National Sleep Awareness Week Kicks Off on Sunday
February 26, 2013
This Sunday marks the beginning of National Sleep Awareness Week, the seven-day run up to the start of Daytime Saving Time in most parts of the country when Americans will lose an hour of sleep. The week is sponsored by the National Sleep Awareness Foundation
If you are involved in sleep diagnosis and treatment, now is a great time to reach out to your community with information and advice on getting a good night’s sleep. You can find tips for working with your local media in our Local Public Relations is Effective Public Relations: A PR Guidebook for Respiratory Therapists, and our online Media Guide is your direct access to newspapers and TV/radio stations in your area. So check them out and then give your local media a call and invite them out to your facility, or send them a brief press release with sleep-related tips from one of your sleep therapists.
Meanwhile here at the AARC, we continue to support sleep therapists through a variety of means. Chief among them is our Sleep Section, which is open to any AARC member who works in sleep or would simply like to keep up with what’s going on in this dynamic and growing area of the profession.
The section supports a quarterly Bulletin filled with interesting articles by and for members (our winter edition went in-depth on state licensure for sleep personnel), plus a monthly email newsletter with a roundup of the latest studies. Together these great publications help ensure members are up-to-date on the latest thinking in the sleep arena.
The best part of Sleep Section membership, however, is the opportunity to participate in a dedicated discussion list on AARConnect where you can communicate in real time with fellow members from all over the country. That instant connection can be invaluable when you need a quick answer to a question or want to see how other labs are handling a given situation.
You can add Sleep Section membership to your AARC membership package any time of the year too. Just head over to section sign-up to join.
Other sleep-related benefits from the AARC include:
- Our Clinician's Guide to PAP Adherence, a web-based continuing education program delivering the latest scientific evidence on improving your patients’ compliance with positive airway pressure therapy. The program is free to AARC members and carries 4.0 hours of CRCE credit.
- Our Clinical Practice Guideline on Polysomnography, developed in conjunction with the Association of Polysomnography Technologists to help guide practice in your facility.
- Sleep Waves in AARC Times, a regular column covering topics of interest to sleep RTs that’s authored by some of the leading names in the field. (The current column on using dentistry to assist in managing your patients’ airways appears on page 19 of the March issue.)
Sleep RTs are also encouraged to take advantage of the NBRC’s Sleep Disorders Specialty Examination, designed especially for respiratory therapists with an NBRC credential and experience or education in the field of sleep. By earning the “SDS” you’ll be demonstrating your expanded skill set to your facility.