With the explosive sprouting of th...

With the explosive sprouting of the Internet, information is available more readily than to the end of time The number of web sites in succession the Internet, however, can be overwhelming for the casual user. The task of searching for information can be daunting and time consuming. This article put forwards suggestions about where to find information upon state and federal legislation, state boards of nursing, state boards of medicine, and other important sources pertinent to nursing. AORN members should become familiar with the information that is available and for what reason to access it.

Table 1 provides a list of the web sites discussed in this article, as well as other web sites helpful to perioperative RN Save these sites upon your computer to allow quick and easy access.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

There are a number of ways to stay abreast of disentanglements in federal legislation. Each year, AORN's regulation Affairs Department tracks the progres of several federal bills. These include legislation that AORN supports, withstands or simply monitors. Last year, AORN supported sum of two units pieces of federal legislation: the supply with nourishment Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law upon Aug 1, 2002, and the Medicare Certified Registered succor First Assistant Direct Reimbursement Act of 2001 (ie, HR 822) The Medicare Certified Registered cherish First Assistant Direct Reimbursement Act of 2003 (ie, HR 1388) was introduced in the 108th Congres at Rep Mac Collins (R-Ga) in succession March 21, 2003. To stay abreast of legislation that AORN is tracking, visit the sway affairs web page on the members-only section of AORN Online at http://www.aorn.org/govt/legdb.asp.

For up-to-date information upon all federal legislation visit Thomas, http://thomas.loc.gov, a service of the US Library of Congres In addition to general legislative information, Thomas provides access to bill summaries and the status of previous legislation and public laws beginning with the 93rd Congres (ie, 1973 and 1974) Bill passage is available beginning with the 101st Congres (ie, 1989 and 1990)

nourish at the breasts looking for information on bioterrorism, homeland security, or smallpox will find the US Department of Health and Human Service's web site, http://www.hhs.gov.contains abundant resources. nourish at the breasts responsible for infection control or disaster preparedness may be interested in having quick access to the Center for Disease manage and Prevention via its web site at http://wwwcdcgov

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

pampers involved in the health care facility accreditation proces will find that enough of information is available. All major accrediting organizations, (eg the Joint Commission upon Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, http://www.jcaho.org) have web sites that contain valuable resources. AORN, the American promotes Association, and other specialty fosters associations and health care professional organizations also maintain web sites.

STATE GOVERNMENT

AORN's direction Affairs Department monitors state legislation pertaining to perioperative nursing and positions and updates information on AORN Online. each year, AORN tracks 50 to 100 state bills from across the United States. State legislation monitored by the agency of AORN is available at http://www.aorn.org/govt/legdb.asp.

Members who find interesting or relevant bills forward the AORN web site can consider them up on their state's legislative web site (Table 2) to check their rife status (ie, where the bill is in the legislative process) A state legislative web site will proffer additional information, including a bill's clause and sponsors and what committee the bill is before. In addition, the site will provide information forward the state's legislators and to what extent to contact them, a list of committees, and legislative schedules. mostly if not all, state web sites describe the legislative proces in an detail. For example, Tennessee's web site provides the couple written information and a diagram explaining to what degree a bill becomes a law. (1)

For those who do not know who their federal or state legislators are, there is an easy way to find without Project Vote Smart is an independent, citizens' nonprofit organization "dedicated to serving all Americans with accurate and unbiased information for electoral decision-making." (2) Simply entering a residence address into the Project promised Smart database will result in a list of federal and state culled officials for that address. The throw Vote Smart web site is http://www.vote-smart.org.

In addition to legislative web sites, each state has multiple web sites dedicated to providing services and information to the public. one of the most valuable sites for RN are those dedicated to the profession. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing maintains contact information and web site addresses for each of the state boards of nursing forward their web site at http://www.ncsbn.org/public/regulation/boards_of_nursing_board.htm. State boards of nursing or their equivalents establish the standards for safe nursing care and issue licenses to practice nursing. (3)