South East Region News

Mary Lou Boyer and Helen Marquez, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston report that their department had very been busy preparing for the 16th Annual Colorectal Disease Symposium. This International Exchange of Medical and Surgical Concepts was held at Marriott's Harbor Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale February 17-19, 2005. The Colorectal Nursing Symposium that is held every other year took place in 2004 with the next one scheduled for 2006.

Karen Larkan at the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine in Boca Raton (part of Boca Raton Community Hospital) reports that Tamlyn Kellerman has accepted the position as Wound/Ostomy coordinator at Boca Raton Community Hospital. Tammy will be attending Emory's ET program in March. 

Eula Fahie-Romero,  CWOCN joined the staff at Memorial Healthcare System, and will be covering Memorial Hospital West. Memorial Regional Hospital has opened another Center for Healing and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.  Cindy Scheiner RNC, CWOCN is directing the program. Theresa ( Terrie ) Delbridge is the new Program Director at Center at Memorial Hospital Pembroke.

Mary Lou Boyer BOYERM@ccf.org

East Central News:
We all survived the 3 hurricanes and are getting back to normal lives. Out of the Brevard crew, Shawna Philbin's home seemed to take the hardest punch. The rest of us dealt with a variety of trees down, roof issues, down fences and sheds, but we all were blessed overall in the scope of things. 
Shawna Philbin from Holmes Regional Hospital went to the SUNA conference in Orlando. Shawna and a Physical Therapist are in charge of a new Continence and Pelvic Pain Program at Holmes Hospital. The phone number is 321-434-9019 if you have any questions regarding the program. Donna Crossland has joined the Holmes Hospital WOCN group. She is working full time at the Cape Canaveral branch. Welcome!
Jayne Derocher, from Wuesthoff, has completed her nurse practitioner program through Florida Atlantic University. She is officially beginning her new role. Best of luck Jayne in your new career! Speaking of nurse practitioners, Paige Atwood and Charlene Demers are heading toward their final 2 semesters in the Gerontology Nurse Practitioner program, also through FAU.
Lori Fuhrer took the full time WOCN position at Wuestoff, and therefore will no longer be at the wound center at Parrish. Prior to leaving, Lori had to add a 2nd hyperbaric chamber in July to keep up with the demands. The Wound Center at Parrish Medical is growing fast! The final news from Brevard for this quarter is about Kathy Ellis. She recently left Health First Home care, and has started working at the VA clinic in Vierra. There will be much for her to do there, and it will be a blessing to have her as a resource!
 Reporter position is open. If interested, please contact Kathryn Dere or my self. It’s a great way to earn points for the PGP recertification.

Paige Atwood PAIGE.ATWOOD@parrishmed.com

Orlando News

Rosalia Martin recently started a UOA satellite meeting at Celebration in January. There were 7 ostomates and some with family. They were anxious to meet again and to bring others on the next meeting which will be held on March 6. Meetings will be held every other month on the last Sun.. Oh by the way, Rosalia is going to be a granny for the 1st time. Baby due in May and it is a boy!

Nancy Grimler is working for Mederi Home Health as a CWOCN. Rick Cherry is pursuing his Nurse Practitioner degree and will be finished later this year. Teresa Hugill is also finishing up her ARNP degree this year. As an reward, she plans to participate in a medical mission trip to, I believe she said, Africa. I know those mission trips are very rewarding in many ways; what a passion!

Sally Matson and Dot Weir are busy in the lecture circuit. Sally recently completed an Internet lecture and was filmed to be digitalized also. Dot will be presenting at both SAWC in San Diego and WOCN in Las Vegas.

Carol Publicover reports the following. Gloria Merwarth and I have known each other since she joined the nursing staff at Winter Park Memorial Hospital in 1973. For years, I watched her in sheer fascination as she performed her “ET Magic” on patients. Ultimately, she became my mentor and very dear friend. Gloria and her husband Mark retired in 1997 and began a new and very exciting life. They built a home in Fernandina Beach and moved there to be near their daughter and her family. We seldom saw each other and kept in contact through long messages on our Christmas cards.

