This past November, Neil Ead, President, and I (as President-Elect) were privileged to represent APSNA at the Nursing Organizations Alliance 12th Annual Fall Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, I have been to Minnesota three times in my life-and always in November!
As stated on the Alliance Web site, http://www.nursing-alliance.org/index.cfm, "the Nursing Organizations Alliance is a coalition of nursing organizations united to create a strong voice for nurses. The Alliance provides a forum for identification, education, and collaboration building on issues of common interest to advance the nursing profession."
Nursing Organizations Alliance has been a great source of information, education, and support to us as one of the smaller member organizations. We have sent three Board Members to the Nursing Alliance Leadership Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, for several years and enjoyed the networking at this meeting as well as at the Fall Summit. We have participated in the Nurse in Washington Internship, list-serves, and webinars and learned about board structures, utilization of management companies, reimbursement of expenses for members of nonprofit boards, and much more. Our partnerships with AORN and NAPNAP have been enhanced via the Alliance.
This year, the meeting started on Thursday with a reception. Neil was able to spend some time with Mary Chesney, President-Elect of NAPNAP, among others, while I was on the plane to town from Pittsburgh. Friday morning started bright and early with a talk on informatics in health care. Then, we divided into groups for networking, which is where I had my first idea! As we transition to our professionally published Journal of Pediatric Surgical Nursing, we can work with our Alliance colleagues to identify authors on specialty subjects (care of the micro preemie, understanding congenital heart anomalies) of interest to our members. Kathleen Gallo, the Chief Learning Office (How's that for a title?!?), at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System then followed the networking session with a terrific talk on Interprofessional Practice.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning were spent in breakout sessions. Neil and I both attended the session on The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. Neil participated in another session on legislative issues, while I learned about strategies for managing your organization in a remote world. While this was more about managing staff, there were pearls that our Board can utilize to improve our communication and productivity.
While Neil attended to other APSNA business, I represented us at the annual Alliance Business Meeting. Of note, at this meeting, each of the candidates nominated for Coordinating Team positions introduced themselves and spoke for a few minutes about why they wanted to serve on the Coordinating Team. We then voted by completing paper ballots, and the election results were announced at the end of the meeting. Ellen O'Donnell, APSNA Immediate Past-President, has suggested this as a possible model for APSNA going forward.
As an aside, I learned that the host city sees the Summit as an opportunity to try and convince the various nursing organizations in attendance to hold their annual meeting in that city. We also visited vendors from more than 30 other cities trying to convince us to hold our meetings in their cities. As nurses, I dont think we are used to being courted so assertively-in many ways it was nice. Certainly people were outgoing and friendly.
The top 10 highlights of the Alliance Fall Summit for me were as follows:
10. Adding to my reading list:
Unaccountable: What Hospitals Wont Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care by Marty Makary, MD (book)
Why Hospitals Should Fly: The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care by John Nance (book)
"The Making of an Expert," Harvard Business Review, July-August 2007, K. Anders Ericsson et al. (journal article)
9. Learning about the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota (http://nexusipe.org/) and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (https://ipecollaborative.org). Isn't this what health care needs?
8. Visiting with Mary Chesney, President-Elect of NAPNAP. I am excited for our ongoing partnership.
7. Meeting and networking with leaders from nursing organizations such as the Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing (I spend a lot of time in radiology in my job!), the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, the Society of Trauma Nurses, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the National Association of Neonatal Nurses.
6. Being inspired to think about the possibility of having regional pediatric surgical nursing conferences, hosted and supported by our members (location, speakers) for those unable to attend our annual meeting.
5. Eating very well.
4. Being stimulated to reflect on our transparency as a Board and as an organization (one of my personal and professional goals is to become more transparent; although usually you can just look at my face and know what I'm thinking).
3. Learning from the Executive Director of the Rheumatology Nurse Society about a software program that organizes board discussions and voting (better than e-mail!).
2. Spending some face-to-face time with Neil discussing APSNA business and our vision for the organization.
1. Representing our wonderful organization to other equally fabulous (in their own way) organizations.
The session on the interdisciplinary Interprofessional Practice was of particular interest to me. My "platform," if you will, as incoming APSNA President, is based on teamwork. It is my belief that the continued success of APSNA depends upon the ability of the Board, our committees, and SIGs, and our membership overall, to work as a team. The speaker at this session reviewed the concepts of Crew Resource Management and characteristics of high functioning teams: cooperation, equality, coordination, and engagement. I hope to see you in Phoenix in May for our 23rd Annual Scientific Conference: Kindling Surgery in Pediatric Surgical Care: Professional and Clinical Collaborative Practice. My intent is for my incoming presidential address, tentatively entitled "Kindling Synergy: Building Effective Teams" to build on this theme and Ellen's and Neil's leadership development legacy and initiate a strategic plan that includes member engagement and rejuvenation of our committees. After all, APSNA exists for the benefit of all of you, for the benefit of all of our surgical patients and their families. Thanks for all you do and for the opportunity to represent APSNA at this forum.