Happy February everyone. As promised, this is the third of my monthly ‘President Blogs’ the purpose of which is to keep you updated on what your Board is doing on your behalf, and hopefully to generate discussion/debate/suggestions from our members on what IntNSA is doing and how we can go from ‘Great to Greater’.
2020-2022 Strategy and Work Programme
By way of update
Realignment: Dana Murphy-Parker and Sue Newton continue to progress plans and arrangements. Thank you to members who responded to my ‘call to action’ – we now have a number of members signed up to assist this work and Dana/Sue will shortly be meeting with members to form the ‘working group’ responsible for establishing IntNSA USA. Again, if you remain interested and missed the invite to join or be part of this exciting new development, please reach out to Dana or Sue directly, they would love to hear from you. Their contact emails are Dana Murphy-Parker (murphyparkerd@gmail.com) and Sue Newton (suenewton@humassociates.net)
With regard to the working group to begin addressing the revisions to our bylaws so that a ‘global structure’ can be supported, we are approaching this on at least two levels. We will be establishing a ‘President’s Council’, inviting each Chapter’s President to be represented. This Council will act as a working group on the realignment issue supporting and advising the IntNSA Board as we move forward. In addition to the President’s Council, the IntNSA President will reach out to key expert advisors who have credibility and experience in facilitating organizations as they grow globally. The intention of this strategy is to ensure that the new structure is representative of what ‘our members want’ but seeks to learn from the experience of others so that IntNSA does not take any unnecessary wrong turns. This is an important time for IntNSA and since our very successful Virtual Global conference, which ‘got us noticed’, we have begun to build new relationships with such groups as the State Department of Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) who do tremendous work both within the USA, but also globally; the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the reference point on drugs and drug addiction information in Europe. Inaugurated in Lisbon in 1995, it is one of the EU’s decentralised agencies.
Membership: As mentioned in last month’s blog – Adrian Jugdoyal and colleagues are currently designing a Membership Survey to ascertain members’ views on why they are ‘attracted’ to IntNSA; what keeps them with IntNSA; and more importantly, what do they ‘want or need’ from IntNSA. This survey will be landing in your inboxes shortly – please take the time to complete it – the more feedback we have the more the society will reflect your vision and respond to your needs.
Financial Health: I mentioned last month that Susanne Fogger and Robert Ranieri had begun work with one of our consultants on IntNSA’s strategy for long term financial stability. Phase 1 of this work has now been completed and a report generated, and Phase 2 has commenced. The Phase 1 Report is due to be presented to the IntNSA Board in April and once the Board has reviewed and signed off the report, I intend to share key findings with the membership in my next blog.
Comms and Branding: Kris Waite-Labott and Sean Collinge continue to make great strides forward with this area of work. They have held several meetings, including working with members who have ‘volunteered to assist’ (thank you again!!) in this area and produced a brief outline of the key work that they intend to take forward – see table.
First IntNSA European Region Meeting 22 March 2021
The first European Regional Meeting (via Zoom) was held on March 22nd with 21 participants representing the Netherlands, Ireland, UK, and Portugal. We also had a short presentation from Annette Dale-Perera (a UNODC Consultant) who shared with us numerous opportunities on how IntNSA can access funding and support. The meeting covered a broad but rich discussion on how IntNSA Europe could begin to work on the following:
- Common areas of interest specifically scope of practice and standards for addiction nursing in Europe;
- Need or interest in developing ‘certification’ for this specialism in nursing in Europe;
- IntNSA’s relationship with ESNO (which we are a member of) and how we can support and strengthen the work of this group. The European Specialist Nurses Organisation (ESNO) is a non-profit organisation and the goal is to facilitate and provide an effective framework for communication and co-operation between the European Specialist Nurses Organisations and its constituent members – www.esno.org
- IntNSA’s relationship with the ICN (of which we are a specialist affiliate) and how we can support, influence, and strengthen the work of this organization around ‘addictions and nursing in general’
- How IntNSA can develop and expand its ‘footprint’ in the European Region
The group will be meeting again in April to develop an action plan which will be shared as it evolves.
Meeting with our Ex-officios
A meeting was held between myself, IntNSA President Elect Dana Murphy-Parker and two FIAAN representatives (Phyllis Raynor and Michelle Knapp) on March 14th. The purpose of the meeting was to explore how the FIAAN group’s role within the Society can be enhanced. It was recognised that the FIAANs have a central role to play in sharing their knowledge, skills, and expertise in the field of addictive behavors, and more specifically the role of the addictions nurse. To date this rich resource of ‘talent’ has not been ‘tapped’ and it was agreed that this needed to change. There was also discussion on how the FIAAN role could be expanded globally so that members outside of the USA could engage in this group. I am extremely grateful to Dana, Phyllis, Michelle for such a fruitful and strategic discussion. I am also aware that Camille Zalar on behalf of the FIAAN group has just completed a survey of the FIAANs and produced a short report on the findings on how the FIAANs wish to move forward. Michelle, Phyllis and Dana will be scheduling a FIAAN meeting shortly to discuss both the findings of the report and to begin working on a paper on the future structure and direction of the FIAAN group for presentation to the IntNSA Board. Once this work is completed, I hope to share the outcome in a future President’s Blog.
Addictions Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice
Many of our members will know that the American Nurses Association (ANA) and IntNSA partner to jointly produce the Addictions Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, which is one of several specialty nursing scope and standards of practice documents. This exercise is undertaken approximately every five years, to describe a competent level of nursing care at each level of addictions nursing practice, and is a key publication of our Society.
I am delighted to announce that in the coming month of April the next edition of the Addictions Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice will be out for ‘public comment’. This would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the two Editors Dr. Katherine Fornili (DNP, MPH, RN, CARN, FIAAN), and Dr. Susanne Fogger (DNP, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, FAANP), our ANA partners Dr. Carol Bickford (PhD, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FAMIA, FHIMSS, FAAN) and Erin Walpole (BA, PMP) and the input from a further 16 expert contributors. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking everyone for getting us to this point and ask that members take an active role in reviewing and commenting on the ‘draft’ document.
Finally, I wish to remind everyone that our Portuguese Chapter is hosting its 1st Conference on April 12th and 13th, please support if you can!
As always please feel free to reach out to me or any of the Board members if you would like to discuss anything shared in this blog or if you have any other thoughts or ideas that you would like to see the Board address.
Have a great month and stay well and stay safe!
President Carmel Clancy
March 31, 2021
