For many of us, the beginning of the year brings with it the promise of new possibilities, resolutions, and hope that the coming year will be better or different from the previous year. As an organization, ANAC is also excited to embark on a year of continued growth and development. In 2018, we completed our inaugural year operating under a new organizational structure that included establishing a Washington, DC office and transitioning to a decentralized staff. I am proud to say that this has been a successful transition for us, and we anticipate that this model will allow us to continue to grow our operations more effectively.
In 2018, the Board of Directors reaffirmed ANAC's strategic plan that focuses on five priority areas including: (a) leadership, (b) member and chapter engagement, (c) policy, (d) global engagement, and (e) practice and research advancement. In an effort to meet the goals of our strategic plan, ANAC will continue to focus on developing and providing our membership with innovative and clinically relevant continuing education offerings over the coming year. We will build on our goal of developing and enhancing our chapters, engaging members domestically and internationally, and focusing on strengthening our various committees. Our policy agenda has also been renewed and refined to address relevant key priority areas. A new initiative for 2019 will focus on leadership development. It is my goal to create a training series to help those interested in pursuing local- or national-level leadership positions the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills to become future leaders in HIV.
As for this special issue of JANAC, I would like to thank and congratulate our guest editors, Dr. Barbara Blake, Dr. David Vance, and Dr. Michael Relf and all of the authors represented in this edition. With numerous advances in treatment, many of our patients have successfully aged into older adulthood. This evolution comes with new challenges such as living with and managing multiple chronic conditions, role transitions, caregiver issues, ageism, and the continued need for policies that recognize and take these shifts into consideration. This special issue contains not only clinically important information for our readers, it also demonstrates the scientific contributions of nursing and other health professions to the field of HIV and aging. As more of our patients successfully age into older adulthood, it is imperative that frontline providers, researchers, and policy makers work together to ensure that persons living and aging with HIV receive the highest levels of care.
As an organization, ANAC is committed to educating the health care provider community about best practices for caring for older adults living with HIV. The HIV and Aging Toolkit, available on the ANAC website (http://www.nursesinaidscare.org), provides continuing education webinars focused on different aspects of living with HIV. In addition, for the past several years, ANAC has incorporated HIV and aging sessions at our annual conference. ANAC's leadership team has also been actively involved in educating and presenting on the topic of HIV and aging at other national and international conferences. As the President of ANAC, I also currently participate in the HIV-AGE work group, which provides a variety of online clinical resources for clinicians (http://www.HIV-AGE.org). More recently, we have developed new relationships with several leading geriatric nursing organizations and hope to collaborate on joint endeavors as we look to expand our education offerings. As more than half of all persons currently living with HIV are 50 years or older, ANAC plans to be at the forefront of preparing a workforce that is responsive to the needs of older adults living with and at-risk for HIV.
Please enjoy this special edition of JANAC, and I look forward to an exciting 2019 as ANAC continues to grow.