State Board of Nursing Appoints First Ever Community-Based Care Nurse
Oregon welcomes Community-Based Care nurse, Linda Stanich, to the Board
February 2024 was a historic month for community-based care nursing in Oregon.
For the first time in Oregon’s history, a community-based care (CBC) nurse has been appointed to serve on the Oregon State Board of Nursing.
With a total of nine members appointed by the Governor from across the State, the Board is made up of four registered nurses, one licensed practical nurse, one certified nursing assistant, one nurse practitioner, and two public members. Each registered nurse on the Board brings their unique specialty, representing various areas of nursing practice which include education, nursing administration, and direct care.
The Board’s newest member, Linda Stanich RN, serves in the Nurse Administrator position on the Board and is the first ever member to represent community-based care nursing.
“It is a true honor to be the first CBC nurse appointed to serve on the Board,” says Stanich. This past February marks the first month of her three-year term.
Outside of her role on the Board, Stanich is the Director of Health Services at a senior living community in Beaverton, Oregon. With over 30 years of nursing experience in a variety of settings including emergency, ICU, telemetry, obstetrics, and labor and delivery, she made her way into community-based care after moving to Oregon in 2009. “I still remember the ad looking for a community nurse: ‘If you have a heart and an Oregon license’,” Stanich recalls fondly.
NurseLearn’s CEO, Cynthia McDaniel MSN RN, reflects on the historic appointment saying, “Having community-based care representation on the Board has been a long time coming and is an exciting new chapter for this field of nursing.”
Community-Based Care Nursing is Different
Community-based care nursing is unique to other fields of nursing. From the make-up of the care team to the individualized, whole-person care nurses and their teams provide, community-based care nursing operates differently from hospital and clinic settings. “That is why it is so important that community-based care nursing be formally represented on the Board,” says NurseLearn’s CEO. “Without it, CBC-specific issues like RN Delegation regulation would lack practical, real-world insights,” she continues.
The Board has many roles and responsibilities. Among them, interpreting the Oregon Nurse Practice Act which lays out the State’s standards for things like the RN delegation process.
“I am excited to assist and help guide discussion on regulation that impacts CBC settings” Stanich comments. “When I started thirteen years ago, RN delegation was a large source of fear for me,” she says, echoing the fear many CBC nurses feel when it comes to understanding how to maintain compliance with delegation rules.
“Being the first CBC nurse to sit on the Board that experiences delegations on a daily basis within the community setting gives me a unique understanding of these State standards in action,” says Stanich. “In this way, this role allows me to become a voice for all nurses in CBC.”
“The greatest honors in my nursing career have been to be nominated as OHCA Nurse of the year in 2017 and now to serve as the first CBC nurse on the Oregon State Board of Nursing,” Stanich concludes. “Every day I have the privilege to share stories, laughs, tears and memories with the residents I care for, and know I have found my final chapter in my nursing career.”