In June of 1999, my husband and I were (following the WOCN Conference in Minneapolis) vacationing in northern Michigan. We stepped out of the car onto a rather desolate peninsula to visit the Old Museum Lighthouse, famous for its history (built in 1870) and location on the 45^th Parallel (halfway between the North Pole and Equator). Reaching the far end of a pathway, we saw familiar figures gazing toward Lake Michigan. Incredulously, they were our old friends, Gloria and Mark. All four of us agreed that it was an amazing coincidence and, after chatting and exchanging hugs, parted ways.

In September of 2004, Jerry and I were once again vacationing, this time in Nova Scotia. As we viewed the ocean and explored the grounds of yet another famous and somewhat remote lighthouse near the fortress in Louisbourg Harbor, hikers appeared and climbed the shallow hill toward us. You guessed it------they were, of course, Gloria and Mark. This time, we were nearly speechless, but only for a few moments. Amazing coincidences like these do occur, but seldom twice in a lifetime. Old friends and lighthouses are indeed very special!

The reporter position is open. It is a great and easy way to earn points for PGP recertification. Please say you’ll help. Contact me for more information.

Kathryn Dere kathryn@dere.org

Tampa Bay News

People in the Tampa Bay area have been very busy during the end of 2004. Roselyn Lewis moved to Anchorage, Alaska on August 23rd, 2004.  She is working at Providence Alaska Medical Center in the wound care center (outpatient) and sees inpatient ostomy patients.  She took a 2 year assignment.  She really misses the close knit ET community and corroborative, supportive network that exists in Florida.  She wants to say thanks to her mentors and the support she has received from her close friends and peers.  She hopes to see lots of us at conference in Las Vegas in June.  Her son visited her at Christmas time and they went skiing and snow-machining.  He has been the only brave one to visit her from the lower 48 states during the winter.  It was 44 degrees there last week.  It is beautiful there and she is enjoying every minute of it.!!

Amy Evans took the re-certification exam in September and passed. However she is convinced that she will look into the professional route the next time as she thinks the exam has gotten much harder. Zina Floyd Young took the wound tract in December and passed.  Molly Holt works with them also.  Tampa General has been really busy and has posted a part time-32 hour- position. Rae Marie Carr had wonderful holidays in the tropical paradise of Hawaii.  The only wound care she did while there was take care of sun burnt skin!! John Hollowell and his wife Stephanie had a terrific holiday with the safe arrival of their soldier son (Army) arriving home from Bagdad the Tuesday before Christmas.  John says he checked him over and found all limbs intact and no holes he wasn't born with.  He is currently stationed at FT. Meade, Maryland.

Linda Ravenhorst went to Holland with her husband in March to celebrate the 60th birthday of his brother. Michal Nizan is going to Israel for 2 weeks to visit family and friends. In the summer, Michal will be relocating to a lovely new home on 2.5 acres in Dade City. How exciting!

PS: Roselyn , from Alaska, has a query which she would like to have some feed back on.  “In my position up here in Alaska, I am being asked to remove and replace G tubes and J tubes.  I guess the ET's in the position before me routinely took care of doing this, but frankly, I do not feel comfortable taking this on.  I may be wrong, but I feel that these procedures are invasive procedures and should at times be done under flouro or by a physician/radiologist.  I would like some feed back as it is becoming somewhat of an expectation in my job description, and one that I do not embrace.  I would like to see if any ET's in Florida have any thoughts or suggestions.  Thanks,  roselynlew@msn.com

News flash! Pamela Brown and Julie Maloy just had the 2nd edition of QUICK REFERENCE TO WOUND CARE published. Among the contributors to the book were Donna Oddo who wrote three chapters and Ben Pierce wrote the chapter on home care. The book was written as a resource with home care in mind however it can be used by anyone caring for patients with wounds. The publisher is Jones and Bartlett and it can be ordered on line at www.jbpub.com or by calling 978-443-5000. Congratulations to one and all!

Linda Ravenhorst LRAVEN@isandc.com