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Mission Statement

The Canadian Association of Neuroscience Nurses (C.A.N.N.) sets standards of practice and promotes continuing professional education and research. Members collaborate with individuals, families, interdisciplinary teams and communities to prevent illness and to improve health outcomes for people with, or at risk for, neurological disorders.

Énoncé de mission

L’Association canadienne des infirmiers et infirmières en sciences neurologiques (ACIISN) établit les standards de pratique de la profession et fait la promotion de l’éducation permanente et de la recherche. Les membres collaborent avec les individus, les familles, les équipes multidisciplinaires et la communauté en général dans le but de prévenir les maladies neurologiques et d’améliorer la santé des gens qui en sont atteints ou qui sont à risque d’en souffrir.

 

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CANN Presidential Address

Presidential Address 41st Annual Meeting CANN, June 9, 2010

Bonjour and welcome to Quebec City and the 41st Annual meeting and scientific sessions of the Canadian Association of Neuroscience Nurses (CANN) “Communicating and Networking Nationally”.

First and foremost on behalf of the board of directors of CANN I would like you to please join me in acknowledging the hard work of Program Chair Jodi Dusik-Sharpe and Scientific Chair Janice Nesbitt and their committees in putting together an exciting meeting in this beautiful city. This has been a huge accomplishment for the Manitoba chapter of CANN to plan this meeting from afar with their small but mighty group. There are over 187 neuroscience health care professionals registered for this meeting and we have a total of 40 abstract submissions and 12 poster presentations planned over the next couple of days. The planning committee has tried to include French content in our scientific sessions this week and have a total of 4 abstracts being presented in French.

This year’s theme to the meeting is “Communicating and Networking Nationally”. What does this mean? Well according to Wikipedia “Communicating is a process of transferring information from one entity to another.” It is also defined as “the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing or signs.” Webster’s dictionary defines networking as “an exchange of information or services among individuals, groups or institutions” and is also defined as “the developing of contacts or exchanging of information with others in an informal network.” We communicate and network on daily basis with our colleagues, family, friends and strangers to exchange information and ideas. What a more fitting theme as we have gathered from across the country here this week.

With the Canadian Association of Neuroscience Nurses we are able to communicate to our membership through emails from your local councillors, the CJNN, our annual meeting and scientific sessions and through our website. Your board of directors looks forward to hearing from the membership that we represent. CANN’s website which was created in 1998 continues to evolve and in the future will have a members only section where members will be able to consult the journal, standards of practice, online learning portals and other related subjects. We need to thank Sharron Runions, Communication Chair and Pappin who maintains our website for all of their hard work on the improvements being made to the website

Our membership numbers continue to be a concern to the board of directors. Currently we have a membership of 240 which is down from last year at this time. Receiving membership renewals in a timely fashion by April 30 continues to be a problem and we seem to have a number of renewals into June/July of each year. We are very fortunate to have CANN and to be able to network with our fellow neuroscience colleagues across the country and have a huge wealth of knowledge in the neuroscience field in our membership. I encourage each of you to engage new neuro nurses as well as previous members to become members of CANN.

This year the Neuroscience Nursing Foundation offered five $1000 travel grants for neuroscience nurses to attend the annual CANN meeting in 2010. The NNF’s mission is to “advance the science and practice of neuroscience nursing by identifying and promoting research and evidence-based practices that optimize patient-centered outcomes for people with neurological conditions.” The NNF is also sponsoring this year the first NNF Special Lecture on “Self Management: From the lens of Complexity” with Dr. Jan Buelow. Please remember to stop by the NNF’s booth during the week to support them with a small donation and put your star on the map.

CANN has also added our first ever Certification Review Workshop on the Tuesday afternoon. This is a new endeavor to support neuroscience nurses who wish to pursue their certification. This session was planned by our Professional Practice Chair Deb Holtom and was attended by 25 neuroscience nurses. Your board of directors will review the results of the evaluations of this workshop and will look at expanding it in the future if the endeavor is successful.

The CNA Certification Exam in Neurosciences will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2011. How many neuroscience nurses here today wrote the very first certification exam in 1991? How many of neuroscience nurses here today have their certification in neuroscience nursing? As of December 31, 2009 there were 269 certified in neuroscience nursing and in April 2010 we had 45 neuroscience nurses write the certification exam. Based on our membership stats as of December 2009 of 339 members and 269 certified neuroscience nurses that is almost 80% of our membership that has their certification in neuroscience nursing. I think we should be very proud of this accomplishment!!

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to represent CANN as your president over the last year. It has been a tremendous learning opportunity and I encourage each of you to become involved on the board of directors for the professional development and networking.

Enjoy your stay here in Quebec City and I hope all of you return home enthused and rejuvenated and full of fresh new ideas.

Respectfully submitted,
Karen Waterhouse, President of CANN

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