 Ann Beldia Smith, MSN, RN, CAPA ABPANC President |
President’s Message
Embracing Excellence
Through
PeriAnesthesia Certification
Presented by Ann Beldia Smith, ABPANC President, at the
CPAN®/CAPA® Celebration Breakfast
Held in conjunction with
ASPAN — 26th National Conference
Anaheim, CA
The Disneyland Hotel
April 16, 2007
Introduction
For me, attending ASPAN National Conferences is always filled with anticipation because each one is remarkably well planned and includes superb programming. ASPAN delivers a valuable learning experience for participants and Anaheim 2007 is continuing that legacy. I am honored to participate in the celebration of Soaring on the Magical Journey to Excellence.
Looking into the faces of so many CPAN and CAPA certified nurses gathered in one place, reminds me of what Suzanne Gordon, wrote in her article entitled What Nurses Stand For, published in The Atlantic Monthly.
She poignantly captures what Nursing is all about when she says, “The Nursing Profession has meaning and value like few other occupations. Nursing is a gateway for serving others. It is a calling that has a direct impact on the lives and well-being of people who need care and comfort. It is only in watching nurses weave the tapestry of care that we grasp its integrity and its meaning for a society that too easily forgets the value of things that are beyond price.”
I am privileged to be counted as one among you, achievers emblematic of the best in Professional Nursing, who daily deliver world class health care services to patients who trust and depend on us.
Someone said, “There's a big difference between motion and direction and the greatest thing in the world is not so much where we are ¼ but in what direction we are moving.”
The 2007 National Conference theme includes the key word Journey. Any worthwhile career journey must have direction including clearly defined Critical Success Factors.
What direction is your Career Compass pointing? Will it take you Above and Beyond what you have already mastered? Will it continuously guide you to places you have not yet been?
Take a moment and write down the following four words: What Got You Here
Now list three or four of the most important Critical Success Factors that you believe got you where you are in your career journey. The alpha characters after your name are obviously critical “What Got You Here” factors. You might also credit a mentor; recall that one shining moment, or a “Eureka” that changed the course of your career forever.
I know you can complete this assignment while I continue because Professional Nurses are experts at multi-tasking.
We will revisit your list near the end of my remarks about the value of ABPANC Certification.
Great Results Begin With ABPANC
The direction and “Spirit of ABPANC” is reflected in its Vision, Mission, and Values statements. It clearly demonstrates the organizations forward thinking, top-down inside-out commitment to soar high above the alphabet soup of certifications available to nursing professionals.
ABPANC understands that certifications are only as valuable and desirable as the perceived quality of the program. Certain key indicators of overall program quality have a direct correlation to professional choice and recognized value in the workplace:
Credibility of the credentialing authority and program reputation – What identity or special features differentiate the program from others?
Market Demand – Do Perianesthesia Nurses want it? Are hiring decisions influenced by it? Is it an essential element of the patients’ health care service expectations?
Certification Exam Quality – Do the exams have a level of difficulty that validates knowledge and experience needed to deliver exceptional quality health care services to our patients?
Cost of Certification – Does the return on the certification investment justify the time, effort and money?
Earning the recognition, from nursing professionals and health care service providers, of being the best is rarely the result of a singular effort. The quest to be the best requires the collective energies of those in the arena and behind the curtains.
It takes everyone's best to be the best.
The ABPANC leadership, staff and business partners are all fully committed to ensure that ¼
Great Results will continue to Begin with ABPANC.
Embrace the Culture of Excellence through Perianesthesia [CAPA and/or CPAN] Certification
Nurses frequently ask, “Why should I spend the time and money for certifications in view of nursing shortages and limited support from employers? Recruiting bonuses are becoming more common. I have the required education and experience and don’t have to worry about finding a job.”
The answer is found in your own value system. Nurses must decide what is most important to them and whether or not they are happy with their current circumstances or wish to have different results.
Presently, certification decisions are most often personal choices, rather than the result of financial incentives.
