As a current RN-BSN student I feel that my professors do a wonderful job integrating current healthcare topics such as organ donation, genetics, etc. into the curricula without the added requirement of specialty training. This is often taught in an activity/interactive lesson and is extremely beneficial to assist nurses to be aware of current trends in nursing and healthcare. I feel that Specialty training (such as organ procurement) is best left to the organizations that will be required to perform that function. I feel that continuing education opportunities through specialty nursing associations and unit/hospital orientation should include materials such as training for recognition and specialty procedures.

             Nursing is such a broad professional that it is virtually impossible to cover every potential specialty in the basic nursing education. Additional requirements for nursing educators only limit the autonomy of the educational facilities to train well rounded nursing personnel. I believe the organ donation and procurement training is a worthy type of training, but is better required for the specialties that will need this information such as the ER or the ICU.

            I feel a better solution would be to encourage (not require) nursing schools to provide optional classes related to this (and other) specialty training. These organizations (such as Lifenet) should target their desire to improve education to the individual hospitals and specialty organizations as part of their certification requirements (such as CCRN and others) thus ensuring current standards are being taught and updated in the area of practice. In my opinion, requiring a student to learn about a specialty, one time in college, is not sufficient training for such a specific lifesaving practice. I hope the board will vote "No" on the petition to mandate this specific type of training in basic nursing education and encourage organizations to seek to provide this type of training through hospital/unit education and specialty organization certification curricula adjustment.

Thank you.