of this issue.

If this standard is adopted it will eliminate the present option held by hospitals to place respiratory therapy services where they deem appropriate within their administrative structure. Instead, it will require that respiratory services be administratively placed under nursing services. Furthermore, since nursing service does not work under medical direction, a likely consequence of this structure would be the gradual elimination of medical direction for respiratory therapists. We urge you bring this to the attention of and discuss this with your medical director. Bill Dubbs

You can review these standards at the Joint Commission’s website. http://www.jointcommission.org/standards/sii/


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Advanced Airway Management
Can RT’s intubate? Some institutions have RT’s perform this function. There is a significant training requirement as well as continued competencies. Data is maintained on all intubations and therapists are re-educated if they incur misses. There are no RT intubation protocols in NE that we know of.
Expanding Scope for respiratory care.
• BAL (bronchial alveolar lavage) at the bedside.
• Use of “Glide Scope”

Sleep Professionals and Respiratory Care

Discussion regarding NE sleep licensure and impact on the practice of respiratory care in the state.
The NSRC has set aside several talks on sleep at the state conference in Norfolk.
More questions and discussion.

Paramedics and Respiratory care.
In NE paramedics perform what their organization or hospital allows them to do.

In the current setting some perform transport ventilation. This is not practiced the same across NE. Are there paramedics in the ED?
Discussion regarding paramedics as therapist extenders in a pandemic situation was discussed. Other states have accepted this and are training. NE has not had the opportunity to address this issue. In a pandemic situation, having the therapist would be optimal, but those situations may not be optimal. More discussion pending.

Post edited by: jbush, at: 2008/04/12 02:06

Protocols.
Recommendations from the leadership group are that we make protocols available via clearinghouse for protocols on the NSRC website. The thought is that these would be shared information for other facilities across NE to be able to use as resources.
This is also fostered by insurance providers as best practice.
Stay tuned for a protocol clearing house tab on the NSRC website.

Thanks for all the eyes. Next Leadership Meeting will be held during the NE Respiratory Care Conference. See you there. Jen