Hi, I'm Sue Cox and I am honored to be your STN President for 2010. I'm looking forward to an exciting year, helping to lead STN into the new decade.
The year 2009 ended with the death of my 92-year-old mother. I'm not telling you this to share my sadness, although her passing was, most assuredly, sad. Rather, the time I spent with Mom in those last few months gave me a very rich appreciation for the evolution of the nursing profession and the role we all play in that change process. Mom was a nurse, but she had many other important roles too. Wife, mother of 10 children, chef and baker, community leader and volunteer, artisan, teacher, mentor, and philosopher, she had a long and very full life. She was a witness to most of the significant changes in our nursing profession during her more than 50 years of practice.
Mom was born in 1917 and graduated from a diploma-nursing program in rural Iowa in 1938. Her picture as a demure new graduate in her white uniform with her white cap with velvet ribbon strips is a classic nursing photo from her generation. Each of her 3 sisters had a similar photo taken when they graduated. Yes, all 4 of them were nurses. Mom's postgraduate clinical work began in Rochester, Minnesota, where she worked as a medical/surgical nurse at one of the hospitals affiliated with the Mayo Clinic. She actually knew and worked with the Mayo brothers. Her nursing career ranged from full-time to part-time when family needs dictated. She worked nights during many periods of our childhood without the luxury of having daytime nannies. She worked in many different venues in her career: hospital nurse, outpatient clinic nurse, infectious disease-surveillance nurse (one of the first Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-trained nurses), and finally ended her career as a part-time hospice nurse, which she continued as a volunteer after her retirement. She loved nursing and her face radiated happiness when she talked about her experiences and professional growth.
Mom and I loved talking about our careers and the differences between our experiences. She was proud of her career and of her contributions to the profession throughout the years. She impressed on me how very different nursing was in the '30s and '40s. Technology, in her day, was limited to sphygmomanometers and mercury thermometers. Antibiotics were just being discovered during her early years as a nurse, driven by the experiences in World War II. There were no intensive care units back then and Mom described how physically exhausting her nursing responsibilities were. She, and her fellow nurses, were not only bedside nurses but were also unit secretaries, physician helpers, housekeepers, cooks, social workers, financial advisors, and bereavement counselors, all in one. As I toured Mom around our pediatric intensive care unit in the early 1980s, she was totally overwhelmed with the complexity of the clinical devices and medications. She was equally impressed with the specificity of roles-nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, social workers, unit secretaries, etc. Mom, very perceptively, immediately identified the nursing challenges of blending "high tech with high touch" in our clinical environment, a concept she had had minimal exposure to during her own hospital nursing years.
As Mom's health deteriorated these last few months and she became less interactive, I watched the hospice nurses care for and interact with her in such efficient, yet compassionate ways. I marveled at an interaction between Mom and them on a particularly good day for her when she described her experiences as a hospice nurse (when hospice nursing was a new specialty) and how much she loved that role. As I watched and listened to her share some of her insight and experiences with them I saw clearly what a wonderful mentor and teacher she was. Even at 92, she was sharing her wisdom, insight, and "tricks of the trade." We all recognized then that Mom had come "full circle" from nurse to patient and we fully appreciated what that meant. It was a very poignant moment.
Now we begin 2010-the beginning of a new decade. Technology is moving so fast that it is too fast for any one person or group of people to comprehend it all. Our parents and grandparents couldn't fathom the world we are in and how fast it is changing. We "baby boomers" won't recognize the clinical environment a few years after we leave it. Even now, machines talk to each other and are now beginning to display artificial intelligence. Bionic body parts are being joined by cloned body parts and tissues. Bacteria and viruses are morphing into more complex and more resistant strains faster and faster. Demand for new and effective vaccines and antibiotic or antivirals is high. Epidemiology is no longer local, regional, or even national-it is worldwide in its scope and needs to be. We recognize now that every corner of our world is interconnected. New, improved clinical technology is evolving faster than it can be incorporated at the bedside. Techniques, medications, and new equipments are, once again, being expedited by our war experience-this time, the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.
Where is STN in all this evolution of healthcare and nursing? Well, like other professional organizations we have many challenges facing us now and in the coming years. We need to continue to transition our communication and networking to contemporary models using the Website, social networking, and other innovative means of communication to join our members together and allow easy interfaces and exchange of ideas and information. We need to continue our efforts at expanding our organization and our educational programs internationally to share our experiences and expertise.
We need to continue to build upon our emerging trauma physician or nursing collaborations. Our partnership with the American College of Surgeons in creating an Optimal Care Course for trauma is building and evolving along with the Trauma Outcomes and Performance Improvement Course (TOPIC). We have just announced that Amy Koester, one of our STN past Presidents, has been officially named as a member of the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons. STN has been asked to partner with the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma Annual Scientific Assembly over the past few years. Our participation at the annual conference has increased with STN offering numerous breakfast sessions, a plenary session and a pre-conference course. The physician/nurse trauma leader model that has been fine-tuned to a very effective and successful model at the hospital and trauma system level is now becoming realized in professional organization collaboration.
Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants." It is clear to me that trauma nursing today was giving its first inertia by a visionary and courageous small group of nurses who helped create the schema for trauma nurses and trauma nursing leaders. Now, 20 years later, STN is an organization of more than 1,100 trauma nurses from all areas of the United States and a growing number of international sites. We must all work together, retiring baby boomers, established trauma nurses, and new trauma nurses alike, to continue nurture collaborative practice and professional organizations so we can continue to "see further" building on the work of our predecessors but modifying and improving models and strategies to match the current environment and challenges.
We have much to do this year and in the coming years to sustain the inertia of our organization. Look within yourselves and ask yourself if you are ready to begin your journey to become a trauma nursing leader. Get involved in an STN special-interest group or committee. Become an instructor for one of the STN educational courses: advanced trauma care for nurses, trauma outcomes and performance improvement course, or the optimal care course. Run for an STN national office. There is much to be done and your talents and enthusiasm will help to drive our agenda forward.
When you were doing your New Year's resolutions, I hope you had one related to increasing your involvement with STN. If not, consider it.
Happy New Year!! I'm looking forward to meeting you!!!!