Hello, NERGG Colleagues!

I hope you are all well and adapting to our current work restrictions.  Thank you so very much for all you do to support the families you serve, your colleagues, and your own families.   Here are some items of note which you might like to explore.
AMAZON SMILE:  When you shop online, you can support NERGG by going through the Amazon Smile Program.  The following link will take you directly to smile.amazon.com in support of NERGG. They with donate 0.5% of your purchase to NERGG, and it won’t cost you a cent.  It’s a small way to make a potentially big difference.  Thank you!
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/01-0532101   If you encounter difficulties with the link, search for NERGG Inc. in the Amazon Smile Charities List.
PUBLIC HEALTH:  Here’s a timely celebration to recognize the incredible dedication, skills, and efforts of our Public Health workforce.  The website offers a number of educational activities, downloadable fact sheets, and social media images.  Check it out!
NEWBORN SCREENING AND COVID-19 WEBINAR MAY 21, 2020A national webinar on Newborn Screening COVID-19 Challenges and Response will take place on Thursday, May 21 from 2:00 pm- 3:30 pm ET. The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is co-hosting this webinar with the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). This will be set-up as a listening session with a panel of newborn screening experts discussing challenges, barriers and solutions to dried blood spot and hearing screening as well as the family engagement perspective during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States.  

Please confirm your availability to participate by registering for this free webinar here: aphl.zoom.us/meeting/register/…

Share any questions that you may have for the panelists via email with Sikha Singh at [email protected]. These questions will be posed to the panelists during the webinar and may include, but are not limited to, discussion around solutions to newborn screening follow-up, telehealth, education, laboratory practice, system backlogs and more in dried blood spot and point of care newborn screening.

NERGG WEBSITE and JOB POSTINGS

With the assistance of a website consultant and an enthusiastic Website Committee, we are updating the NERGG website; stay tuned for a roll-out of the new site in the coming months.  We will also be re-energizing our presence on social media.  Please keep the NERGG website in mind when your organization wishes to advertise job postings.  The cost is $150 for up to one month, and ads can be renewed as often as is necessary.

ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE

Optimistic view:  Save the dates of December 3 and 4, 2020 for the annual conference at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside in New Hampshire.  We have the venue reserved and will soon be convening the Planning Committee.

Realistic view:  It’s difficult to tell what the future of in-person meetings will be.  Additionally, some  attendees may not be able to travel to out-of-state meetings for a while, given the impact of the pandemic on budgets.  Many organizations are turning to virtual conferences, which might be an option for NERGG.  If any of you attend a day-long virtual event that you think was particularly well-run, please let me know.  I’d love to contact the organizers and learn from their experience.

SPONSORS AND EXHIBITORS

I’d like to offer a word of thanks to sponsors, exhibitors, and allied organizations who have supported NERGG in the past and who have reached out to me during this time of isolation.  Several of them have offered to collaborate on webinars and to continue to support NERGG in any way they can.  We truly are all in this together.

Cindy

Cynthia L. Ingham, RN, BSN
Executive Director
NERGG, Inc.
[email protected]