April 9, 2007

Reporting the Meeting of April 2, 2007

.

• George Bailey’s eloquent invocation paid tribute to our departed friend Jack Wolfe, whose contributions as a Rotarian and a member of our club were outstanding

• President Linda spoke of the death on March 30 of Bob Rasmussen’s wife, Lynn, and how Lynn’s life had made such a difference in the community. After Lynn’s illness was determined to be scleroderma, Lynn and Bob started a foundation to promote research and treatment for this rare disease that causes hardening of the tissues.

• Song leader Bob Youmans wrote Vidalia onion lyrics to the tune of “Home on the Range” as a follow-up to Laura Linder’s announcement of the continuing Vidalia onion sale. Linda commented that the song had a lot of “a peel”.

• Mark Gasparovic announced that the next Road Clean-up has been scheduled for Saturday, April 28, in Charlton. Mark also listed May 21 and June 4 and 11 as the dates for our annual work projects. There will be no club meeting on May 28 as we celebrate the Memorial Day holiday. He also distributed a sign-up form from Charlton Heights School seeking volunteers to rebuild the school’s Magic Maze.

• Visiting Glenville Rotarian Charles Lindholm announced that the Glenville Club will soon be selling fair trade coffee to help organic coffee growers obtain a fairer price. Charles also noted that he is replacing George Frost as District 7190 Scholarship Chairman effective July 1. He asked the club to encourage college seniors and graduate students to apply for a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship worth $23,000 for transportation and a year’s study abroad.

Mary Anderson used the Rotary Minute to discuss the club’s Town in Bloom project. She had prepared a poster board with photos and text to illustrate the impact of Town in Bloom and the reasons for its success. Ten different gardens have been established within the community including at the Town Library, the corners of Rt. 50 and Lake Hill and Kingsley Rd. and Lake Hill, the Middle and High Schools, and the Town Park.

Mary identified four main factors in the success of Town in Bloom:

• Water from the Town of Ballston to sustain the plantings.

• $1,000 in contributions from citizens and local businesses.

• Labor from Rotarians and community volunteers.

• The expertise of Cathy Rogers.

Since there will be no Chili Dinner this year, Mary announced that Monday, April 23, will be Rotary Donation Night to support the TIB project. A basket will be passed and all will have an opportunity to contribute.

Cathleen Hamel, Vice-President and Chief Nursing Officer at Saratoga Hospital, described the growing shortage of nurses and some of the strategies involved in achieving an adequate supply of the most important person to person care givers in any hospital. Nursing is a stressful job that often requires overtime hours. However, the greatest reward for nurses is helping patients to get better. There are national standards for nursing and a code of ethics. One credo for nurses is to act at all times as though it were your loved one in the bed. National polls in recent years usually identify nursing as the most trusted profession. An exception was fire fighters in 2001.

Cathy provided a few statistics demonstrating the shortage of nurses across the country. 75% of all hospital employment vacancies are in nursing. A million new or replacement nurses will be needed by 2012. There will be 400,000 nursing vacancies by 2020, a shortage of 20% of all positions. Specialty nursing positions are the hardest to fill because each requires at least two years of floor experience.

Saratoga Hospital has a nursing position vacancy rate of only 2% compared with vacancy rates of 12-14% in many other NYS hospitals. Saratoga is a 171 bed hospital with 95% occupancy. The community has grown rapidly and the hospital has struggled to keep up with population growth. Cathy attributes its low nursing vacancy rate to the hospital’s adherence to the high standards that led to its nursing program being awarded Magnet program designation. Commitment to Magnet standards of excellence (only 2% of hospitals qualify) has created a work environment that empowers nurses to make a difference each day in the lives of patients and their families. For example, Magnet hospitals maintain a 5 patient work load for floor nurses and only 2 patients for intensive care, while the average is 6-10 patients in most other hospitals.

Mrs. Hamel feels that nursing school enrollment is not keeping pace with demand because of a need to provide more innovative opportunities for training. Shortage problems will dissipate when nursing schools become more professionally challenging, when salaries for nurses recognize and reward training and experience as teachers are, and when more hospitals recognize nurse resources are central to the provision of excellent patient care.

Reported by Dick O’Rourke