The Best Is Yet to Come . . .

Nancy Bonalumi, CAssociation, Lancas

For correspondenceLancaster, PA 1760

J Emerg Nurs 2006

0099-1767/$32.00

Copyright n 2006

doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

December 2006 32

Nancy Bonalumi, RN, MS, CEN,

Philadelphia, Pa

apital Chapter, is Presiter, Pa.

, write: Nancy Bonalu3; E-mail: nbonalumi

;32:467-8.

by the Emergency Nu

006.09.015

:6

It is hard to believe my term as President

is coming to a close, and I carry in my heart many won-

derful memories of this year. When I gave my President-

elect address last September, I spoke about three signposts

that I would use to mark my, and ENA’s, journey in 2006.

Here is a summary of that journey.

The first marker was strengthening our membership.

As I stood at that podium in Nashville, we had 28,000

members, a record for ENA. But the best was yet to come.

At our Annual Meeting in San Antonio this year, we cele-

brated a membership milestone, reaching the 30,000 mem-

ber mark. We celebrated our success by introducing our

30,000th member, Paul Elmore, and his sponsor. We

heard from over 100 members the answer to the question

‘‘What does ENA mean to me?’’ Your responses were

moving, such as Tamra White’s description of how a JEN

article literally saved her patient’s life, and we summed it

up by saying ‘‘ENA members are simply the best.’’ The

Resource Specialist program, introduced earlier this year

to provide greater opportunity for member involvement, has

been a great success. Over 130 members have submitted

dent of the Emergency Nurses

mi, 1297 Hillside Drive,@comcast.net.

rses Association.

their names as experts, and over 50 people have been tapped

to use their expertise to further ENA’s work.

The second marker was to develop our next gener-

ation of leaders in ENA. Each of the nearly 600 delegates

who gathered during the 2006 General Assembly to de-

termine policy for the association was a leader, lending a

voice to deliberations and voting for the future of ENA.

Injury prevention, state president, and treasurer conference

calls strengthened the local leadership of ENA, where

emergency nurses work and live, where emergency nurses

are inf luential in providing education, competence, and

confidence to fellow practitioners. But the best is yet to

come. We will be adding several programs in 2007 to in-

crease our Government Relations activities for state lead-

ers, increasing our skill and our presence in advocacy at the

local, state, and federal level.

The third goal was to increase ENA’s bonds with our

fellow emergency nurses around the world. TNCC and

ENPC once again went international, expanding to Por-

tugal, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. Each

country held provider and instructor courses, leaving a

cadre of qualified instructors in each of these nations so

that they can continue to educate emergency nurses in

the highest standards of care for trauma and pediatric

patients. Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to

meet emergency nurses from Lebanon, Mexico, the United

Kingdom, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Iceland, Greece, and

Canada. What I have learned is that despite differences

in our language, our appearance, or our resources, we all

shared the same desire—to provide the very best care to

our patients and their families. But the best is yet to come.

The CEN examination will be offered on-line in Lebanon,

the first international site approved for that format.

TNCC and ENPC will continue their international reach,

JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 467

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E / B o n a l u m i

and ENA’s inf luence as a leader in emergency nursing edu-

cation will continue to grow around the world.

The best is yet to come for ENA. As I turn over the

leadership of this association to your 2007 President,

Donna Mason, I know ENA is in very capable and caring

hands. Her vision for our future excites and energizes me!

It has been an honor and my privilege to serve as your ENA

President. My journey this year has been a remarkable one,

and all along the way, I have been guided by heroes on

their journey, ordinary people called to do extraordinary

things, whose strength and character have been forged by

their experiences. I call these heroes ENA members, and

I am proud to be among you.

468 JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 32:6 December 2006