A Letter From Our President

Greetings Colleagues!

An organization is like a living organism.  It is a dynamic entity that seeks to change and grow and must adapt to its environment in order, not only to survive, but to thrive.  In the next few years, our health care system will be changing and advanced practice nursing must position itself to be at the center of these changes, if not the driving force.  So, how must INPS adapt to survive and grow, and what must we accomplish in order to thrive?  Any measure of organizational effectiveness must begin with a “gut check” of its mission and purpose.  We, as a society, undertook this task last year when we reviewed our core values and began to develop a strategic plan for the organization.  As with any plan, some goals have been achieved, others are in process.  Still others have needed to be revised.

Recently, your Executive Committee met and evaluated the progress towards our goals.  This dedicated group of individuals has one singular goal: to make a good organization great.  But how do we define greatness?  Is it the number of members we have?  How fiscally sound we are?  Is it a measure of attendance at our annual educational conference?  Maybe we define greatness by those measures.  Or perhaps these are things by which we measure progress toward greatness.  It happens many times, that, during the process of day to day operations in an organization, we tend to focus on a narrow range of inputs and outputs such as those I just mentioned.  It is at that point that we lose sight of what brought us together in the beginning.  Nurse Practitioners in Iowa needed an organization that would be an inclusive, advanced practice dedicated entity that would provide us with representation at the state and national level, connect us to each other, and allow us to drive our own profession.  Although the quantitative measures are important to the Society’s survival, the qualitative measures are those that make this a great organization.  This fall, during the educational conference, you will learn of an exciting new project to help strengthen our organization.  I would urge you all to attend the business meeting during which a presentation will be made.

There are some unique opportunities coming soon for Advanced Practice Nurses to have a far reaching impact on our health care system.  We’re currently being overrun with presidential candidates.  Use this as an opportunity to make your presence known.  Ask questions and challenge these people.  Remember that nursing in general is a profession that has huge numbers nationally and is involved with the health care system at literally every level.  No other health care professional can make that claim.  Colleagues, we can be a profoundly influential and powerful group if we can just work together.  If an opportunity for leadership arises, I urge you to pursue it.  We need members on committees, advisory boards and governing boards.  Whether it is in your community, statewide or at the national level, get involved!  We need to learn to lead, not only vertically within our own profession, but horizontally across professions.  Nursing is all about finding alternative and creative solutions to persistent problems.  It’s time we shared our skills and talents.  Get out there!  I’ll see you at the conference.

Brenda Hoskins