NLN.ON eNewsletter – Spring 2010

So, here we are…that time of year again to pass the proverbial ‘baton” to the new president of NLN.ON.  As outgoing president, it is also my opportunity to reflect on this past year’s hard work and achievements of the Board of NLN.ON.  First of all, I would like to acknowledge each and every member of the Board and Conference Planning Committee for bringing such energy, enthusiasm, dedication and insight to each of our meetings!  If it were not for all of you, we would not have accomplished all the tasks at hand!  What an absolutely awesome team to work with and a true privilege for me!

Let me provide you all with a brief account of this past year’s activities.  As you are aware, this year’s annual conference “Leading with Confidence and Creativity” marked our 31st year as an organization.  The conference was a tremendous success and attendance this year was well into 350 participants from across the province.  

As per usual, on the 2nd morning of the conference, the NLN.ON held its Annual General Meeting (AGM).  The AGM is an excellent opportunity to share and review the work of the Board.  Highlights of our accomplishments in successfully achieving our strategic intentions over the past year are as follows:

This year the Conference Planning Committee developed Terms of Reference.  While this may not seem unusual for a committee to have in place, it did allow the planning committee to further enhance/understand membership and the scope of their work.   The conference planning committee, once again this year provided its members with fantastic conference!  The venue provided information about progress in the practice, education and research in nursing leadership.  The Conference Planning Committee is to be commended for continuing the tradition of bringing high-quality presenters with topics that represented the various sectors of nursing care and leadership across Ontario.  Of course, we heard from many of you that the presenters were excellent including Dr. Tim Porter-O’Grady who opened our conference and Gail Donner our closing keynote.

The Board actively engaged and worked with other stakeholders to develop an action plan to promote & sustain nursing leadership.  As a result a number of initiatives were achieved including partnership with RNAO’s ehealth Director to develop, promote and participate in providing an eHealth Initiative for Senior Nurse Leaders.  Our Member at Large was also actively involved in representing NLN.ON at various RNAO Board activities.  This year, one of our NLN.ON Board members also participated in an RNAO lead Education Initiative.  The Board unanimously agreed to sponsoring 20 new grads at our annual conference and felt strongly about creating a new position at the Board level promoting student leadership.

The director of Education and Research (Kim Alvarado) also had a busy year.  Under her leadership, there is now a formalized a process in place for T4A to be issued for award recipients.  Ongoing work with our webmaster helped to provide information about our awards and an opportunity to enhance our application process through an on line approach.  Ongoing work will include the timing of submissions (i.e. most appropriate month) and annual review of award amounts.   The Board this year approved the recommendation increasing a number of awards:  Part-time Education Award/Grant was increased from $500 to $1000 and the Full-time Education Award/Grant was increased from $1000 to $1500.  We were very pleased to report at the AGM that a total of 28 applications were received for awards and bursaries.  The following are this year’s recipients: David Keselman, Lesma Bartley, Barbara Chyzzy, Philiz Goh, Donna Rawlin, and Barbara Jones.  Congratulations again to you all!

One of the Board’s strategic intentions this year was to review and revise Board membership.  As a result, the Board structure and Board processes were reviewed.  It was felt that a diverse perspective of nursing leadership was needed in order to be representative of our members.  As a result, a Communications Task Force was established and a Membership Working Group was under development.  As well, for the first time in NLN.ON’s history, a student nurse from the Nursing Student Association of Ontario was incorporated into the Board Membership as an ‘ex officio’ member.

The Membership Secretary (Vicki Lucas) had undertaken some preliminary work around sustaining and recruiting new NLN.ON members.  The Board established a “Membership Secretary” position and nursing master’s student provided the Board with a preliminary review of current membership.  This allowed the Board to gain awareness of membership demographics, recommendations for outreach strategies, and the creation of a Membership Task Force.  Our immediate future work includes:  enhancing data and collection of data in collaboration with Communication Committee and RNAO, advertising on nursing school web pages (promoting bursaries; and leadership opportunities), link our NLN.ON membership page on nursing school sites throughout Ontario and formally putting out a call and establishing NLN.ON’s Membership Task Force to further develop and work on strategic membership priorities.

Ken Allan, our past Communications Officer (and now President elect), was also quite busy this year.  Under Ken’s leadership, a Communications Working Group was formed.  This group was able to provide the Board with membership priorities and strategies based on a membership survey that was created and evaluated by this group. Through this survey, the working group was also able to identify key content for communication and develop recommendations to strengthen membership engagement while being able to provide a forum for profiling nursing leaders, nursing leadership initiatives and nursing leadership research.  Highlights of the recommendation include maintaining an electronic newsletter on a quarterly basis, (pushed out to members), creation of NLN Facebook Site / Twitter, officially launched in March 2010, (visit us on ww.nln.on.ca/facebook and follow us on  www.nln.on.ca/twitter), an ability to podcast audio and video material (under development), exploring the use of webcasting for regional events, and lastly, conduct a second survey to evaluate changes.  The above recommendations provide a terrific roadmap to guide our work in the upcoming year!

