Page 17 - Florida Sentinel 8-26-22

State
Folk Artist, Ruby C. Williams Of Bealsville, Has Passed
Ms. Ruby C. Williams is a nationally recognized, self- taught folk artist. She was born and raised during the De- pression, in the historic African American town of Bealsville, Florida, founded in 1865, by freed enslaved per- sons, including Williams' great-grandmother.
Ms. Williams, 94, passed away on Monday, August 8, 2022.
After moving to New Jer- sey in the 1960s, she drove a bus, became a minister, and founded a church. It was dur- ing this period that Ms. Williams then began a secret habit: making paintings, which she kept quiet about, while continuing to minister to at-risk-youth.
Ruby C. Williams re- turned to Bealsville in the
MS. RUBY C. WILLIAMS
1980s, to farm. To make her small farm successful, she opened a self-built produce stand on State Road 60 and painted brightly colored signs to attract visitors. Her paint- ings have led her into class- rooms, galleries and museums in Florida, and be- yond. Williams has said: "My life is to look up and reach up and take somebody with
me. No matter what, make someone else happy. I think that's what the art does."
Ruby Williams' work is found in collections throughout the U. S., and in- ternationally. Her artwork has been featured in books (she il- lustrated a children's book, I Am Ruby) and exhibitions, in- cluding the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, and the Ameri- can Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore.
In 2013, Hillsborough Community College's Gallery 221 celebrated the work of Ruby C. Williams as a Florida folk art legend, with a solo exhibition.
Ms. Williams has re- ceived numerous awards.
Charlow Funeral Home handled the services for Ms. Williams on last weekend.
Nursing Carves Out Niche In Cannabis Health Care
DR. JOSEPH ROSADO
Editor’s note: This com- mentary is provided by the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative (MMERI) of Florida A&M University.
The medical cannabis in- dustry is one of the fastest growing in Florida and across the nation. Along with this growth and the increase in users, cannabis nursing is a specialized health care profes- sion emerging within the in- dustry. Cannabis nurses can provide care, education, assess- ments, and support for patients that use medical cannabis products. They collaborate closely with physicians who can legally recommend cannabis as medicine.
Since becoming one of the first qualified medical mari- juana physicians in Florida, Dr. Joseph Rosado has seen his patient load grow to where he now sees 25 to 30 patients daily. When he heard of the emergence of “medical cannabis nurses,” he didn’t question whether there was a demand for such a position. He instead said, “I welcome the prospect of the cannabis nurse educator profession gaining a place in my line of health care.”
Sandra Guynes and Ivory Davis are the kind of medical cannabis nurses Dr. Rosado has in mind. Both are registered nurses and well-ed- ucated on the human body’s endocannabinoid system and how it reacts to legal cannabis or CBD-infused medications. The endocannabinoid system plays a central role in regulat- ing sleep, pain control, inflam- matory and immune responses, mood, appetite, and memory.
Ms. Guynes and Ms. Davis are co-founders of Cannabis Nurses of Color, which focuses on providing nurses with reliable and evi- dence-based information on medical cannabis and the endo- cannabinoid system to help guide patients through treat- ments. They also are members of several other groups inter- ested in the medical marijuana
SANDRA GUYNES
IVORY DAVIS
industry.
The field of cannabis nurs-
ing is so new that there is no certification program for it yet. Still, Ms. Guynes says the Na- tional Council of State Boards of Nursing has issued guide- lines for nurses interested in working with medical mari- juana doctors and patients.
“They basically require nurses to understand the endo- cannabinoid system, how to work with patients that are using cannabis, how to provide non-judgmental care, and how to be an advocate and an edu- cator,” Ms. Guynes says.
Ms. Davis has taken an ac- tive role in getting her profes- sion more involved in cannabis health care policy. In her home state of Louisiana, she sup- ported a bill allowing nurse practitioners to recommend medical marijuana. The bill was signed into law and went into effect on Aug. 1, 2022.
While several states em- power nurse practitioners to recommend cannabis treat- ments, Florida limits that abil- ity to only qualified medical marijuana physicians. The Florida Department of Health’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use lists more than 2,200 qual- ified physicians at www.knowthefactsmmj.com.
Visit https://bit.ly/Canna- bisNursing to watch MMERI’s Conversations on Cannabis Virtual Forum featuring Dr. Joseph Rosado, Ivory Davis MN, RN, and Sandra Guynes MSN, RN discuss cannabis nursing. For more information on medical marijuana and to sign up for the MMERI newsletter, http://mmeri.- famu.edu.
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