The mission of the Puget Sound Nursing Informatics (PSNI) organization is to provide members with networking, education, and information resources that enrich their roles in nursing informatics. Members include over 170 nurses, students, faculty, consultants, and other healthcare IT professionals from hospitals, schools, vendors, and clinics throughout the Pacific Northwest. The group enjoys an informal structure and charges no membership dues. The PSNI strives to maintain an open atmosphere that encourages broad participation of its diverse membership. Many of its members belong to other national organizations that are important to the profession, but PSNI gives local and regional informatics nurses the opportunity for local networking that the larger groups lack. We have an average attendance of 36 members per quarterly meeting (although we recently had 90 to hear Charlotte Weaver). Various member organizations take turns hosting the meeting and arranging for a premeeting dinner for a nominal fee. The group began in 1997, and some of those first visionaries remain an active part of the organization today.

PSNI ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2005

The following were the accomplishments of PSNI for 2005:

* Quarterly meetings featuring discussions and demonstrations of local, national, and international interest. Topics for 2005 included a discussion on developing and supporting interdisciplinary documentation in the home health setting and a presentation by Microsoft on international perspectives on nursing informatics.

* Publication of newsletters for our members featuring regional and national educational offerings, job opportunities, and meeting minutes.

* Sponsored a Weekend Immersion in Nursing Informatics at Bellevue Community College from October 7 to 9.

* Maintained the PSNI Web site (http://nursing.informatics.home.comcast.net), which included helpful links and archives of interest to nurse informaticians.

* Provided representation to the HIMSS National Nursing Informatics Membership Planning Committee for 2005 and 2006.

* Initiated a listserv to facilitate communication among our members and with other nursing informatics groups, including ANI and CARING, so we could stay abreast of the national initiatives in nursing informatics.

PSNI GOALS FOR 2006

Our winter quarterly meeting was held at Children's Regional Hospital and Medical Center. We hosted Dr Charlotte Weaver, Cerner CNO, and her topic was "The Top 10 Organizational Characteristics that Cause Implementations to Derail."

Our Spring Quarterly meeting will feature Carol Fizer, a UW Medicine IT Project Manager for the inpatient documentation implementation. She will present the basics of project management.

If you are interested in joining PSNI, please visit our Web site at http://nursing.informatics.home.comcast.net.