As we go day by day through life, we deal with many changes. Could you imagine if our lives were the same each day? As my children were growing up, there were many times that they needed help with their homework. One day, when my daughter was in grade school, she was working on her math homework and appeared to be struggling. So, I went help her. As I worked to show her how to solve the problem, she proceeded to tell me that I was doing it wrong. The way she was being taught was much different than how I was taught. We sat and read through the chapter to figure out how to solve the problem.
Each day, we are faced with changes whether we are at home, work, church, or even the grocery store. Is change something that is easy to accept? As a nurse, could you imagine going to work every day and not having the intravenous pump that you program to infuse your fluids or medications? What if instead you need to calculate and then count the number of drops per minute you had to administer the fluids to ensure the patient was receiving the right amount of intravenous hydration ordered by the physician?
As you rush out of your door each day, how would you function if you left your phone at home? Each of you would have a different answer for this question. Some people would be able to function just fine, whereas for others, that phone is their lifeline and their day would be ruined until they were able to get their hands back on their phone. As I think back to when I was growing up, we did not have cell phones. If we wanted to talk to our friends, we would either have to call them using the phone that was connected to the wall in the main room of our house or we put on our shoes and walked to that person's house to have a conversation.
As I look back through the APSNA history (https://www.apsna.org/page/History90s), the organization has gone through many changes. The first meeting to discuss starting an organization was in 1991 and was held over breakfast. The first annual meeting was in 1993. At that time, 44 nurses were present and their membership that year was 107. They held a 1-day educational session with a business meeting the following day. If you have not yet had the opportunity to read the history, I encourage you to spend some time on that page. There has been a lot of effort to provide this history to the membership, and it is fascinating. As the Board of Directors change each year, the mission and vision guide them in what projects to undertake. As President, one of my initiatives is to partner with the membership to increase involvement in APSNA, to give you the voice, and to be part of the change process. Serving on the board is very rewarding, and we are always in search of members to run for an open position. For the upcoming elections, we are looking for the following positions to be filled: Director of Education, Secretary, Director of Practice and Quality, Director of Program, and President Elect. If you are interested, please reach out to a member of the nominations committee. As APSNA continues to grow, changes are going to be made. Change is difficult! Everyone may not agree with the changes that are made, but are you going to dig your heels into the ground or will you embrace the changes? Be a changemaker, and become involved in APSNA. As George Bernard Shaw said, "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."