• HOME
• STATE COUNCIL
• BYLAWS
• ANNUAL REPORT
• FORMS
• JOAN HARTLEY SCHOLARSHIP
• LINKS
• ENCARE
• CALENDAR
• POWER OF ONE
• NEWSLETTER
• PHOTO GALLERY

Vermont ENA – President’s Report
November 2009

Here are some 2009 Vermont ENA highlights:

• Our membership has steadily crept up over the past year. Our membership has fluctuated in the mid 160’s for most of last year, but we did hit our goal of 170 last November. Our official membership at the time of General Assembly was announced as 179. I am pleased to report that our latest count is 189… an all time high!!!

• We were allotted 5 delegates to the ENA General Assembly in Baltimore. June Stacey, Matt Choate, Maureen Heyder, Arlene Law and Deb Bach were selected to represent Vermont. The General Assembly took place over 2 days. A Bylaw Proposal to cap the delegate count at 700 and adopt the formula for state allocation based on percentage of total ENA members was adopted. Other Bylaw amendments pertaining to Nominations Committee representation and Officer Term Limits were addressed. Resolutions pertaining to pediatric pain management and Alternate Waiting Areas were also passed. National Membership continues to grow and we are over 37,000. The goal is to reach 40,000 members by ENA’s 40th anniversary in 2010. ENA continues to be a strong voice for Injury Prevention, Highway Safety and Violence in the Workplace.

• Our Bylaws and Strategic Plan were reviewed with no substantial changes. Both of these documents are posted on the Vermont ENA website @ vermontena.org

• Elections were held at the state and national level this year. National holds elections annually where Vermont has 2 year terms of office. The voter participation at the national level was less than ten percent which is concerning. Vermont had the second highest voter percentage in the national election at 16%. Voter participation in the state elections was better at 30% with the election of the following :

• The Vermont ENA website has information about council, our courses, meetings, calendar, scholarship and links to other related websites. In anticipation of NERS we are trialing online registration with pay pal. Check us out at vermontena.org

• Our annual conference is being held on November 6th this year at Central Vermont Medical Center. The program has a documentation forensic focus this year.

• Injury Prevention Programs are being offered around the state and the THINK Sign Program continues to draw attention to alcohol related traffic deaths. Vermont ENCARE received Highway Safety grant monies again to help support these programs.

• Barb Wagner and her team of ENPC and TNCC instructors provide courses around the state and are willing to go to any area as long as there are a minimum of 16 registrants. TNCC now has a one day re-verification class.

• Quarterly Meetings were held on the first Thursday of February, May and August. The fourth meeting is typically held the evening before the annual education day in November. ( Nov 5th ) We added an October meeting again this year. Gifford Medical Center in Randolph has proven to be a good central location. Our typical schedule is: Nurse Managers Forum 9a-11a, Education Program 1100-1200, followed by lunch, and the Council meeting. Council meetings are open to all members.

• President Elect Matt Choate and Treasurer Joyce Guillemette attended the State Leaders Orientation Program last December. ENA plans to offer a virtual State Leaders Orientation this year which will be more cost effective and will make the meetings and information available to a wider audience.

• The Nurse Manager Forum continues to be well attended with a majority of Vermont’s hospitals represented at each meeting. This opportunity to network, share problems, solutions and ideas is a valuable resource. The feedback that we get from national is that this is a rarity as other states have not been successful in getting ED Nurse Managers involved.

• The annual Nurse Managers Dinner was held on November 5th at the Capitol Plaza. Vermont ED Managers and ENA Council members were invited for dinner and a presentation on Pain Management. It was another good opportunity to network with colleagues. We faced funding challenges this year as a result of the new Vermont law which restricts vendor sponsorship of meals.

• Vermont continues to support ENAF (ENA’s Scholarship Foundation).
• We participated in the State Challenge and contributed a dollar for every Vermont ENA member.
• Vermont ENA donated an Australian Boulder Opal necklace to this years’ Jewelry Silent Auction which sold for $155.

• The Joan Hartley Scholarship was expanded this year to include SANE’s. The Scholarship is open to ENA members and SANEs and the winner may use it to attend the ENA Scientific Assembly or the IAFN conference. Applicants submitted essays for committee review. Moriah McCullogh from FAHC was this year’s $1,000. Scholarship winner. She attended the ENA Scientific Assembly in Baltimore.

• Arlene Law joined other State Government Affairs Committee chairs at a January workshop in Washington.

• The Newsletter is now published twice a year. Articles, practice tips, pictures, or other items of interest are welcomed!

• In 2009 the Vermont SANE program took some major steps to energize SANEs and move forward after legislation enacted in 2008 changed the way the program was run and left the program with little funding or direction. A regional program for CVMC, Copley Hospital and Gifford Medical Center is being explored, a new SANE Advisory Board has been established, educational meetings and A SANE Training program were offered.

• Communication with members is a challenge. Our email list is based on the membership information from national. It is obvious that this is not current as evidenced by the number of the email “bounce backs” that we get despite our efforts to update the email list. Our new strategy is the have the VT ED Nurse Managers and Vermont Council members forward pertinent information to the staff at their hospitals. This should reach most Vermont ENA members as well as some potential new members. The Weekly Digest of news articles related Emergency Nursing and the Washington Update are examples of information sent.

• Rhode Island hosted the New England Regional Symposium this spring in Providence.
• Vermont will host the 2010 NERS in Burlington on April 28-30. Planning is under way under the direction of co - chairs Kathy Gutierrez and Joyce Guillemette. There will lots to do, lots to learn and lots of fun. There are lots of jobs, big and small so let us know if you are willing to help out.