In lieu of the president's message, the board is sharing proposed bylaws amendments with the members. Please join us at our business meeting at our upcoming annual conference on March 9-12 at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando, Fla, and cast your vote approving or amending these proposed changes.
According to the bylaws all proposed amendments received in proper form by the Board of Directors and submitted to the Board of Directors must be circulated to the entire membership, not less than 30 days prior to the annual meeting. Therefore the proposed bylaws changes are being published in the January/February issue of the NACNS newsletter in preparation for the March annual conference and business meeting.
The amendments shall be voted on by the membership at the annual meeting of the NACNS.
There are 4 proposed bylaws amendments for this annual meeting:
1. Merge the Communications and Marketing Committee and the Publications Committee into a single Communication, Publications and Marketing Committee.
2. Include an ad hoc Bylaws Committee in the duties of the Secretary of the Board.
3. Include the Journal Editor as an ex officio member of the Board of Directors.
4. Modify the Education Committee and Membership Committee missions to include current activities.
Each will be described below.
Amend ARTICLE VIII. COMMITTEES-SECTION 1. STANDING COMMITTEES of the NACNS bylaws as follows:
Current:
ARTICLE VIII. COMMITTEES
SECTION 1. STANDING COMMITTEES
a. The standing committees shall be: Affiliate Advisory, Communications and Marketing, Education, Finance, Legislative/Regulatory, Membership, Nominating, Practice, Publications, and Research.
Proposed:
a. The standing committees shall be: Affiliate Advisory, Communication, Publications, and Marketing, Education, Finance, Legislative/ Regulatory, Membership, Nominating, Practice, and Research.
(1) Rationale for Merging the Publications Committee and the Communications and Marketing Committee:
Board members are proposing this change because neither the Publications nor the Communications and Marketing Committee had clearly defined, separate mandates. Overlapping responsibilities have created confusion among the members and committee participants. By merging the committees it will be possible to re-energize the committee and provide a clear focus for the combined membership of the new committee.
Proposed mission of the Publications and Marketing Committee
Current:
SECTION 3. COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The Communications and Marketing Committee shall ensure that the association is able to communicate with its members and its professional partners using current electronic, computer, and Web-based technologies.
b. Membership-The Communications and Marketing Committee shall consist of at least 3 members.
SECTION 10. PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The Publications Committee shall review, revise, and approve all print, electronic, and other publications of the association. The Committee is responsible for specified activities that support the Clinical Nurse Specialist journal.
b. Membership-The Publications Committee shall consist of at least 3 members.
Proposed:
SECTION 3. COMMUNICATION, PUBLICATIONS, AND MARKETING COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The Communication, Publications, and Marketing Committee shall ensure that issues of relevance to the membership are published and marketed widely through a variety of means to include but not be limited to print, electronic, Web-based, or verbal dialogue. Furthermore, the committee will ensure that the NACNS mission, vision, products, and image are also widely known.
b. Membership-The Communication, Publications, and Marketing Committee shall consist of at least 5 members.
Procedural impact:
If the membership approves this bylaw change at the annual meeting on March 12, 2005, the committees will merge membership and renew activity in the areas of publications and marketing and provide a venue for a clear marketing of the NACNS image, mission, and vision.
Fiscal impact:
There are no additional costs anticipated with merging the committees.
(2) Rationale for including an ad hoc Bylaws Committee in the duties of the Secretary of the Board:
Currently bylaws changes are proposed by the Board of Directors on an as-needed basis and as issues arise that need to be addressed in the bylaws. The organization is growing and changing rapidly and there needs to be an ad hoc committee that can be called together at the call of the Secretary under the direction of the Board to monitor and suggest changes to the bylaws as needed using a fully parliamentarian process.
Proposed wording change to the duties of the Secretary:
Current:
SECTION 7. SECRETARY
Duties: It shall be the duty of the secretary to keep a true record of the proceedings of the meetings of the NACNS. The secretary shall perform such other duties as directed by the Board of Directors or as prescribed by these bylaws and by the parliamentary authority adopted by the NACNS.
Proposed:
SECTION 7. SECRETARY
Duties: It shall be the duty of the secretary to keep a true record of the proceedings of the meetings of the NACNS. In addition, the Secretary is responsible for convening an ad hoc committee at the direction of the Board that shall review the bylaws prior to the annual convention. The secretary shall also perform such other duties as directed by the Board of Directors or as prescribed by these bylaws and by the parliamentary authority adopted by the NACNS.
Procedural Impact:
If the membership approves the creation of an ad hoc bylaws committee at the annual meeting on March 12, 2005, a list of interested members will be solicited for future reference and use as needed by the Secretary.
