Volume 5, Issue 2
In This Issue: Letter from the President | Board Matters | Capturing the Spirit of Community for Hospice | Serving Through the Fire: Southwestern College Responds to the 2007 San Diego Wild Fires | Making the Most of Your Membership
Learn more about service in this issue of Create the Future.
Letter from the President
Dear honor society members,
The theme for this issue of Create the Future is the importance of service. Anne Frank is credited with saying, “how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Similarly, Herman Melville said, “we cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” Providing service is often a part of what gives life meaning.
The vision of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, is to create a global community of nurses who lead in using knowledge, scholarship, service and learning to improve the health of the world’s people. The vision reflects the importance of providing service to others. What that service is, how it is provided and where service is provided, however, varies significantly between members and chapters.
One of the goals identified in the 2007 presidential call, Leading Globally, is to engage members and chapters more openly in service projects that further the honor society’s vision. What should those service projects be? How can we best utilize the intellectual and social capital of our membership to make a difference in the health of the world’s people? These are important questions that will be explored by the 2007 Service Advisory Council, under Dr. Karen Carlson’s leadership.
The council will identify biennial service goals that can be adopted by all chapters. This will better link the service that is being provided by members and chapters to the honor society and emphasize service as a key part of who we are. The council will also explore strategies for providing support, human and fiscal resources, to members and chapters engaged in service projects and make recommendations regarding the development of service incentives at the chapter, regional, national and international levels. Finally, both the council and the International Service Learning Task Force, under Tamara McKinnon’s leadership, will explore potential partnerships for national and international service learning opportunities.
I strongly encourage all of you to be actively involved in providing service, whether it be to others or to this organization. Generational researchers suggest the youngest members in professional associations often seek out service as their primary means of staying connected. In recent honor society focus groups, young members told the honor society they will continue to be involved in this organization only if we provide opportunities for them to be engaged in meaningful, purposeful service. Certainly, the desire to provide service is a part of what brought many of us to nursing in the first place. Providing opportunities for significant service engagement is key for membership involvement. Some suggestions for service opportunities that are appropriate for individual members or chapters can be found online.
In addition, a variety of meaningful service opportunities exist for members within the honor society. Whether your interest is in writing, curriculum development, leadership, clinical expertise, strategic planning, mentoring, speaking or fund raising, volunteer positions are always open within the honor society. Fill out the Volunteer Interest Profile, if you have not already. In addition, the Web site identifies specific volunteer opportunities available. Let me know how you want to help; as always, please e-mail me any questions or thoughts you might have.
Carol J. Huston
Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International
2007-2009 President
Board Matters
Board Matters was created as a means to keep members and chapters up-to-date on activities occurring at the international level. This column will be a regularly updated on the honor society Web site during the 2007-09 biennium. It will include significant actions taken by the board of directors, as well as updates from the work groups assembled to accomplish the honor society’s strategic goals and Presidential Call to Action.
Click here to read the column.
Feature Articles
Capturing the Spirit of Community for Hospice
by Denise L. Hawthorne and Nancy J. Yurkovich
Before 1992, these Canadian nurses didn’t think of themselves as activists. When they began advocating on behalf of hospice, however, in Richmond, British Columbia — population 182,000 — they discovered that, through collaboration, they could make a difference in their community. Read more.
Serving Through the Fire: Southwestern College Responds to the 2007 San Diego Wild Fires
by Cathy McJannet RN, MN, CEN, CHTP/I, Zeta Mu Chapter
Honor society member Cathy McJanet reflects on her service during the 2007 San Diego wild fires.
The 22nd of October began as a hot and dry morning, with the Santa Ana winds blowing in the distance. After listening to the morning news, it became increasingly clear that the fires raging in the outskirts of San Diego were going to impact my day as Interim Director of Nursing Programs at Southwestern College in San Diego, Calif., USA. I had lived through the devastating fires of 2003 and recognized the warning signs of what was to come. Although the hour was early and the fires less than 12 hours old, the air was already thick with ash and the winds were increasing in strength. I cancelled the classes for the nursing students, knowing that their priorities would be elsewhere. By noon, college administrators made the decision to cancel all classes, and I left the Otay Mesa Campus of Southwestern College with the fire chasing at my heels.
Within thirty minutes, I received a request from a local facility to assemble nursing students to assist with patients being evacuated from the fire’s path. Dr. Susan Stone, the chief nursing officer of Sharp Coronado Hospital, called me to see if nursing students could help care for the evacuated patients. Sharp Healthcare was in disaster mode, and all hospitals in their system were pooling resources. A closed nursing unit was being opened to receive the incoming patients, and there was a limited number of nurses available to care for these patients. Stone needed students to help Sharp Cabrillo Hospital.
I wanted to help, but I did not know how to contact my students. The students’ contact information was at the school, and the phone lines were either busy or not working due to the increased demand. I went to the college’s online communication program and sent out e-mail notices to all students. Within two hours, eight students had volunteered. Sandra Peppard, member of Gamma Gamma Chapter and adjunct faculty at Southwestern College, and I met the students at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital to assist them in their duties.
While the wild fires raged for four days, 50 students volunteered for over 300 hours by caring for the evacuated patients. Two faculty members and I worked with the students. There was a blend of first and second year students, as well as vocational nursing students who each worked five to six hour shifts. I assigned a second year student as team leader, with a blend of first year and vocational nursing students on each team. To stay in touch with the students, I posted announcements and sent out e-mails two to three times a day.
I was more than proud of my students and the faculty who responded to the community’s need. Many faculty and students, including those who volunteered, had been forced to evacuate their own homes, yet they still responded to the call for help.
From this experience, Southwestern College learned the importance alternative forms of communication. We also learned the strength of our ties to the local community. Today, the spirit of giving remains strong within our school of nursing.
Other San Diego nurses lent a helping hand!
Other San Diego nursing programs were involved in the volunteer effort. San Diego City College supplied mattresses to evacuees. Students and faculty from San Diego State University, California State University at San Marcos, Point Loma Nazarene University, Azusa Pacific University, Grossmont Community College, Palomar Community College and Mira Costa Community College volunteered at shelters throughout the county. The community hospital command centers were set up and ready to receive relocated patients from care centers forced to evacuate during the firestorm.
-- Cathy McJannet is the Interim Director of Nursing Programs and Allied Health at Southwestern College in San Diego, Calif., USA. She is a staff nurse in the ED at Sharp Coronado Hospital and lists bedside nursing as her passion. She is highly recognized as a nurse educator specializing in emergency nursing and has been honored as ENA’S Certified Emergency Nurse of the Year. She has been a member of San Diego Zeta Mu chapter since 1995.
If you would like to offer your thoughts and experiences for inclusion in this newsletter, please contact marketing@stti.iupui.edu.