In last month’s CEO Corner, I shared my reckoning with you and my pledge to be a better ally and do my absolute best to ensure AMSN and MSNCB are diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizations. We are committed to doing so, both organizations are fully on board with pledging our commitment. To that end, you will see some additional work in the next couple of weeks and further into the future.

AMSN and MSNCB will be launching their new website imminently, I know we have said this before, but we are literally days away. As part of this new website there will be a pledge page, where we welcome our members and certificants to join us in our pledge to face our own unconscious biases and dismantle any racism within our own organizations and to be a better ally for those that need our support.

Please consider joining us in this pledge and publicly demonstrating your commitment to stand with us. More to follow, so keep an eye on your email and your social media for an announcement when this is going live.

AMSN recently received a letter challenging our use of the title MedSurg Matters for our former newsletter, now magazine. The author challenged the comparison of med-surg nursing to Black people and other POC that are being murdered. I’ll be completely honest, because I promised you all I would be. My first reaction upon reading the first paragraph was “But we’ve had this name forever?” 

Here’s the awesome part, though. 

As I read the rest of the letter, I thought “Wow, my unconscious bias and privilege just raised their heads and you promised to be better”. So, I read the letter carefully and with an open mind and open heart. And in doing so, I recognized that we have an opportunity to do exactly what we said we would do.

We can listen, we can learn, and we can change. We can recognize that just because we did something one way before doesn’t mean that’s the way we have to do it going forward. We can be open to hearing from others and challenging the structures around us. And at AMSN and MSNCB, we will.

I share that as an example of how unwitting and unconscious our biases are. How deeply ingrained they are. How pervasive. And as part of the pledge I made to myself and all of you, I share this as another example of how I perpetuated, even just for a second, the inequity that surrounds us.

MedSurg Matters will get a new name. The BOD was unanimous in its support for changing the name. We have no idea what it will be yet, but we’ll figure it out. What’s important is that it is a magazine that doesn’t inadvertently cause pain or exclude anyone from our community.

I look forward to continuing to improve our organizations and make them truly inclusive organizations where every single member, certificant, and medical-surgical nurse feels welcome, appreciated, and valued.