OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL--(Marketwire - April 14, 2010) - The Joint Commission is recognizing nurses with a number of activities leading up to National Nurses Week, May 6-12.
Activities include a podcast on The Joint Commission's Facebook page featuring Ann Scott Blouin, Ph.D., R.N., executive vice president of The Joint Commission's Division of Accreditation and Certification Operations. The interview covers Blouin's experience as a nurse as well as what she finds fulfilling in her role as a nurse and nurse executive. Also on Facebook, The Joint Commission is asking nurses to share their stories of what makes their work as a nurse fulfilling. Later this month, a letter from Blouin is being sent to chief nursing officers at Joint Commission accredited organizations, thanking them and their staff for their hard work and commitment to patient safety.
"While The Joint Commission celebrates nurses every day, National Nurses Week provides a special opportunity to thank the more than two million nurses throughout the United States who positively influence the lives they touch," says Blouin. "As nurses, we work in many different settings and serve in many roles, but all of us share a single focus on keeping patients safe by providing quality care. The Joint Commission shares this goal and believes that nursing is the cornerstone for safer, more effective care today and in the future."
For information about what The Joint Commission envisions for the future of nursing, read the recent testimony for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine. The testimony was developed by The Joint Commission's senior staff in concert with The Joint Commission's Nursing Advisory Council.
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 9,500 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,300 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. In addition, The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 1,000 disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.
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