Have you noticed? Change has been good for the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses.
Why change?
People are comfortable with routine in their personal lives as well as in their professional lives. I believe that resistance to change is directly related to the amount of effort that must be expended to achieve it. To me, change is the payoff and the result of one's efforts to learn. Continuing to educate yourself and grow is of utmost importance.
Medicine is an evolving science, with almost daily innovations and developments. You must be willing to draw from your past experiences and see that alterations in treatments and patient care are inevitable. The evolution of bedside nursing to management and even into the corporate world is more and more commonplace. Nursing professionals today are considered more ethical and honest than people in any other profession. This respect for our profession must be recognized as a positive change.
In the case of our professional society, financial challenges of the past few years have led us to recognize our "volunteer" organization as a "business." The transition to a new, more affordable management firm has allowed us to maintain the professional quality of our society. You have no doubt recognized the "facelift" we have been undergoing this past year, such as our updated logo to the redesign of our newsletter. The executive board and our partner management firm, Benchmarc 360[degrees], are very proud of our transformation. This is a good change.
The publication of Plastic Surgical Nursing has been transitioned to Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. The cover redesign and the continued publication of high-quality plastic surgery articles are examples of how change and consistency can work together. Our journal is being marketed online and to related specialty organizations. This is a good change.
We have continued to cultivate closer relationships with our corporate supporters, resulting in the addition of 10 corporate partners this year. We have solicited an exclusive 12-year Emerald Corporate Partnership with Inamed Aesthetics, an exclusive 6-year Diamond Corporate Partnership with The Marena Group, and an exclusive 6-year Diamond Professional Organization Partnership with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. This is a good change.
These changes are only a few of the many that have taken place in the past year or two. The mission of ASPSN is to promote high standards of plastic and reconstructive surgical nursing practice and patient care through education, exchange of information, and scientific inquiry. We don't need to change our mission, just broaden and deepen our practice and scope.
ASPSN has its eye on becoming a recognizable leader in the plastic surgery community. When making the decisions for change, the executive board has had to recognize and accept the realities that accompany those decisions. As much as we want immediate gratification, the reality is that change is a complex process that takes a lot of hard work and, more often than not, more time than you expect.
As the year 2004 culminated in our 30th Anniversary Convention, I look back and remember the many changes (and the work involved in getting there). The convention was a wonderful celebration of our history and of our future. I look back over the past 2 years and say, "I wouldn't change a thing!!"
Barbara Weber, RN, CPSN
President, 2003-2004