MASN President's Update

To: Maine School Nurses

From: Teresa M. Merrill, R.N.

Re: MASN President Update

Date: February 5, 2014

I hope you are enjoying a relaxing snow day from school. Hopefully Mother Nature will slow down so we are not going to school in July!   I thought it was time to connect with you, as the past month has been a busy one for MASN.

Pat Endsley, our NASN Director and MASN Webmaster, just returned from Washington D. C. where we are proud to say she was recognized for her work in developing the NASN position statement about marijuana and children.

We had our first MASN, BOD meeting for 2014, in January, held at the Senator Inn in Augusta, and attended by 18 board members. This was an orientation meeting for new board members and a review of our strategic plan.

We heard about some great practice work being done across the state. We heard that a southern Maine school is working through their school board to allow access of condoms to students. We heard about two schools who have school-based food pantries to assist with the hunger issue in their areas, and we learned about a nurse who was chosen as student of the year in her master's program. Accolades went out to Pat Endsley for her work in developing our awesome website. Congratulations also went out to our Education committee for putting on a wonderful fall conference.

Janis Hogan has been busy representing MASN through her work as Legislative Chair. Check the MANS website for information regarding the dental legislation and access a list of dentists in your area who accept new Medicaid patients.

Nancy Dube representing the Department of Education, and myself, representing MASN, testified this past week regarding the Epipen legislation. Stay tuned for updates regarding this important work.

Are you interested in best practice for school nurses? If so, the MASN Board of Directors is always looking for new members to assist us. Are you a school nurse who is not a member of MASN/NASN? Consider joining! New members may contact Diane Dow, Membership Chair, for more information at 445-2962.

Three easy ways to improve your practice are:

Read the weekly updates from Nancy Dube, School Nurse ConsultantMark MASN as your home page when you open your computer and read the updates as they are postedRead the weekly news from NASN and access their on line trainings

We have a New England conference in May and a Summer Institute planned for July. We hope to see many Maine school nurses attend these trainings to network with colleagues and re-energize school nurse practice.

If you have any suggestions for MASN or concerns please feel free to contact me at 222-1224.

Sincerely,

Teresa Merrill, R.N.

President MASN