THE BADGER BEAKER. President s Message

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1 THE BADGER BEAKER ISSUE 2 WISCONSIN STATE SOCIETY VOLUME 19 FALL/WINTER 2017 President s Message INSIDE THIS ISSUE President s Message Upcoming events Editor s note Councillor s message Aug 19, 2017 meeting update Hepatitis C Virus My name is Paula Kessler and I have accepted the position as the president of the Wisconsin State Society of the AMT. I m looking forward to working with you to get our society moving ahead. I m interested in meeting you so we can work together. The national meeting will be July 1-5, 2018 in Washington DC. That is a good time to join us and get to meet and socialize with other members of AMT. It s a great time to get continuing education. If I can be of any assistance, don t hesitate to contact me at Paula Kessler, RMA

2 WISSAMT OFFICER President Paula Kessler Secretary Kayla Erlich Treasurer Julie Lent, MT 610 Fremont St. Algoma, WI (H) District Councillor Beverly Christiansen, RMA Cell Editor Julie Lent, MT Material for publication and Ideas expressed are not necessarily those of WISSAMT or AMT unless so stated. The editor reserves the right to edit articles accepted for publication. The Badger Beaker is published two times year. Editor s Note It s hard to believe that the year is almost over and that another holiday season is approaching. Hope everyone has a safe and joyous holiday season. Don t forget to work with the new officers to get Wisconsin Society moving forward. Please check out the new address for the Wisconsin Society. amtwisconsin@gmail.com. Julie Lent, MT Upcoming Events National Meeting July 1-5, 2018 in Washington, DC. Great Lakes District Meeting Oct. 5 and 6 in Ohio ADVERTISING RATES Business Card - $25/year One Half Page - $50/year One Full Page - $75/year Checks must be written to WISSAMT. The money received for advertising will be used to help publish the Wisconsin publication. VENDORS ARE WELCOME TO ADVERTISE Bev Christiansen,RMA Great Lakes District Councillor

3 Great Lakes District Councillor s Message Fall, 2017 Hello to all! I m just returning from the AMT National Convention in Kansas City, MO. I m feeling grateful there were so many people from the Great Lakes District to get to meet and interact with. I was also glad to see many new and fresh faces! Many people reported that it was a grueling schedule, but to me it meant the week was packed with important events that people wanted to attend in a short amount of time. I am excited about our Great Lake District! I would like to congratulate the AMT national award winners from Great Lakes District and the states in our district that achieved the Honor Roll status. It was very nice to see so many from our district honored with AMT national awards this year. I would like to give a shout out to Nany Gabl, RMA (AMT) from Illinois for running for AMT national board. Thank you for all your dedication and commitment to the American Medical Technologists. Congratulations to our newly elected AMT national Board of Directors, incumbents Deborah Westervelt, RMA(AMT) and Kenneth Hawker, MT(AMT) along with our new board members, Cherry Ann da Costa-Carter, MT(AMT) and Lisa Marie Bromley, RMA (AMT). Several years ago, the AMT Board developed a new strategic plan for AMT. Moves to accomplish the goals of this plan have been instituted. One Objective, #7 applied directly to the state societies. The state societies within the Great Lakes District have been progressing very well to accomplishing these goals. The measures in Objective #7 are as follows: Measure #1- Update the bylaws of the state societies and publish them on the AMT website. Thirty two of the 38 state societies have complied with this measure. Measure#2 Update and Standard Operating Procedure manuals of the state societies and publish them on the AMT website. Compliance with the measure is not as far along. Many states are in the process of developing or updating their SOP. Measure #3- Convert all state society banking to AMT centralized banking. I m excited to announce that as of May 2017, this measure has been ACHIEVED. Those states who have achieved all three measures should be very proud of themselves. Those that are currently working on them are to be congratulated for their efforts. Encourage your members to look at the Standard Operating Procedures manual as that will enable your AMT state society boards to approve this for each of your states in the near future. A personal goal I have accomplished in the last 6 months is to test and pass the new ECG Certificate Program sponsored online by AMT. I would encourage each of you to look at

4 this educational module. It is a difficult course, but well worth the effort for the knowledge it gives along with the sense of achievement when earning your Badge! Please refer to our AMT National website at where you may find the dates and location for your next state meeting under state societies. Your involvement in your state society would be welcomed and you may even have some fun doing it. Please contact your state society for further information and be sure to find their contacts on your state page. SAVE THE DATE: October 5 and 6, 2018 for the Great Lakes District Conference in Ohio! As I am closing this message, I would like to relay to you: be proud of AMT! You may express your pride in your professional organization and increase the recognition when you sign your correspondence or your name with the AMT letters after your certification. See my name below to see an example. The AMT board and AMT national office are encouraging members to let people know what organization you have certified with by signing your credentials in this way. You are certified with AMT, and it is THE CHOICE for allied health certification. Thank you again for your support. I am easily reachable by text, or telephone. Bev Christiansen, RMA(AMT) bevchristiansenrma@gmail.com Working Committee Meeting August 19, 2017 members of the working committee hard at work. Members present were: District Councillor Bev Christiansen, RMA Paula Kessler, RMA, Kayla Erlich, RMA and Julie Lent, MT. Not in the pictures was Cathy Celia from national office and in charge of Marketing. Officers were selected. They are Paula Kessler- President, Kayla Erlich- Secretary and Julie Lent-Treasurer. An address for the Wisconsin society has been created. It is amtwisconsin@gmail.com Kayla is working on a Facebook page.

5 Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that causes liver inflammation. The hepatitis C virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis. Hepatitis C spreads through contaminated blood. Hepatitis C exists in six genotypes. Type 1 and 2 are the most common in the United States and Europe. Since they respond differently to treatment, it s important to identify the genotype. A person maybe infected with more than one genotype. Symptoms of chronic hepatitis C are: bleeding easily, bruising easily, fatigue, decreased appetite, jaundice of the skin and eyes, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain including fluid buildup in the abdomen, swelling in legs, weight loss, muscle/joint pain, hepatic encephalopathy, itchy skin, and spider angiomas. Risk factors increase in health care workers exposed to infected blood, people who use injected or inhaled illicit drugs, people who have HIV, people who received a piercing or tattoo in unclean environment using unsterile equipment, born to a women who has HCV, recipients of infected blood products or invasive procedures in health care facilities with inadequate infection control practices, people who have been in prison, people born between 1945 to 1965, and people having a sex partner who are HCV infected. Complications of hepatitis C include cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure. To protect from getting HCV take the following precautions: stop using illicit drugs, be cautious with body piercing and tattooing, practice safe sex, good hand hygiene, safe disposal of sharps and waste. Hepatitis C virus is a bloodborne virus commonly transmitted through injecting drugs through shared injection equipment, the reuse or inadequate sterilization of medical equipment, and the transfusion of unscreened blood products. Hepatitis C does not always require treatment as the immune response in some people will clear the infection. To diagnose people with HCV, a test called anti-hcv antibodies is performed. If the test is positive, a nucleic acid test for HCV ribonucleic acid is needed to confirm chronic infection. After being diagnosed with hepatitis C, they should have an assessment of the degree of liver damage. They also need to be tested to identify the genotype. Medications used for treatment of HCV are sofobuvir, daclatasvir, and the sfobuvir/ledipasvir combination which are part of the preferred regimens in the WHO guidelines. References: article Hepatitis C article Hepatitis C Written by Julie Lent, MT

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