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December Newsletter

Posted over 8 years ago by Regina Sanders

This announcement has 2 attachments:
House Election (100 KB)
Senate Election (57 KB)

Happy Holidays!

We would like to bring you up to date on what’s new in your own backyard of Florida.  In this newsletter you will find the following:

 

Contents 

 

Quote of the Month 

          “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted”

                                                                                                            ~Aesop

 

Happy Holidays

We are truly grateful for our members and community advocates. As the holidays approach, we would like to thank you for your time, donations, and community support that positively impact the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network each and every day.

 

FNPN Accomplishments 2016

FNPN President Janet DuBois, DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FNAP

2016 was a very busy year for NPs in Florida! FNPN worked diligently to keep members abreast of all the happenings in our profession through our updates, events, and “Breaking News” announcements. We posted links and information from other organizations that impact your practice and helped members to navigate the wealth of information published throughout the year. Our job board kept members updated on new opportunities throughout the state and provided employers a mechanism to find the most qualified candidates to join their practice. Our preceptor list helped many students find clinical sites and allowed interested NPs to volunteer to precept students. Our member list is a great resource for our members to network with each other. We currently have over 1300 active members and over 11,000 followers allowing us to keep thousands of NPs and supporters informed as to who we are and what we do. Throughout the year, we’ve responded to hundreds of emails from members, practices, hospitals, educators and other interested parties seeking information on NP issues. In November, we began offering a 3 hour online course “Safe and Effective Controlled Substance  Prescribing” to our members for a nominal fee. The course is approved by the Florida BON CE Broker and AANP and meets all requirements for license renewal as set forth in the new Controlled Substance Prescribing legislation. Over 1,000 people have registered for the course which is offered continually and designed to allow the user to complete it at their own pace!

FNPN is proud to have awarded Dr. Jan Towers, a national icon in legislative efforts on behalf of NPs, our Lifetime Achievement Award at a special event held in January. In addition to the honor, the American Nurse Practitioners Foundation (ANPF) started a Dr. Jan Towers Legacy Fund.  The goal is to have each state NP organization in the nation contribute $1000.00 to the fund which will be used to provide scholarships and grants to further the profession. 

The biggest and perhaps most important news throughout the year centered around our controlled substance prescribing bill, HB423 (named the Barbara Lumpkin Controlled Substance Prescribing Act) sponsored by Rep. Dr. Cary Pigman and Sen. Denise Grimsley. Throughout the 2016 session we kept members updated on all the happenings in both the House and Senate and sent out many “Call to Action” emails and “Breaking News” announcements that impacted the outcome of the passage of the bill. Our member and follower support throughout the year helped make us the most influential NP organization in the state and had a direct impact on legislator support! During the last few days of the session, our lobbyist Allison Carvajal and FHA lobbyist Martha DeCastro, kept us informed of the last-minute changes of the bill has it passed back and forth between the House and Senate. The last few days were exciting and nerve-wracking, coming down to the wire, as the bill was the last bill passed on the last day of the 2016 session! 

While the bill isn’t perfect, it was ground-breaking and brought us a little closer to our ultimate goal: Full Practice Authority! The bill is the result of over 20 years of action on the part of Florida’s NPs and allows NPs to prescribe controlled substances (CS) with some restrictions on mental health CS in children under 18 years old and schedule II drugs (limited to a 7-day supply). In addition, the bill defines the qualifications of NPs that can prescribe CS and unfortunately requires that the NP has a minimum of a master’s degree in order to prescribe them. Another requirement is that all NPs, regardless of their intent to prescribe CS or not, must take a 3-credit controlled substance course before each license renewal, beginning August 1, 2016.

 As we look forward to 2017 and what the new year will bring to our state and our nation, FNPN remains your source for any and all information and happenings that affect our profession. We will continue to keep members abreast of events during the 2017 legislative session and the bills that will impact our profession. Stay tuned for our “Breaking News” and “Call to Action” announcements throughout the year and be prepared to respond to the call as your responses directly impact and influence our legislators! We value your support and your input and encourage you to contact us with any questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions to help make our organization the best and most influential NP organization in the state!

Thank you for your continued support of FNPN, we are honored to represent Nurse Practitioners in Florida!

FNPN Legislative Update

Dr. Doreen Cassarino – VP Legislation

The upcoming legislative session will be full of opportunities as many newly elected representatives and senators are freshman.  Attached are outcomes of the election.  Please reach out and contact your representative and senator and congratulate them.  If you do not know who your legislators are you can easily find out who they are by going to 

https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/AANP/Home 

Happy Holidays. Wishing you and yours a healthy and prosperous 2017!

