AASCIN News
Diane Hartwig, MS, ACNP, BC
Treasurer’s Report
On behalf of the AASCIN board of directors, I would like to thank those of you who contributed to AASCIN along with your membership renewal this year. As you know, AASCIN offers many wonderful opportunities for members to learn and grow professionally. Because of member contributions we can continue to provide high caliber speakers at our Annual Conference.
We are continuing our efforts to raise funds for our many activities and welcome your ideas and assistance. At our last annual conference, the silent auction was a lot of fun and a huge success. We plan to continue that project and look forward to donations for the purchase of auction items. Do you know a vendor who would be willing to make a donation? Do you have a creative idea for fundraising? Please share your ideas with us.
Submitted by Colleen Counsell, MSN, RN, Treasurer
Program Committee
The Program Committee met in February to set up the 2006 Conference Program. We had the awesome opportunity to review 140 online abstracts submitted and we selected 43 papers and 40 posters. Additionally, we will be showing the film Murderball in its entirety at the conference. There will be book draws on Tuesday and Thursday and, of course, there will be another “silent auction.” Please mark your calendars to attend the conference, which will be our last time in Las Vegas. The 2007 conference will be held in Orlando, Florida. We look forward to seeing you there!
Submitted by: Linda Marler, BSN, RN, Program Committee Chair
Research Committee
The Research Committee has revised the Research Committee Section of the Policy and Procedures Manual to reflect the changes in grant and model project funding. Unfortunately, funding is not available at this time. Members are working on a survey of previous recipients of AASCIN-funded research grants and model projects to determine what outcomes, such as presentations and publications, have been achieved. The committee will continue writing the Research Column in the electronic version of SCI Nursing and the committee is exploring ways to enhance research among the members, such as posting information on the AASCIN Web site for potential funding sources, highlighting current research, polling current nurses to notify us if they are involved in SCI research, and identifying gaps in SCI research. Please notify Kathryn Hayes, chair, at khayes@holyfamily.edu if you have ideas for the Research Committee.
Submitted by: Kathryn Hayes, DNSc, RN, Research Committee Chair
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee is working hard to recruit new members and oversee the awards program. The committee is asking current AASCIN members to take up the challenge of recruiting new members. Members are a great source for recruiting since you are aware of the benefits of belonging to such an organization. Remind your colleagues of benefits such as: no fee for the annual conference, assistance with transportation and lodging at the annual conference, a quarterly journal, a quarterly newsletter, educational resources for members and their patients, and fantastic networking opportunities!
The committee also urges you to recognize your peers by nominating them for one of the three awards given each year: The Staff Nurse Award for Excellence, The Expanded Role Award for Excellence in SCI Nursing, and The James Peters Award for Distinguished Service. Nominating your peers, who give so much to SCI nursing and to our patients each day, is an excellent way to express your support and appreciation of their efforts.
Submitted by Patricia Tuccitto, RN, CRRN, Membership Committee Chair
Aging Issues Committee
The Aging Issues committee is the newest AASCIN committee and was officially created at the September, 2005 Conference Board Meeting. The committee started out as a need to have more information presented at the annual conference on aging with SCI. About 10 years ago, it became more and more apparent that, with better medicine, the aging population with SCI was seeing the same issues as the general population, but were affected differently because of SCI. Through the years, the board of directors asked the Program Committee to look for speakers focusing on aging issues. A task force was formed when several board members were able to obtain a grant from the American Nurses Association to help fund and support aging issues activities in specialty organizations like AASCIN. The ANA-SNAP grant has provided funding to support the newest award, The SCI Nurse Competency in Aging. Brian Monahan was the first recipient of the award at the September, 2005 conference. The Aging Issues committee supports the activities of the SNAP grant as well assisting other committees to develop and find speakers on aging issues. The committee will be working with the New York office to develop the Web page for AASCIN and will continue to work with the other committees to support aging issues initiatives. Each year, two or three members will rotate off the committee and if you are interested in joining us, please submit a committee interest sheet and your resume to the New York office.
Submitted by Cathleen M. King, BS, MHA, RN, CRRN , Aging Issues Committee Chair
Diane Hartwig, MS, ACNP, BC, is with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. AASCIN News items should be sent to her at dhartwig@ric.org.