The NLN.ON annual conference and AGM also mark the time when Board members whose terms are up leave us. Julia Scott leaves us after serving as Member at Large.  Her contributions to the Board and representation at RNAO were invaluable.  “Thank you” Julia for your dedication, your ongoing commitment to nursing leadership and to the Board.  You will be missed!  Lynda Bobinski, Past President, also leaves the Board this year after being a Board member (in several positions) for the past 6 years.  Lynda’s passion and commitment to nursing and nursing leadership has shaped the Board’s overall strategic intentions and goals over her term.  Wishing Linda continued success as she takes on the role of Conference Chair for 2011  while also enjoying some of the finer things that life has to offer (such as retirement and mastering the skills of being a new grandmother).

I would like to formally welcome Sue Roger to the role of President of NLN.ON. The 2010-2011 year I’m sure, will be an equally busy but stimulating year for the Board.  I wish Sue every success as she steps into this role and look forward to her leadership as we take on new opportunities in promoting and advancing nursing leadership.  

In closing, stepping into the Past President’s role gives me the ability to look back and reflect on the past few years that I have been privileged to serve on the Board.  I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the support and commitment of the NLN.ON Board in making this past year a remarkable experience. It has truly been an honour to serve as President with such an exceptional group of nursing leaders!

Kindest regards,

Liz Nemeth,
Past President NLN.ON

Linda MacLeod, RN, BScN, MHA
Member-at-Large, Nursing Administration

My career in acute care has spanned more than 25 years in three provinces: British Columbia (6 years), Ontario (the majority of time) and Nova Scotia (5 years). I have recently moved from a Vice President Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer to Program Developer for residential Hospice in Grey Bruce. I obtained my BScN and MHA during my career.
My clinical experience was 15 years in critical care staff nursing (CCU, ICU, Mixed and Open Heart). During those years I was active in my professional associations. It was important to me to make sure the voice of the clinical nurse was represented in hospital committees and any professional forum.

I have been a Charge Nurse, Nurse Manager, Care Map Coordinator, Director of Nursing, and Director/VP of Patient Care in hospitals ranging from 25 beds to 200 beds, including two sites (concurrently) in a multi-site organization. I have experienced the pain of more than one hospital “restructuring” as well as “regionalization” in two provinces. Since the formation of the LHINs, I have been involved in several working groups. I am now in a community-based position which gives me exposure to another perspective on nursing and health care.
As a nurse, I am concerned about the looming shortage of nurses combined with the suggestion that fewer nurses and more health-care workers are safe for patients. I know we need to develop new staffing and care models. I want to devote significant energy to RNAO because I believe our professional organization must actively support nurses in this “zero balance” environment as patient acuity and workload continue to grow.

Mary Loraine Perrier, RN, HBScN, CPN
Representative for Regions 11 & 12

My career in Nursing started in October 1978 in Thunder Bay, ON. My first job was working in Post partum, Gynecology, Labour and Delivery. Through out those 12 ½ years I specialized in Labour and Delivery.

In 1990 I transferred to the Operating Room. I worked as a peri-operative nurse. Within 5 years I had advanced to a Charge Nurse – Perioperative Patient Facilitator and finally to a Perioperative Coordinator. During my years in this position I became very active with our Hospital move from 2 old buildings to a new Facility now known as Thunder Bay Regional Hospital Health Sciences Centre.

In 2006, I decided to take a larger jump and moved 13 hours from my family to North Bay, ON. I was hired as a Program Manager of the Operating Room and Post Anesthetic Care Unit at the North Bay General Hospital. Most recently, I have acquired the department of Day Surgery.

At present, I am the Lead in my areas for transition to a new Health Care facility.  As Program Manager I will continue in improving all our processes to increase efficiency, effectiveness and safety for all our patients and team members.

InfoFinders – Workplace Wellness

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NLN.ON Membership

As an Interest Group of the RNAO, all our full standing members must be members of our professional association. Our fee for 2009/10 is $55.00. This fee will be payable to the RNAO when you join our Interest Group.

To join the NLN.ON please contact RNAO in Toronto at (416) 599-1925 or Toll Free 1-800-268-7199 and ask for their Membership Services Department. Please indicate that you wish to join The Nursing Leadership Network of Ontario Interest Group.