Springtime: A time to nourish organizational roots

Abstract

It's the time of the year where we witness the thawing of winter and the beauty of the first flowers of spring. Although the roots of the plant may have been in the earth for years or decades, the flower pre-sents a new path or a new creation and it is as if we are seeing the plant for the first time. Springtime brings to us a surge of creative energy and new hopes to build on past knowledge and experience. The roots of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners go back for three decades and grow from the core organizational values of advocating for children and families, commitment to members, passion for practice, and leadership for all Nurse Practitioners caring for children. These core values remain strong in our strategic plan and continue to guide the executive board and chapter officers as we plan for future opportunities to strengthen the role of the nurse practitioner and address the health care needs of children and families. One such opportunity lies in planning how to best support the changing demographics of the NAPNAP membership. Over the last decade, NAPNAP's membership has become increasingly clinically diverse, with a trend toward members shifting their clinical practice from primary care to acute and specialty care settings. We have responded to this change in membership by actively pursing a greater integration of the acute and specialty care perspectives on national committees and in the Journal of Pediatric Health Care, providing an acute care track in the upcoming national conference, and publishing a position statement on the acute care pediatric nurse practitioner. Meeting the evolving needs of members requires periodically taking on a fresh perspective and knowing when to make substantial changes. In planning for the upcoming conference in Phoenix, the NAPNAP Executive Board and conference planning team has developed an innovative and expanded educational program. We have strengthened the research component of our conference, with specific offerings on evidence-based practice, a session highlighting the newest clinical research results, and a one-on-one research consultation session to discuss your own clinical research and receive ideas and feedback about your research project to include identifying potential research funding sources. In addition, the theme of NAPNAP's 26th annual conference “Grand Challenges in Child Health and Fitness” complements NAPNAP's national Healthy Eating and Activity Together (HEAT©) initiative, with a designated track focused on nutrition and fitness. Also in the plans will be the unveiling of the newly designed NAPNAP Web site in the conference exhibit hall. The new Web site is a work in progress, and we look forward to our members' ideas about how we can improve and expand our Web site content, usability, and access. This spring, as we capture the energy from the return of warm, sunny days, we continue to advocate for and collaborate with other NP associations to achieve improvements in our professional practice environment, including reimbursement parity, licensure, certification, and credentialing issues. Access to care for all patients remains at the forefront of our health policy efforts. We are also tackling new challenges such as the emergence of the practice doctorate and clinical nurse leader roles and the integration of new technologies into research and clinical practice. In addition to these domestic issues, NAPNAP members continue to selflessly serve overseas providing humanitarian relief to the people and nations affected by the tsunami and the war in Iraq. So it is as it should be that this spring we have a renewed enthusiasm for the challenges, opportunities, and privileges of our profession. “Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path. If you feel you should not follow it, then you must not stay with it under any condition. Your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question: Does this path have heart?”—Carlos Castaneda