Ahhhhh ... spring! This is a time when the sun shines more, we smile more, we have more energy (well, okay, except for the spring forward time change week), and share a renewed sense of optimism. Science says that springtime and sunshine increase the neurotransmitter serotonin and that makes us happier. Science also says that seeing baby animals and flowers causes us to really, genuinely smile. Springtime is for love and for life and renewal, and it is those same qualities in which we look forward! Springtime reminds us that life breeds life and that there is always a legacy to leave.
So, what are you doing this spring? What is your legacy work? If you have not considered, please think about the opportunity to leave your mark by precepting WOC nursing students. Understandably, the pandemic limited clinical opportunities for the WOC nurse education programs and students, and they found a way to still get great education. Our Accreditation Committee allows simulated clinical hours and creative learning took place. Even as we continue to face some uncertainty with COVID variants, many agencies are allowing students to have robust clinical experiences again. Our WOC nursing students really need you to strengthen their roots. They need you to water their knowledge and give them good soil in which to grow, and ultimately, they need your support to sustain them in their new practice. Precepting is important work. With new WOC nurse education programs opening, they need more seasoned WOC nurses to willingly cultivate the next generation of WOC nurses. This opportunity to oversee the development of this garden of talent is so very important. There is no better work than to ensure that our good work continues to thrive and grow and replicate. If you are interested in precepting, please contact any of the WOC Nurse Education Programs that are listed in this issue of JWOCN. All of them need your support!
I am also pleased to announce we will soon be celebrating WOC Nurse Week 2022. I love this week! Even though April 25 has been considered a perfect date (thanks to the famous line in the movie, "Miss Congeniality"), I think the perfect date in April is when we take the opportunity to celebrate us and what we do! We have selected the dates of April 17-23, 2022, for this annual celebration. Some of you are very creative, and I am eager to see the photos and hear the stories of what you will be doing to celebrate our special week. Please be sure to post on social media and tag the Society.
Along with your usual celebratory activities, I want you to consider a very important addition to your 2022 festivities. I personally invite you to join me in one little thing that will make a great big difference for someone special to you. Would you consider writing a note to one of your WOC nurse mentors? Maybe you have never done such a thing. Maybe you have verbally thanked one or more of your WOC nurse mentors many times. But I think we can agree that there is just something special about receiving a note in the mailbox that is unexpected, which can certainly remind someone about the seeds they deposited in you. There is something springlike in this act. It refreshes. It renews. It regenerates and rejuvenates. Aside from the product fairs, product demonstrations, fanny-shaped cookies, and all the fun things, how cool would it be for each of us to write a note to one of our WOC nurse mentors? Perhaps, that note might be to an informal mentor from whom you learned through an article they wrote or heard a lecture from that changed your practice. Mentorship, preceptorship, and teaching are all dynamic things that have a life of their own, and the cornerstone of each is inspiration wrapped in passion for our profession and our patients. Who can you inspire with gratitude this spring?
Spring also means that very soon, we will hopefully be together in Fort Worth, Texas, to physically see each other and renew our friendships. Technology is great, but absolutely nothing can replace the energy and synergy we experience when we are together. Have you gotten your cowboy boots yet? We are planning a great social event, and you will want to be ready to do it up big in Texas! I am very excited to be hosting this conference with our WCET colleagues, and I am anticipating great education and information sharing during this time. You can be sure that we are working diligently to provide a conference that is comfortable for all who can attend. Please check the WOCNext site for conference updates. I am so very excited to see as many of you as possible in Fort Worth in just a few months!
The Society is keeping busy working and advocating for you. We are aggressively incorporating our DEI initiatives into all programs. DEI, as you are all learning from your own workplace and elsewhere, is a culture change. It involves more than just one dimension of any individual's experience, and that's what we are working towards. We are working with our region/affiliate leaders to continue to find ways to strengthen our relationship. This year we are also working on revision of the WOC Scope and Standards of Practice, which is a large undertaking. We are examining all the work that we do from the education committee to the conference planning committee and all in between to ensure that the work choose to engage in ties to our mission and our values. We are continuing work on quality initiatives around the WOC nurse and are continuing to educate about the ICD-10 codes around Moisture Associated Skin Damage that our team developed, which are all now in use. There is more work and more projects that I could mention, and please know that in the WOCNow, in our podcasts, and in other Society communication, you can always find updates on work that is being done to help you and help our patients. I would like to take an opportunity to say thank you to all the people who make the Society work at every level. I appreciate you all, as do your peers, physicians, administrators, and of course, your patients. Thank you for all you do every single day.
Have a wonderful spring and a fantastic WOC Nurse week!
Respectfully,
Dea J. Kent, DNP, RN, NP-C, CWOCN
President
Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society