Community college hosts adpotion-awareness workshop

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

HOT SPRINGS — The RN Division at National Park Community College hosted a free Infant Adoption Training Initiative workshop on Oct. 21 in the Frederick M. Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. This workshop was sponsored by Spaulding for Children, a nationally and locally recognized leading authority on the adoption of children from the child welfare system. The founders of this organization base their operating principles on the belief that all children are adoptable, without regard to their age, race or disability.

Spaulding for Children and Harmony, in collaboration with adoption and pregnancy counseling agencies and health centers, developed an evidence-based model curriculum, Understanding Infant Adoption and a sustainable national delivery system, the Infant Adoption Training Initiative.

Infant Adoption Training Initiative is training designed for staff at public and nonprofit private entities that provide health and counseling services to pregnant women.

The curriculum developed by the Infant Adoption Training Initiative, Understanding Infant Adoption, is designed to train health care professionals how to provide adoption information and referral to pregnant women. Understanding Infant Adoption provides participants with opportunities for self-reflection and open discussion of issues facing women with unplanned pregnancies, as well as the different service providers available in their areas.

Understanding the different resources available for pregnancy counseling and adoption services is a key characteristic necessary to make informed referrals consistent with client/ patient needs and preferences.

“The faculty at NPCC feels strongly about the need to expose nursing students to all areas of human services to increase their knowledge for future endeavors,” said Diane Fergadis, NPCC nursing faculty.

Senior nursing students, local maternal/child hospital nurses, public health nurses and nursing educators attended the workshop.

Tri-Lakes, Pages 60 on 11/19/2009

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