Fiscal Impact:
There are no anticipated fiscal impacts at this time.
(3) Rationale to AMEND ARTICLE V. BOARD OF DIRECTORS-SECTION 1. Board of Directors of the NACNS bylaws
After this year there will be no direct linkage with the editor of the journal (the editor, who has been on the board up until this time, will officially leave the board). This issue means that, at best, the communication between the journal editor and the board will be indirect. In an effort to continue the current communication linkage between the board and the journal editor it is better to communicate directly the issues of the journal and the discussions of the board. Participation of the editor as an ex officio member on the board would ensure direct communication.
Current:
ARTICLE V. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SECTION 1. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The control of this association shall be vested in the board of directors, 10 in number, which will consist of the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, immediate past president, President-elect, and 4 members at large to be elected from the active membership to serve 2-year terms. They shall manage the affairs of the NACNS in conformity with the laws under which the NACNS is incorporated and the provisions of these bylaws.
Proposed:
ARTICLE V. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SECTION 1. BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The control of this association shall be vested in the board of directors, 10 in number, which will consist of the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, immediate past president, President-elect, and 4 members at large to be elected from the active membership to serve two-year terms. They shall manage the affairs of the NACNS in conformity with the laws under which the NACNS is incorporated and the provisions of these bylaws. In addition, the editor of the NACNS journal The Clinical Nurse Specialist shall be an ex officio member of the board.
Procedural Impact:
The inclusion of the editor as an ex officio member will mean that the editor is invited to all board meetings and retreats.
Fiscal Impact:
Minimal fiscal impact is anticipated because of potential additional conference call charges.
(4) Modify Education Committee and Membership Committee Mission statements to include current activities
Rationale:
This change is to reflect the expanded scope and present activities of the committees.
Current:
SECTION 4. EDUCATION COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The Education Committee shall provide guidance and consultation to graduate programs, faculty, students, and national accrediting and credentialing bodies regarding NACNS's recommendations for preparation of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) and shall ensure that current data related to the preparation of CNSs are obtained and disseminated.
Proposed:
SECTION 4. EDUCATION COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The Education Committee shall provide guidance and consultation to graduate programs, faculty, students and national accrediting and credentialing bodies regarding NACNS's recommendations for preparation of CNSs; and shall ensure that current data related to the preparation of CNSs are obtained and disseminated; and shall provide multiple forums for CNS educators to address issues pertinent to CNS education.
Current:
SECTION 7. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
a. Mission-The membership committee shall develop and conduct activities that ensure continued individual and corporate growth of the association.
Proposed:
SECTION 7. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
b. Mission - The membership committee shall develop and conduct activities that ensure continued individual, institutional, and corporate membership growth of the association.
NACNS Updates
ANNUAL CONVENTION
Our Annual Convention is looming large and will be here sooner than we think. We will be meeting at the beautiful Rosen Plaza in Orlando, Fla, from March 9-12, 2005. Special conference rates have been negotiated with the hotel so that you can take advantage of the location being close to the Disney resort, Universal Studios Orlando and many other Orlando attractions!! Conference rates will apply for 3 days before and 3 days after the conference, so bring your family and enjoy a vacation in addition to gaining some new and exciting information about CNS practice and issues.
Preconferences will include day-long sessions for the CNS educators and information will be provided on grassroots action on legislative and regulatory issues. Both options will be very productive and packed with great information.
Keynote speakers that we are very excited about are Jeanette Erickson, Chief Nurse Executive at Massachusetts General, and Rhonda Scott, Chief Nurse Executive at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
Be sure to join us.
News From Our Affiliates
Minnesota: The MN Affiliate had their 2004 third annual CNS conference, "Celebrating the Past-Building the Future," which had about 70 CNSs from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Angela Clark, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, FAHA, was the keynote speaker and spoke on many issues of relevance to practicing CNSs, including the APRN compact, lack of specialty certification exams that best reflect our practice, and the emerging role of the clinical nurse leader.
Several CNSs from Minnesota are a part of national committees, including
* Phyllis Gaspar (Education Committee),
* Mary Fran Tracy (Practice Committee),
* Margo Halm (Nominating Committee and the CNS/NP Role Delineation Task Force),
* Julie Sabo (Legislative and Regulatory Committee), and
* Dawn Wilson and Sue Sendelbach (Co-chairs of the Affiliate Committee).
Patty Finch-Guthrie, PhD, RN, APRN, BC, is the 2004-2005 MN Affiliate CNS president. Dr Guthrie is a geriatric CNS at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minn, and a 2004 Award recipient of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing John A. Hartford Foundation for Excellence in Geriatric Nursing. Niki Gjere, MA, MS, CS, RN, is the secretary and is a behavioral health CNS at Fairview-University Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Niki is also a PhD student at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.
