MAKE FAMILY NURSING VISIBLE WORLDWIDE
I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve you as President of the International Family Nursing Association (2019 – 2021). I have such wonderful memories of connecting with many of you at the recent 14th International Family Nursing Conference (IFNC14) in Washington, DC. It feels so good to connect person-to-person at our conferences and affirm relationships developed in our virtual online environment as we make family nursing and family health stronger worldwide. Thank you to my IFNC14 Conference Co-Chair June Horowitz and to the Conference Planning Committee who dedicated their hearts and time to create an engaging conference. We learned well what family nurses can do to enhance family health through intentional consideration of social determinants.
I am thankful to Jane Lassetter Past President (2017 – 2019) for mentoring me during my last two years as Past President (2017 – 2019) during which I learned a great deal about who we are as IFNA. We are diverse, we “call in” from across many time zones, we have many talents and passions among us, we represent countries with varied health care systems, and our ranks of new members are growing in developing countries and among graduate students. It is indeed an exciting time of growth in membership and connections. Your IFNA Board of Directors is working diligently to lead a strategic planning process (2019 -2022) addressing our mission “to transform family health” with a “compassionate family focus, social justice, human dignity, and respect for all”. The Board is intentionally focusing on building IFNA’s financial sustainability to enact our strategic goals.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I give thanks to you, as a member of IFNA every day. You are the heart and soul of IFNA and you are changing practice, education, research, and policy to make family lives better within the health experience worldwide. Thank you for your dedication, your kind words, your supportive ways, your creativity, and for sharing your professional gifts on behalf of families.
As we go forward, I welcome you to consider several themes and questions for the future of family nursing to MAKE FAMILY NURSING VISIBLE WORLDWIDE.
F = Family- and person-focused health, simultaneously. Can we, as family nurses, concurrently advance family caregiver health within the family health experience while simultaneously considering family health and individual health? How can we focus on the influences of mental health, immigration, violence, health information systems, climate change, and other emerging issues in new ways that support family health?
U = United in interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaborations. Can we realize a world where family nurses lead and join interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams to incorporate the talents of many to address family health challenges? How can we work more effectively and visibly as family nurses on interprofessional teams?
T = Technology, and its influence on family health and family nursing daily. Can we use technology to strengthen our family-nurse therapeutic relationships and intrafamily relationships? What will that look like? How can family nurses lead technology initiatives?
U = Universal health care access for all. Universal health care for all is the challenge set forth by the International Council of Nurses and the World Health Organization. How can IFNA advance the image of nurses and nursing worldwide so that every family has access to a nurse in every country?
R = Research-based family nursing is needed in health care environments focused on precision- and individualized-health care. Can we make certain that families and family influences are a natural part of conversations about precision-health care? What is precision family care based on evidence? How can you be part of the precision health movement of family science?
E = Environmentally-concerned family nursing is nursing that fundamentally considers the impact of climate change on family health. Natural disasters, political unrest, wars, and other sources of violence lead to involuntary migration and place many families at considerable risk daily. What can we do as family nurses within our countries to address climate health issues for families? How can we soften the suffering of migrating families?
We have had many successes together as IFNA members and we must celebrate them! The work of IFNA is built upon the legacies of many amazing leaders in family nursing. I believe that we have an obligation to continue this legacy work through growing our membership reach, growing our influence, growing our scholarship, and growing our leadership in family health and family nursing. I welcome you to join me in this adventure to MAKE FAMILY NURSING VISIBLE WORLDWIDE! Blessings to you in your daily work as family nurses!
Kind regards,
Sonja Meiers, PhD, RN
Winona State University, USA
