Logo for 2010 Nursing Assistants Week

The National Network of Career Nursing Assistants (NNCNA) has announced that the 33rd Annual National Nursing Assistants Week will take place from June 10-17.

The week kicks off with National Career Nursing Assistants Day on June 10.

“Safe Lifting” Is Theme

The focus of this year’s nursing assistant recognition week is “Safe Lifting” with a spotlight on Safety Committees.

“Direct-care providers are seven times more likely to be injured on the job than other health care workers,” according to NNCNA, which is calling for more use of lifting equipment and better lifting practices.

“Nursing assistants can play an important role to foster better understanding of the need for safer lifting practices to prevent injuries to workers and residents alike,” NNCNA continued.

Nurse aides have the highest incidence rate of workplace injuries and illnesses in the country, according to a PHI report (pdf).

NNCNA supports the Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2009. In a statement (pdf), the Coalition for Healthcare Worker and Patients Safety notes that the bill would:

require OSHA to develop and implement a standard that would eliminate manual lifting of patients and residents by direct-care registered nurses and all other health care workers through the use of assistive patient handling equipment to the greatest degree feasible except where the use of safe patient handling practices can be demonstrated to compromise patient care.

Planning Tools

The NNCNA has developed a “PR Kit and Planning Guide 2010″ and other materials to help employers organize Nursing Assistants Week (NAW) activities and events to show appreciation for nursing assistants. Among the suggestions are:

• Organize safe lifting activities;
• Ask the town’s mayor to proclaim NAW (download a free proclamation [Word doc]);
• Invite public officials and community leaders to attend an event; and
• Promote NAW events in the media.

“Nurse aides are the heart of what we do,” said Maureen Bertrand, administrator of the Woodridge Nursing Home in Vermont. “We depend on them to tell us exactly what is going on with the patients every day, so that we can provide quality care.”

Nursing Assistants Week “has grown to include thousands of facilities and organizations joining together each year to recognize and honor nursing assistants in long-term care services,” according to the NNCNA.

– by Deane Beebe