Nursing
Leadership Council:
- Chair: Gail Rosselot, United States of America
- Vice-Chair: Lani Ramsey, Australia
- John Bosch, The Netherlands
- Briar Campbell, New Zealand
- Cindy Rugsten, Australia
- Nahoko Sato, Japan
- Claire Wong, United Kingdom
October 2011
Thank you for visiting our page on the ISTM Website. The NPG Council views this site as one of several ways to communicate with ISTM nurses on a regular and ongoing basis. We want this website to be relevant to your professional needs and interests-in both travel health nursing and ISTM. To achieve that goal we would like to hear from you. What would you like to see on this page? What items are of interest? What is missing? Email us your ideas and comments to build a stronger NPG website. Gail Rosselot, Chair at garosselot@aol.com and Lani Ramsey, Vice Chair at ramseylani@hotmail.com
Minutes
News from the NPG Council
Summary of Council Meeting Minutes
The seven members of the 2011-2013 NPG Council have agreed to meet every other month by teleconference to achieve the goals of our professional group. (You can view our organizational charter and goals at the end of this page). We hope you will read these reports and give us your feedback. We are here to represent your interests within ISTM.
Please Join NPG: Why It Matters
At the current time NPG membership exceeds 400 nurses, but the total membership of nurses in ISTM numbers more than 600. Why are some nurses not NPG members? From conversations with nurses at the Boston CISTM, we heard two main reasons:
- Some nurses were reluctant to join NPG because they did not know what membership in this professional group would entail- or require. They did not want to join a group that might expect them to take on more professional obligations.
- Other nurses asked what was the added value of joining NPG? They were already ISTM members and did not readily see an added benefit to join a professional group.
The Nurses Professional Group (NPG) would like to represent all the nurses within ISTM and provide additional opportunities for international networking and professional development. There are no costs-financial or otherwise – to joining NPG. No nurse will be obligated in any way. However, for those interested, membership in NPG can help ensure better communication among ISTM nurses and open new avenues of opportunity:
- to interact with your colleagues around the world
- to work on behalf of ISTM initiatives
- to join other committees and task forces of the society
- to have your voice heard within our large and growing organization
NPG is ready to accommodate your personal style for group membership. Please consider joining today. We want NPG to be the voice for all ISTM nursing professionals! To join NPG, please click on this link
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NPG Charter
The overall aim of the Nurse Professional Group of ISTM is to provide leadership on all aspects of travel health in the global nursing community, to show commitment and support to ISTM nurse members, and to take a strategic lead in the professional development of nursing practice in travel health medicine.
To that end our goals are to:
- Foremost, to represent the interests of nurses within ISTM
- Demonstrate the value of nurses in travel medicine, whilst interacting with all other healthcare professionals working in this field of practice.
- Demonstrate leadership in travel medicine nursing within the ISTM and ensure collaboration between all other ISTM committees, professional and special interest groups
- Strongly advocate that nurses are integrated into the activities of the ISTM, for example, conferences, educational materials, research
- Promote nurse membership of the ISTM and seek to encourage global representation of nurse members
- Collaborate with other international nursing groups, when appropriate, for the professional advancement of travel medicine nursing
Nursing in Travel Medicine Around the World
We are gathering reports from nurse professionals from many countries around the world. We will be able to identify similarities and differences in our work - and share our challenges and triumphs.
Portugal: Lino André Silva
My name is Lino André Silva, I am 33 years old, from Oporto, north of Portugal.
I am a Nurse practitioner, in a specialized hospital for infectious diseases (Joaquim Urbano Hospital- Porto), and I work as a Travel Nurse Advisor in our International Vaccination Center.
For the last 5 years, the hospital has trained me in travel health and tropical medicine by sending me to tropical institutes and hospitals in Portugal, Spain, England, Tanzania and Angola. The training has improved my travel health knowledge and my ability to prepare workers, travelers, and volunteers, to go abroad, so they are knowledgeable about how to reduce their risks from travel health problems.
In my experience, the former Portuguese colonies are our major challenges in regards to travel medicine and post-travel consultation. More than 90%, of all our preparations are to Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Vert, Sao Tome and Principe which totals approximately 3000 people every year. In the last 4 years we assisted a massive emigration of Portuguese workers to these former colonies with working contracts of 3 years. Our concern and objective is the prevention of imported tropical diseases, some of which are completely forgotten for years.
