National Institutes of Health Care Research proposed H The American Nurses' Association (ANA) is supporting a bill introduced by Sen Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) for federal support for re- search on epidemiology and delivery of health services. S 2466 creates the National Insti- tutes of Health Care Research as the seventh major agency of the Public Health Service. Its main thrust would be to research and conduct activities aimed at improving the delivery of health care, collect and analyze health statis- tics, support health services research, and evaluate medical technologies. ANA has pro- posed that a Center for Nursing Research be included in the proposed institute.

H The National League for Nursing has begun a new publication, State Legislative Advisory, giving brief descriptions of key health bills affecting nursing that have been introduced in state legislatures. More than 3,000 bills relating to health care are intro- duced in state legislatures each year. Each bill will be listed by state, number, introduction date, commjttee, and sponsor. Copies of the bills and reports on their progress may be ob- tained from sponsoring legislators.

One bill of particular interest to operating room nurses has been presented to the Arizona legislature. It would allow the state nursing board to establish specialty areas and rules of practice for registered "nurse prac- titioners" who could prescribe drugs and per- form minor surgery.

H For all the publicity it generated last year,

s Legislation

the Administration's cost-containment bill for hospitals may be short-lived. Two of the health subcommittees in both houses of Congress have rejected the plan. A substitute bill, spon- sored by Rep Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill), calls for a voluntary plan by hospitals to cut costs by 4% in two years. If this figure is not met, federal controls would be instituted.

H New Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals standards classifying hospital emergency departments by four levels of care will go into effect on Jan 1 , 1979, but will be used for consultative purpose in 1978 on-site surveys. A Level I rating will require com- prehensive 24-hour emergency care service, at least one experienced emergency care physician on duty in the department, in-house physician coverage for several specific spe- cialty services, and the availability of specialty service consultation within 30 minutes. Level I I , also requiring 24-hour service, will have at least one experienced emergency care physi- cian on duty and specialty consultation within 30 minutes. Level Ill requires 24-hour service and at least one physician available within 30 minutes through a call roster. Level IV will re- quire life-saving first aid care and referral to the nearest facility with the appropriate services.

For Level I emergency service hospitals, there must be "appropriate surgical specialists and anesthesiology and operating room per- sonnel. . . in-house and available within a few minutes." For Level I, surgical medical staff must be in-hospital and immediately available; for level II, they must be available within 30 minutes.

Level I emergency service facilities require such OR capabilities as cardiopulmonary bypass pump oxygenator, operating micro- scope, roentgenographic image intensifier, all

AORN Journal, June 1978, Vol27, No 7 1287

varieties of endoscopes, craniotomy equip- ment, and pacemaker insertion capability.

Bills to extend the Nurse Training Act for two years have been introduced in both houses of Congress. In the House, HR 10468 was introduced by Rep Tim Lee Carter (R-Ky) and Rep Paul Rogers (D-Fla). The Senate bill, S 2416, has as its sponsors Sen Jacob Javits (R-NY) and Sen Kennedy. Identical bills, they would authorize $206 million for nurse training

Jimsonweed, mescal bean inspire Indian cave art Some of the aboriginal rock paintings by North American Indians might have been produced by shamans who were “high” on jimsonweed or mescal beans, says a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A New York City pathologist, Klaus F Wellmann, MD, has made a study of North American Indian rock art and says the designs of rock paintings in California and Texas are similar to designs visualized during a trance induced by the hallucinogenic plants.

Jimsonweed grows wild in much of southern California. The early Indians ground roots, stems, and leaves and soaked them in water to produce a brew. In mild doses, the drink induced visions. In larger doses it produced coma and was used by the Indians as an anesthetic when setting fractures or treating wounds.

The mescal bean is an evergreen shrub that grows in the lower Pecos River region as well as in other parts of Texas and in northeastern Mexico. In large doses, it can cause death.

Designs studied by Dr Wellmann include Chumash Indian pictographs found in small sandstone caves in the coastal mountains near Santa Barbara, Calif, and the rock drawings of the Yokuts of the foothills of the southern Sierra Nevadas. The drawings are a mixture of animate creatures and abstract elements that produce a dream-like sense of the supernatural and the mysterious, he says.

In the lower Pecos River region of Texas

programs in fiscal year 1979. An extension is also being sought for the

National Research Service Award, which in- cludes authorizations for research training for the Division of Nursing of the Health Re- sources Administration. A three-year exten- sion is asked for in bills S 2450 and HR 10908.

Dora B D’Amico Associate editor

and the adjacent portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila, there are more than 40 shelters with pictographs probably dating back to before the time of Christ, Dr Wellmann says. The multicolored paintings form sizable panels that decorate the walls and often part of the ceiling of rock shelters. These also indicate that the artists may have been putting down visions they saw after eating mescal beans. There are striking parallels between some of the objects depicted in these paintings and in the trappings associated with the mescal bean cult as practiced by tribes of the central and southern Great Plains during fairly recent times, Dr Wellmann says.

AHA offers risk management program The Incident: Implementing a Hospitalwide Risk Management Program, a new instructional package program for hospital staff, is being offered by the American Hospital Association.

The package contains options for use with all levels of personnel and stresses the need to strengthen systems for patient care and safety and to improve interpersonal relations among patients, visitors, and staff.

The Incident consists of two components: (1 ) film or videocassette (content is identical, choice is purchaser’s) and (2) discussion and training guide with teaching aids and a separate packet of learning activity materials An optional slide presentation with audiocassette is also available.

For further information, write Promotion Unit, American Hospital Association, 840 N Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, 111 6061 1.

1288 AORN Journal. June 1978, Vol27 , No 7