Happy, Happy Spring!
I'm hoping you are all seeing longer and brighter days, and enjoying more of an opportunity to be outdoors! Hopefully, we are turning the corner as a nation, and many more people in your families and communities are becoming vaccinated. Although COVID-19 and its variants continue to pose risks, and people continue to become ill, the decline in numbers is promising. There are signs of hope, such as the CDC relaxation of travel restrictions, that we will have brighter days ahead, and hopefully an opportunity to meet in person at our 31st National Conference in San Antonio in September! More conference information to come in the coming months, but please be sure you get the conference dates (Sept.29-Oct. 2) on your calendars!
But let's not wait until the conference to connect! Starting now, if you have any professional or personal activities and accomplishments you would like to share in our "Member News" section of E-News, please write to ASPMN@Kellencompany.org, and Tara Nichols, a member of the Board of Directors, will compile your submissions. We missed the opportunity to connect in-person last year, and many of you are doing amazing things that will inspire others, so please don't be shy!
I have some updates to share with you about our organization's activities:
First update, I've aged! No, that change in my photo is not a result of a long and cold NY winter. In fact, the years have gone by! However, ASPMN® is aging along with me, and maturing into a very well-rounded and respected professional organization! On a monthly basis I will add a section in the E-News to spotlight one of our wonderful committees and the work they are doing. Please see the "Spotlight on the Research Committee" section to read the summary submitted by Chairperson, Jinbing(Bing) Bai, PhD, MSN.
As evidence of ASPMN®'s growth in respect and recognition, we were invited to send three representatives to the National Institute of Nursing Roundtable in March. I am grateful for the willingness of Dr. Jinbing (Bing) Bai, Dr. April Vallerand, and Dr. Staja (Star) Booker to represent us. Star compiled the following summary to share with you:
This year's NINR Roundtable on "Using Clinical Big Data to Explore Health Inequities and Social Determinants of Health" offered many thought-provoking concepts and innovative strategies to mitigate health inequities through sensitive use of clinical big data. Big data in nursing generally refers to large, complex data sets that are related to care, health and behaviors, including big data from healthcare systems, epidemiological studies, and integrated data repositories. Over the course of two-days, attendees were presented with interdisciplinary approaches for infusing social informatics into clinical EHRs. For example, integrating patient narratives and social determinants of health into the admission history intake may help facilitate social risk screenings. As a health disparities researcher, I have begun, as of late, to ponder how the responsible collection, mining, and use of whole-person clinical pain data will inform precision symptom science and clinical interventions.
So much is happening within our committees and taskforces. Spring brings new energy, and new opportunities. We have had a wonderful response to our call for volunteer members to participate in the "Diversity and Bias" Taskforce. As an update, Dr. April Vallerand will be reaching out to volunteers in the next few weeks.
The third session of the EXPLORING PEARLS FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT took place this week. This virtual journal review club provides opportunities for lively discussion among participants as well as CE credit. Thanks to all involved in offering these sessions, as well as the participants! Stay tuned for announcements about future sessions!
Later this month, I will be attending the Nurse in Washington Internship. Although the program is virtual this year, I am looking forward to learning more from health policy experts, meeting members of the Legislature to express concerns about nursing and pain policy, and networking with other nursing leaders across the country. I'll update you about the meeting next month.
As many of the 2020 National Conference sessions were recorded, this year, we are in a unique position to be able to provide, at a nominal cost, some of the individual conference sessions (along with CE credit) to chapters or other groups that may be interested in using them for their meetings. If interested, please contact ASPMN@kellencompany.com.
Until then, enjoy the signs of rebirth and hope you see all around! Feel free to reach out to me, or any member of the Board, if you have any questions or concerns. Your engagement and feedback are essential to help ASPMN® continue to grow and inspire other nurses to join us in our efforts to forward our mission! Thank you for all you do!
Maureen