In Portugal the importance of travel medicine is increasing every year, yet unfortunately in nursing schools we don't study this topic. The Portuguese Nursing Association does not either recognize travel medicine as a specialty in nursing. The positive public exposure by ISTM of nurses in travel medicine may help change the mentality of the leading heads of nursing in Portugal by illustrating the importance of the role of the nurse in travel health advising.
United Kingdom: James Moore RN BSc (Hons) Dip TravMed Dip TN MFTM RCPS (Glasg) FRGS
I run a travel clinic in the Southwest of England and lecture on the subjects of travel, wilderness and expedition medicine. I balance my travel medicine clinical and educational commitments with an Emergency Department Charge Nurse post. This combination of specialities allows me to provide medical support for UK expedition companies, either remotely or as the onsite expedition medic or leader.
My interest in Travel Medicine began in 1997 when I began working in an Emergency Department, specialising in Wilderness and Expedition Medicine. After a number of expeditions I completed the Diplomas in Tropical Nursing and Travel Medicine before completing a BSc (Hons) in Emergency Care.
All aspects of travel medicine interest me, but I do have special interests in tropical and expedition medicine. I have been fortunate enough not only to teach wilderness medicine to some fascinating individuals, but also to provide expedition medical support in some of the most amazing places on the planet. I have written for a number of publications on this subject, including the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine and the forthcoming 6th edition of Wilderness Medicine by Paul Auerbach.
My passions in life are travel, adventure and outdoor sports; these activities give me an enthusiasm and energy for life, helping me to inspire my family and friends.
United States of America: Sally van Boheemen
I am the Director of Fleet Medical Operations at Holland America Line, a cruise ship company. I worked for five years doing clinical cruise ship nursing before moving into management of the same. My job today includes ensuring the implementation of medical care on board as per accepted medical guidelines, being aware of any current or emerging worldwide health issues, and knowing international immunization requirements for both staff and guests for every sailing. My team works to make sure vaccination information is passed on to the guests before they travel. Our ships carry anywhere from 1200 to 2300 guests and 500 – 900 + crew. Guests and crew come from all over the world.
Today, most cruise ships provide excellent routine and emergency medical care. We adhere to the Health Care Guidelines for Cruise Ship Medical Facilities which are supported by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The work on board ranges from providing medication refills for medicines forgotten at home, to treating an acute MI in the middle of a 6 day ocean crossing. For those reasons, the pharmacy on board is quite extensive and includes everything from aspirin to thrombolytics.
Travel medicine is a fundamental component of my job. I must make sure that the ship satisfies the health requirements of every port it docks at. Some countries have very strict regulations and others are much more lenient so expectations at ports can range from a full health inspection to just a review of the pharmacy procedures and/or patient log sheets. The challenge is to anticipate the actions of local public health officials, since the expectations are inconsistent from country to country. Public health is a top priority of course so I must also ensure that we adhere to WHO (and Vessel Sanitation/CDC; Ship San in Europe, ANVISA in Brazil, as well as many other recognized health authorities) guidelines as they relate to maritime travel.
Myself, I love college football! Living in Washington State, we are blessed with beautiful mountains and I enjoy spending as much time as possible at our mountain cabin with my husband. I am also actively involved with Washington State University and serve on a number of different Executive Boards.
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Projects in progress include:
CE Task Force
In response to nursing CE credit concerns raised at the Boston 2011 NPG Assembly, the NPG Council has formed a task force chaired by Gail Rosselot and co-chaired by Claire Wong. A large group of nurses have volunteered to work on this issue. As of this month the task force is comprised of approximately 20 nurses and nurse practitioners. They will now begin their work to explore the CE issue and make recommendations in time for CISTM13 in Maastricht. Do you want ISTM to offer nursing CE at its conferences and courses? Soon you will receive a survey on this issue in your email. We value your opinion, so please complete the survey and let us know what you think.
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Archived Items
Useful for all practicing travel medicine and especially those new to the discipline. This guide will offer general information and tips regarding the practice. This is a living document so check it out regularly as it will be updated on a necessary basis to reflect current practice.
News From Boston
At the May 2011 CISTM12, nurses met on two separate occasions to network and share ideas for the future of NPG.
Here are two reports from the meeting
Competencies for Nurses working in Travel Health Medicine
Presented at CISTM10 in Vancouver in May of 2007, nurses in the United Kingdom published Competencies: An integrated career and competency framework for nurses in travel health medicine. Click here to download a copy.
ISTM Members: Click here to go to manage my membership and join this group.