This year’s Brain Awareness workshop has been scheduled for 10 a.m. March 8 in Room 13 in the basement of Inlow Hall at Eastern Oregon University.

The check-in for the workshop will begin at 9:30 a.m.

The presenter this year is Dr. Carol S. Dweck from the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. She will present on transforming students’ motivation to learn.

Advanced registration is recommended. The cost to participate is $15, and light morning snacks and coffee will be served. Registration deadline is Feb. 28.

For more information, visit www.eou.edu/neoahec or call 541-962-3422.

Children missing immunizations will not be able to attend school

The Oregon Immunization Program wants parents to know that children will not be able to attend school or child care starting Feb. 19 if their records on file show missing immunizations.

State law requires that all children in public and private schools, preschools, Head Start and certified child care facilities have up-to-date documentation on their immunizations, or have a religious or medical exemption.

“Immunization is an effective way to keep schools and the entire community healthy,” said Stacy de Assis Matthews, school law coordinator in the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division. “We want to make sure children are fully protected against vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough.”

Parents of adolescents should be aware that one dose of Tdap vaccine is required for seventh- through 12th-graders. Tdap is a tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough) booster.

The hepatitis A vaccine, which protects against a communicable viral infection, is a two-dose series required for children 18 months and older in child care, preschool and kindergarten through fifth grade.

If school and child care vaccination records are not up-to-date, the child will be sent home. In 2013, local health departments sent 30,501 letters to parents and guardians informing them that their children needed immunizations to stay in school or child care. A total of 4,188 children were kept out of school or child care until the necessary immunization information was turned in to the schools or child care facilities.

Parents seeking immunizations for their children should contact their health care provider or local health department, or call Oregon SafeNet at 1-800-SAFENET or 1-800-723-3638.

Oregon Board of Nursing appoints new executive director

PORTLAND – Ruby Jason was appointed executive director of the Oregon State Board of Nursing during a public Board meeting Jan. 15.

Jason will assume her duties full-time Feb. 10, replacing interim director Margaret Semple. The agency’s previous director, Holly Mercer, resigned in 2012 to become interim director of the Oregon Health Licensing Agency.

Jason is currently the division director for Women and Children’s Nursing at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and OHSU in Portland. Her management experience includes pediatric and neonatal intensive care, pediatric acute care and oncology, emergency services, adult critical care and outpatient services. She has facilitated several nursing leadership courses for the University of Phoenix School of Nursing, and has collaborated with diverse stakeholders.

“We are confident that Ruby is the right person to lead the Board of Nursing,” says Board President Kay Carnegie. “Her leadership skills and extensive nursing knowledge will serve the board and its staff well as we move forward.”

Grande Ronde Hospital operating room is CNOR strong

Grande Ronde Hospital’s Operating Room Department has been recognized by the Competency and Credentialing Institute as CNOR Strong for advancing a culture of patient safety through its achievement of a high percentage of CNOR Strong certified nurses.

According to CCI, the CNOR Strong designation is based upon research that “nurses who earn the CNOR credential have greater confidence in their clinical practice, having validated their knowledge, skills and abilities. Thus, a team of certified nurses who have mastered the standards of perioperative practice provides even more empowerment, further advancing a culture of professionalism and promoting improved patient outcomes.”

CCI recognizes those facilities through the CNOR Strong Program that have made a “commitment to excellence by supporting their perioperative nurses who make it their goal to become and maintain their CNOR certification.” That commitment includes having at least 50 percent of eligible OR nursing staff CNOR certified and provide recognition for those nurses who become CNOR certified or recertified.