In the final video of her term, AACN President Beth Wathen expresses gratitude to our nursing community and invites nurses to look forward, rejuvenate their souls and begin to heal.
Hi everyone. As my year as AACN's president comes to a close, I've been doing a lot of reflecting, and I'd love to share just a few thoughts with all of you.
First, my gratitude for the incredible honor and privilege to be able to serve as your president. In many ways, I think this past year has been harder than the first year of the pandemic for nurses in general. So many of the longstanding issues, such as inappropriate staffing, unhealthy work environments, workplace violence, unfair compensation practices, all of those things have been amplified in the past year.
So we know we have work to do, but we also have work to do in healing as individuals and as a profession. And so how do we begin to heal?
You know, we just wrapped up virtual NTI a couple of weeks ago and live NTI in Houston about a month ago. And when I think about both of those events, the one word that comes to mind for me is healing.
It felt cathartic to me, the connections, the gratitude, the energy, the rejuvenation. And so I would encourage you as you look forward, as you think about your future as a nurse, as you look forward to the summer, think about what you can do, what commitment you canmake to rejuvenate your soul, to fill your cup a little bit.
For those of you who were able to attend NTI, I imagine you went home feeling a little bit like I did, and that the emotions were just so intense at being able to connect together again, whether virtually or in person.
But NTI, for me, felt like the beginning of our path forward. It felt like the beginning of our healing, and it certainly helped to refill my cup.
Find that thing that will fill your cup. Thank you everybody for this incredible privilege to serve as your president.