California: The California Chapter of the CNS Network has been busy. Our membership has tripled to 255 members. We are excited to be the voice of CNS practice in the state. Our all-day conference, "Navigating the CNS Role: Sailing Towards Excellence," was October 29 at the UCSD Eucalyptus Point Conference Center. The Honorable Trisha Hunter and Dr Jan Fulton, Immediate Past President of NACNS, provided a legislative and national update and information about publishing in the APN journal. Drs Dana Rutledge and Kathi Ellstrom joined me in discussing the implementation of evidence-based practice and research in participant's facilities. Our registration was closed at 72-with 13 vendors in attendance, too. This is the first time our membership is close to maximum enrollment.
Our chapter-level group research project was completed. Some issues were identified that would increase member's satisfaction with the network: a desire for more publication and research classes, requests for meetings in the San Diego area, interest in legislative issues, and comments about days for activities.
To address these issues, we are looking into the possibility of adding an Electronic Bulletin Board to our Web site, and we scheduled our all-day conference in the San Diego area and offered classes about research and publication. Ginger Braun is actively seeking to kick off the legislative committee and we continue to alternate the days of activities from Friday to Saturday. This project is a follow-up to the statewide study that was conducted by Kaiser Permanente.
Our goals continue to be to provide educational, networking, and scholarship opportunities for our members.
Cheryl Westlake Canary, PhD, APRN, BC, PN, RN
Oregon: The Fourth Northwest CNS Conference took place on October 9 with Dr Jan Fulton, Immediate Past President of NACNS, as the keynote speaker. The conference was a great success, with presenters, attendees, and speakers coming from as far away as Pennsylvania and California.
Local issues include a survey of all CNSs in the state in regards to their preference for prescriptive authority. The Oregon legislature convenes every 2 years and in the last session we just missed having our bill passed that would have created the laws allowing CNSs to prescribe when they need to within the scope of their role. The preliminary survey results are again indicating that we need to move forward this session. Wagons ho!! Kelly Goudreau DSN, RN, CNS.
Committee Reports
NACNS Research Committee: Committee work this fall included reviewing the new NACNS competency and outcomes survey. This survey is based on the 2nd edition of the Statement on Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice and Education. Please look for this survey late 2004 through early 2005.
A number of research committee members attended 2 CNS conferences this fall; the Northwest CNS conference in Portland, Ore, on October 9 and the California CNS conference in La Jolla, Calif on October 29. Attending these conferences allowed the committee members to network with CNSs to better understand their research needs. The California CNS conference concluded with an interactive presentation by NACNS members Cheryl Westlake and Kathi Ellstrom where participants had an opportunity to actually generate a research idea.
Research committee members for 2004 include Ann Mayo, Chair; Sue Davidson; Kathi Ellstrom; Barbara Goldberg-Chamberlain; Gay Goss; Juanita Keck; Aleta Lazur, NACNS Business Administrator; and, Nancy Dayhoff, NACNS Board Liaison. For more information about the NACNS Research Committee, contact Ann Mayo at [email protected]. Watch for us at the 2005 Annual Convention, March 9-12!!
Ann Mayo
New Board Member Introductions
One of our newest board members is Barbara Hazard Munro. Barbara has been Dean and Professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College since 1991. She has served on the faculty of the schools of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and the University of Rhode Island. Best known for her expertise in statistics and research methods, Dean Munro teaches a course in statistics for PhD students at Boston College, continues to serve as statistical consultant on several research studies, and is a reviewer for a number of research journals. Dean Munro has served on the Board of Trustees at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston since 1994. She has been an Associate Editor of the journal Clinical Nurse Specialist since its inception in 1987. Her awards include the Second Annual Research Award from the Eastern Nursing Research Society, the Annie Goodrich Award for Teaching at Yale University, the Connecticut Nurses' Association Virginia A. Henderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Research, the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Research, and the Tenth Annual Alumni Award from the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island. She was recently elected to the Board of the NACNS.
News Briefs and Announcements!!
NACNS Member is Elected Chair of the ANCC Certification Examination in Medical-Surgical Nursing- The new chair for the term of 10/04 thru 9/30/06 is Theresa Posani. Congratulations to Theresa!!
Massachusetts General-Institutional Membership and Foundation gala support: Massachusetts General Hospital has indicated intention to join NACNS as a Diamond ($5000) level institutional member!! Katie Brush, a member of the NACNS Membership Committee and a CNS at Mass General, has worked diligently to make this happen.
