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The panel embraces
nurse measure
The Legislative Council executive subcommittee on Monday approved a proposal for an emergency rule to allow the State Nursing Council to reissue a temporary RN license to licensed practical nurses near the end of continuing education.
During the Covid-19 state public health emergency, the Board of Nursing issued permits to licensed practical nurses who were in their last semester of a nursing education program, the director of the nursing home said. counsel, Sue Tedford, in a letter dated Wednesday to the Legislative Council co-chairs, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, and Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage.
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“To date, 141 temporary licenses have been issued and the majority of these nurses have secured RN positions in an acute care facility,” she wrote.
Governor Asa Hutchinson last week authorized the expiration of the public health emergency declaration.
The expiration saw the reinstatement of rules that the state’s health ministry had suspended to speed up the licensing of healthcare workers. The Nursing Council is part of the department.
Healthcare facilities still face a severe shortage of providers, especially registered nurses, Tedford said.
“The end of the state of emergency removed these nurses from the role of registered nurses and put them back into the role of LPNs, which created staffing problems within health facilities,” he said. -she writes.
Wardlaw said a few students were doing a great job as registered nurses at Bradley County Hospital in his district, and they were demoted to registered nurse practitioners after the public health emergency ended. . It has kept them from doing the job they have been doing for the past two months.
“It is a very great need,” he said.
– Michael R. Wickline
Romero honored
for Mexico to help
Arkansas Secretary of Health Jose Romero – a physician who is also the University of Arkansas professor of pediatrics for medical sciences – recently received the Ohtli Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs to persons residing outside Mexico.
The name of the Ohtli Prize is derived from the Nahuatl word meaning ‘path’, alluding to the idea of opening a path for others. The award recognizes individuals who have helped, empowered, or positively influenced the lives of Mexican nationals in the United States and other countries.
Rodolfo Quilantan Arenas, Mexican Consulate in Little Rock, presented the award to Romero.
“Dr Romero was chosen for this award because of his unwavering commitment to ensuring equal and free access to COVID-19 vaccines,” Arenas said in a press release. “His service to the community has been invaluable.
Romero is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is the outgoing chair of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which provides advice on the use of covid-19 vaccines. He continues to be a non-voting member of the committee’s Covid-19 vaccine working group.
He is also a member of the Infectious Diseases Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Disease Policy Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Romero previously served as Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health and was appointed Acting Secretary of Health by Governor Asa Hutchinson in July 2020. He was Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Section at UAMS and at Arkansas Children’s from 2008-2020.
–Jeannie Roberts
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