CEO’s CORNER December 2019 - Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

Happy Holidays!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the end of 2019. Where has the year gone? Perhaps it’s only me, but every year seems to go by faster and faster. I think it’s natural for most of us to have a period of reflection in December, as we move towards the end of one year and look forward to the next one. As I reflect on 2019, I’m struck by the many incredible things AMSN is doing for our members and the broader medical-surgical nursing community. Our goal, quite simply, is to help you be the best nurse you can be. We want to provide you with relevant and helpful practice information, keep you informed on what is happening in the practice environment and legislative arena, and provide you with the tools you need to successfully navigate your practice setting.

We hope that you are finding value in all that AMSN is doing for you. We have big plans for the future and I’m so excited for 2020, the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, when we will have numerous program and project launches that we heard you need. Things like a behavioral health course, specifically designed for medical-surgical nurses that are caring for behavioral health patients in your practice, not on behavioral health units. We recognize the challenges are different, and that many of you do not feel you have the necessary expertise to care for these individuals. We are re-launching our clinical leadership development program as a certificate program, one that awards a certificate for learning, not simply for participation. This certificate will demonstrate your competence in leadership at the point of practice.

We’ll begin work on our next version of the Core Curriculum for Medical-Surgical Nursing and have new chapters planned that are reflective of the current, and emerging, practice area for medical-surgical nurses. We are updating many of our resources to be available electronically and in print, because we know how you consume data and information is changing. And, don’t forget, our new website will be launching at the end of this year or early next year. You’re going to love it. It’s so much more responsive and the navigation is based on your feedback through user experience testing. You’ll be able to find what you need and engage with the content in a much better way.

We have some initiatives coming in early 2020 that are looking at the leadership development of our emerging leaders. You are all leaders in your practice, and we want to help you develop those leadership skills even further through leadership programming with AMSN’s Board of Directors and volunteers. We have new certification tools coming that will make it easier, and faster, to apply for certification and to track your CE. FailSafe organizations will have a new portal that will allow them to approve candidates for certification and track reports. We know that it will improve the current process! Stay tuned, because we have even more planned across all our programs and services.

In closing, I want to acknowledge that the holidays aren’t always a happy time for everyone. You all experience that in your nursing practice. We know you work long hours, including over the holidays, because most health care settings are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You spend time away from your families and friends on holidays, caring for those also separated from their family and friends. Patients and families experience loss and grief, and we feel it too, sometimes more acutely because of the time of year. It is a stressful time for all involved. Please take care of yourselves and be sure to read this month’s Robin’s Nest to read some self-care tips for the holidays (and every day).

We wish you Happy Holidays! Terri Hinkley, EdD, MBA, BScN, RN Chief Executive Officer, AMSN & MSNCB