       

2017 FNPN Conference Update

Dr. Arlene Wright -VP Education  

The FNPN 2017 conference committee is busy at work preparing for the 2017 conference. By popular demand, the conference will be held in Orlando in August. We will be sending out a “Save the Date” as soon as we confirm our venue.

Stay tuned for further details! 

Job Announcements!

There have been many new job postings around the state on our web site at www.fnpn.org  for those of you that may have an interest. On our new website, the most recent postings are on the front page.  A new feature will allow postings to be visible for 90 days.  Please feel free to pass this along to your colleagues who may be interested in it as well, or who may have an interest in finding out more about our network.  For those of you that have found jobs on our website, please be sure to let us know!

Do you know an employer who might find the FNPN Job posting a worthwhile site? If so, please be sure to tell them about the website and the fact that on average 20 or more jobs are posted each month.  The traffic to our website is incredible and we have more and more folks seeking employment through this site than ever before.  Let them know you saw it on the FNPN Website!

Membership Update

Dr. Cindy Parsons-Membership Chair

Happy holidays to all of our members. 2016 saw enormous growth in our membership and we would like to acknowledge and thank all of you. FNPN was able to accomplish significant legislation this year for ARNPs but without you our loyal supporters we would not be able to make such great gains. Your support continues to solidify FNPN as the representative organization and voice for NPs in Florida.  

While 2016 saw gains in our ability to provide the best care possible for Floridians we still have much to do. With your continued support we can. We would like to engage the local leadership of the grassroots NP groups and ask that you encourage your leaders to join or renew their group membership. We have a busy 2017 ahead and need all of us working toward these goals. If you are unsure if your group is a member you can check our website as the groups are broken out by regions and delineated as to members or not.

2016 was a great example of the power of unity and we want to tank each of you for your efforts. Our legislators heard loud and clear that NPs provide high quality, safe and effective care and that our patients are satisfied with their care want to continue to work with their NP providers.

Wishing all of you the happiest of holidays and continued progress in 2017

 

News You Can Use 

 The Florida NP Network has taken the next step to keep our members informed. Keep abreast of changes in your practice around the state and around the nation. You can join us today on Facebook under Florida Nurse Practitioner and Twitter under FloridaNP.  We hope to hear from you.

 CE Broker

Did you know that full members can get a discount to CE Broker?

Click here to find out more

 

Register for the "Safe and Effective Prescribing of Controlled Substances" course

Below are the instructions on how to register for the online "Safe and Effective Prescribing of Controlled Substances" course offered by FNPN and FHA. 

Make sure that you create a user ID and password to enter into the "Student ID" area.

You must download the content in order to get to the exam. Once you download the content the exam should appear. 

Please contact CareLearning in the instructions for any questions or technical issues.

Thank you for your continued support of FNPN. We are proud to offer this course for a nominal fee ($5.00) as our way of supporting our members. 

 

First-time Registration – FHA/FNPN Members:

  1. Go to http://www.carelearning.com/login/fhanp_fl 2. Click “New Student Enrollment”, enter the required information and click “Submit”. Create a user ID and password to input into the "student ID" area.
  2. From the Student Main Menu click “Course Catalog (Register for a Course)”
  3. Click the course title “Safe, Effective Prescribing of Controlled Substances”
  4. Click the “Register” button and enter your credit card information
  5. Click “Back to Student Main Menu” to access the course

First-time Registration – Non-FHA/FNPN Members:

  1. Go to http://www.carelearning.com and click “Course Catalog”
  2. If you are asked to enter the state in which you are employed, select “Florida”.
  3. Click the category “Safe, Effective Prescribing of Controlled Substances”
  4. Click the course title “Safe, Effective Prescribing of Controlled Substances”
  5. Click the “Register” button
  6. Click “New Student Enrollment”, enter the required information and click “Submit” (Organization: “Florida Hospital Association”. No enrollment key is necessary.)
  7. Enter the additional optional information and click Submit.
  8. Enter your credit card information
  9. Click “Back to Student Main Menu” to access the course

To Return to the Student Main Menu (Classroom):

  1. Go to http://www.carelearning.com
  2. Click Student Login
  3. Enter your Student ID and Password and click “Enter”
  4. You must download the content in order to get to the test questions.

Need Help? Contact careLearning at 866-617-3904 or support@carelearning.com.