Season’s greetings – I appreciate that many of you will be working on the frontline over the holidays and on behalf of myself and the Board would like to thank you for the work that you do and the care that you deliver. As we see out 2020 the year of the nurse – who would have believed what this year would mean to our profession, communities and ultimately the world.
Despite the challenges, IntNSA has continued to pursue its ambitious agenda and has had enormous successes including recognition by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) as a specialist affiliate organization, and our recent ‘free’ first virtual conference throughout the month of October, had 950+ attendees and over one million people reached on Twitter. If you are not aware please note that conference material remains available till the end of December so that you have time to catch up and claim your CEs.
I am also delighted to report that your newly elected Board has met twice since coming into office in October and has already begun drafting a full work programme for the coming 24 months. We will be publishing the Board’s work programme end of January in order to share with our members what the key focus of the Board will be in the short, medium and long term. Given the outcome of the members’ vote during the summer, the programme will include the proposed work to establish the USA Chapter, however, the Board are also keen to pursue other exciting areas including the need to refocus on our membership drive profiling colleagues working primarily within the clinical field of addictions; and early career addictions nurses.
In addition, Members who have been with IntNSA for many years will also recognize IntNSA’s long-standing support of drug and alcohol-impaired Nurses, and Nurses in recovery. Our recent conference presentations demonstrated the ongoing need for active support for this group of nursing colleagues, and the Board have indicated a strong recommitment this coming year to make this area one of our primary areas of concern.
In early 2021 a formal Educational Sub-Committee will be established by the Board to explore how to take forward the benefits afforded to IntNSA through the launch of our eLearning Platform. Please watch this space as we are particularly excited about how this initiative will grow and serve our members as they seek easy access to educational materials and ongoing CEs.
Our key message is IntNSA is only as strong as its members and the Board is keen to engage in open and transparent discussion and discourse and will be seeking your active participation as we continue to grow and strengthen our membership base globally. We are particularly keen to offer as many opportunities for members to become engaged in the business of IntNSA via membership of sub-groups/sub-committees and will as part of the published Board’s Work Programme invite members ‘expression of interest’ to join the various themed associated working groups.
As your President, I will be publishing monthly updates to members on behalf of the Board to keep you appraised of progress on the Board’s activities.
May I take this opportunity of wishing you and your loved ones a peaceful and safe holiday, and I look forward to working with you and on your behalf with the Board in 2021/2022.
On behalf of the IntNSA Board
Dr Carmel Clancy
IntNSA President