CNS Foundation comes into being!! A Kickoff Gala is Planned!! The NACNS has founded a nonprofit foundation that is in the early stages of development. A Kickoff Gala will be held on Friday, March 11 at the NACNS Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla. Mass General also committed verbally to $5000 support for the Friday evening event during the NACNS conference-the kickoff gala for the CNS Foundation combined with NACNS's 10th birthday party.
NACNS partners with the CDC Clinician Communication Team-The NACNS has partnered with the CDC to facilitate communication with healthcare workers on issues important to our practice. You can now receive CDC updates by registering with the CDC and receiving regular updates. The real-time information you can receive on the Registry can help you prepare for emerging diseases, natural disasters, and potential bioterrorism events. This is a free service and registering is easy.
Go to: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/coca
1. Click on "Registry" under "Clinician Resources"
2. Click on "Sign up for the Registry"
3. Input the requested information
4. Check the appropriate box(es)
5. Click on "Submit"
The shortcut: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/clinregistry/index.asp
The weekly CDC Registry updates are similar to COCA's updates and currently go out to 40,000 clinicians every week.
Congratulations to Maryann Alexander, PhD, RN, or her new position as nursing act coordinator for the Illinois Division of Professional Regulation (DPR)!! "I am amazed at the number of people who said, 'We have been waiting for you,'" says Alexander, a certified CNS who also has a PhD in health policy and was an assistant professor at Rush University School of Nursing. Before accepting the position, Alexander worked in a collaborative practice as a CNS with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the Rush University Medical Center.
NACNS participates in the Nurse Competence in Aging Meeting- Twenty-six national specialty nursing associations gathered on October 4-5, 2004, in New York City for an unprecedented meeting during which they shared their approaches to elder care and reached a higher level of commitment to integrating geriatric best practices within their ongoing educational activities. The organizations were convened by Nurse Competence in Aging (NCA), a strategic alliance among the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University's Steinhardt School of Education, Division of Nursing. Forty representatives of specialty nursing associations, including the NACNS, participated in the meeting, held at the Southgate Tower Hotel and facilitated by Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, director of the Hartford Institute.
More than half of all patients who receive care from nurse specialists are older than 65. Yet it is widely agreed that, whether nurses have been trained in oncology, critical care, psychiatry, or another specialty, most would benefit from additional training on symptoms and syndromes specific to older patients.
The need for a workforce that is prepared to deliver quality healthcare to older adults was echoed by Linda J. Stierle, MSF, BC, RN, CNAA, chief executive officer of the American Nurses Association. "Geriatric competence combined with specialty expertise will have tremendous impact on the nursing profession," she said. "It is tremendously rewarding to see so many specialty organizations energized and acting together on this important issue."
Organizations participating in the conference agreed to generate action plans to ensure the continuation of their commitment to enhancing members' geriatric skills and to make geriatric information easily attainable, such as by providing it on their Web sites. The specialty groups will also supply information to a central online geriatric resource, http://GeroNurseOnline.org.
"Many organizations have now embraced activities related to care of the older adult population, and they recognize that these activities must become embedded into association education, not thought of as projects with an end," said Dr Mezey. Indeed, many participants said they gained a clear sense of the path their organizations need to take and a sense of invigoration from the highly relevant forum.
NCA was initiated to help organizations move forward with activities to educate their members about unique needs of older adults and to develop geriatric-care projects related to the needs of the specialty practice area. One of the project's main initiatives was the development of GeroNurseOnline.org, a sophisticated resource for nurses who wish to learn more about geriatric syndromes, their possible causes, and treatments.
NCA aims ultimately to reach approximately 60 specialty nursing organizations, and has already funded participating organizations to enhance their work in the area of care for older adults. Groups that are currently involved in NCA are
Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN)
American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nurses (AAACN)
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN)
American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN)
American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Nurses (AASCIN)
American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Nursing (CVN)
American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA)
American Nephrology Nurses Association (ANNA)
American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE)
American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA)
American Society of Ophthalmic Registered Nurses (ASORN)
American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ASPAN)
American Thoracic Society (ATS) Nursing Assembly
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC)
Dermatology Nurses' Association (DNA)
Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)
Home Healthcare Nurses Association (HHNA)
Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA)
Infusion Nurses Society (INS)
National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS)
National Black Nurses Association (NBNA)
National Nursing Staff Development Organization (NNSDO)
National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF)
Oncology Nursing Society (ONS)
Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA)
Society for Vascular Nursing (SVN)
Nurse Competence in Aging Resource Organizations
National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners (NCGNP)
National Gerontological Nurse Association (NGNA)