IntNSA President’s Blog May 2021
I hope that everyone has had a safe and successful May. I hope you are excited about the summer – I love when the light really picks up and we begin to get more day light and sunshine!
As promised, this is the sixth 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:
I am pleased to report that IntNSA continues to make progress on its strategic objectives with our USA colleagues meeting last month to form an ‘interim Board’ for IntNSA USA. Following a strong turnout for the ‘first meeting’ – with great excitement and enthusiasm USA colleagues appointed an ‘interim Board’ to begin the work in establishing IntNSA USA. As is the case in setting up all Country Chapters we ask interested members to nominate an ‘interim Board’ to get things established and once the Chapter is formalized the Interim Board will put in place a formal election process as per chapter bylaws to establish a members elected Board.
It is with great pleasure that I can now introduce your IntNSA USA Interim Board being led by President Kristin Waite-Labott. Kris will be leading the new national chapter as it sets up and establishes itself as a formal entity.
Kristin is also the current Eastern Wisconsin IntNSA chapter president. She started that chapter in November 2019 with the help of her work colleagues and has grown it to about 25 members. She is also an active member of the Board of IntNSA global where she leads a focus group concerned with developing IntNSA’s brand and communication strategy. Members will recall that following the decision and members vote last year to realign IntNSA, so that IntNSA can grow internationally, whilst supporting country level developments. As Kristin says in her new role “As we grow internationally, with chapters in 9 countries, it became clear that IntNSA needed to focus it’s energy at the global level. To do that, the USA needed an independent chapter to oversee and grow it’s states chapters”. Kris goes onto say that as she and the USA team focus on the needs of State Chapters, whilst continuing
to be part of the wider IntNSA global society, which will be focussing on mobilizing the nursing response, “serves us all so we can position the role of addictions nurses globally to do something significant in terms of drug demand reduction and work with our patients”.
The ‘Full Interim Board Members’ are
 | Lisa Domenico (Florida) President Elect. Lisa is also the President of our IntNSA Florida State Chapter |
 | Karen Regaisis (North Carolina) Secretary. Karen is also the President of our IntNSA Connecticut State Chapter |
 | John Silvani (Ohio) Treasurer. John is currently serving as a Director-at-Large on the IntNSA Global Board. |
If you would like to be part of the IntNSA USA Board and/or the work of IntNSA USA – please reach out to Kris via her email on Thewaites1000@yahoo.com.
Update on Global Realignment
As outlined in my April Blog we continue to explore how best to take forward our global work. As promised, we are now moving to establish the ‘President’s Council’. This Council will act as a working group on the realignment issues supporting and advising the IntNSA Global Board as we move forward. The first meeting of this group has been set for June 21, all current IntNSA Country Chapters will be represented via their President or their nominee. I will report back in my June Blog on the outcome of this meeting.
Our work with international colleagues and agencies continues. Myself, Dr Katherine Fornili, and President-Elect Dana Murphy-Parker took part in a meeting convened by INL Office of Global Programs and Policy, INL Bureau at U.S. Department of State, on 26 May, to explore how IntNSA can lead on the development of Nursing Standards Globally for Substance Use Disorders. This meeting was also attended by Dr Kimberly Johnson, who is a research associate professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences at USF. Dr. Johnson also serves as the executive director of the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction, a newly formed international membership organization for universities with addiction studies programs; and
Dr Jose Luis Vazquez who works for The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the drug control agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington DC. The group have agreed that we will begin to explore how we might be able to collectively take forward this idea of developing global standards and have set up a series of meetings to plan and discuss next steps.
Membership: Please note that we are continuing to work on drafting our 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 in June so that Board can review the findings at its scheduled Virtual Retreat end of June. 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: We have now completed phase 2 of our work in this area – I am particularly grateful to our current Treasure Dr Fogger who has steered us through this important process. The Board will be reviewing both Phase 1 and 2 at our forthcoming Virtual Retreat in late June. At this point we will wish to present to members how the Board, going forward, will be sharing the Society’s Financial Health, and how the Society’s dues and investments are put to ‘work’.
Comms and Branding – You will have recently received an ‘eblast’ from Kris Waite-Labott with regard to IntNSA’s plans to align with International Days of Observance each month of this year to bring attention to causes associated with our mission, and care of our patients and communities.
For our “May Month’ we highlighted World No Tobacco Day May 31, 2021, and with the support of Dr Clifford Q Cabansag, MD, DABAM, FASAM, CTTS, Medical Director, Addiction Medicine Physician, PAX Treatment Centers, who put together a thought-provoking webinar on “The Truth about Smoking”, we have been able to share this for free with all of our members and wider communities. If you have not had the opportunity to review please click here.
Addictions Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice
Please note that this ‘public review’ is now closed and Drs Fornili and Fogger thank everyone for their feedback- which they are currently incorporating into the revised document. We will update you when the final document will be available for publication and purchase via our online store.
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, stay well and stay safe!
President Carmel Clancy
May 31, 2021
