On Thursday, November 11, the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association (OJNA), an affiliate of the American Nurses Association, will once again hold its annual conference in New York City.
OJNA President Shevi Rosner MSN RN-C, a neonatal ICU nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City—together with Goldie Burstein RN-C CCM and Linda Segel BSN RN—is thrilled to welcome back, in person, nurses and other healthcare professionals after a more than a year-long hiatus due to COVID.
Rosner said: “It’s a day full of energy. Networking. Learning. We provide continuing education credits at the conference. People walk away so energized, connected, inspired and uplifted. It’s really just the highlight of the year for so many nurses.”
Taking place in the Jay Suites Conference Center, located at 515 Madison Avenue in New York City, the conference will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will offer a Cholov Yisroel breakfast and lunch. A discount will be offered to OJNA members, and remote access is available to those living outside the tri-state area.
The conference, which is open to men and women, nurses, nursing students, nurse practitioners, therapists, physician assistants and a host of other healthcare workers, features an exciting roster of speakers including Binyomin Tepfer PhD; David Hudesman MD; Robert Davis MBA MSN RN; Goldie Burstein RN; Rabbi Aaron Glatt MD; Chaya Friedman RRT; Brendan Finnegan; Yardena Mandel DNP APRN; and Ziporah Reich JD. Some of the topics that will be discussed include antisemitism in the workplace; medical marijuana; COVID boosters and vaccine mandates; drum therapy; Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis; ventilator settings; blood gas analysis; and the HPV vaccine.
Rosner explained that even though the conference is nursing-focused, other healthcare professionals like to attend because many other organizations and specialties don’t necessarily have a conference like this where people come together and meet other frum healthcare employees.
Established in 2017 by Rivka Pomerantz BSN, RN, IBCLC, OJNA is a nonprofit organization that began instituting membership in 2018 and currently boasts approximately 430 members in the U.S., Canada, Israel, the U.K. and beyond. Some of the amenities OJNA members enjoy include career services, continuing education, an active job board, and even a new graduate mentorship program where a recent nurse graduate is paired up with an experienced nurse for the first six months of their job in order to ease them into the profession. Other membership perks include discounts to conferences, webinars and external courses; committee involvement; resume review; and a professional nursing journal published twice a year.
OJNA also has an extremely resourceful and highly active Facebook group with over 2,550 members. Rosner said that it is a very active forum that sees constant conversations about issues related to nursing—mandatory continuing education; handling Shabbat and Yom Tov and balancing weekend shift requirements; scrub brands; wearing sheitels or head coverings at work; dealing with difficult managers or coworkers; easing new graduates into the nursing profession, community health conversations; COVID vaccine education; recommended master’s programs, finding clinical preceptors, and much more.
For more information about OJNA and to register for this upcoming conference, please visit www.jewishnurses.org.
By Ronit Mershon