An article in the March/April 2002 issue of ASPAN’s Breathline supports this position. According to the article, “Hundreds of CAPA/CPAN nurses were asked to name ONE reason for becoming certified.”
Of the 48 responses published, only 10 mentioned motivations involving employment, promotion or compensation.
The majority of the reasons were related to confidence, accomplishment, self-worth, empowerment, professional credibility and validation of expertise. The composition of the responses also sends the messagethat we have significant marketing and advocacy opportunities with our health care providers.
Obviously, justification for certification will continue to be widely influenced by personal issues; however, I see a welcomed trend toward workplace motivations as employers acquire greater awareness of and appreciation for their value.
There is a theory called the “Career Value Equation.” It is a decision-analysis model that looks at answers to common questions such as …
Who do you want to work for?
What do you want to do?
How do you like to work?
Where do you want to work?
The model analyzes how personal motivations and decisions play out in careers.
Our search for maximum opportunity and flexibility in each of the Who, What, How and Where variables, creates a compelling case for the value of certification as a gateway to achieving different results.
Albert Einstein said …
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
Zig Ziglar put it another way when he said …
“One definition of insanity is to believe that you can keep on doing what you are doing and get different results.”
Nurses should continually ask:
“What one thing that if you could change would change the course of your nursing career forever?”
I do not have all the answers, but part of my mission is to encourage Nursing Professionals to transform their level of thinking, expect new outcomes and …
Embrace the Culture of Excellence
through Perianesthesia Certification.
It is difficult to quantify why the health care industry as a whole has not taken a more proactive role in supporting certain nursing specialty certifications. I believe one plausible explanation is because of health care’s late entry into the Quality Culture.
Futurist, consultant, and author Joel A. Barker said …
“We better pay attention to the future, because that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives.”
We are now living the future envisioned by Quality and Leadership gurus Deming, Juran, Crosby, Drucker, Peters, and their disciples. Their Pillars of Quality Doctrines have given us a new vocabulary, a new mindset, and indeed a new Culture of Excellence based on …
Customer Focus,
Customer Satisfaction,
Employee Satisfaction, and
Continuous Value Improvement
Corporate America, and to a greater extent the Health Care Industry, failed to recognize the significance of a revolution in thinking taking place just beyond the paperweight on their desk.
Japanese industry, devastated after World War II, was the first to adopt the Total Quality Culture. The quality of their products and popularity in the marketplace is a tribute to their foresight.
The Energy Crisis, Recession and globalization issues of the early 70s and 80s awakened Corporate America to failing Industrial Revolution era methodologies.
Lastly, our Health Care Industry, enlightened by government intervention, Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), Managed Care, HMOs, cost containment began to set aside obsolete business models in search of excellence through Continuous Value Improvement.
Reaction to crisis and paradigm shifts, rather than informed forward thinking, is often the catalyst for positive change. The sudden realization that, new issues and interests have surfaced and the old rules no longer apply, call for immediate and unanticipated transformational change rather than deliberative, continuous improvement over time.
Crisis avoidance, or a least moderation of it, is achieved by those who continuously and actively seek new solutions that add lasting value to their life’s journey and career.
Earlier I asked you to write the four words: What Got You Here and list a few Critical Success Factors that greatly influenced your career journey. Now write the words:
Won’t Keep You Here Or Get You There.
When you enter your workplace in the next few days, read this note you have just prepared. Open-mindedly consider the possibility that “What Got You Here Won’t Keep You Here or Get You There” could be a career truth waiting for your solution.
Will your current Nursing Credentials sustain your career through a Transformational Organizational Change, or the trend toward Credentials Based Positioning in hiring and promotions, or the inevitable “bump in the road” that might appear suddenly and unexpectedly?
Reimagine your career with this challenge. If you could go Above and Beyond what you have already mastered, what one thing could you do that would change the course of your career forever? What would you like most to be able to say you have already done when you contemplate the same question one year from now?
Commit to an action plan of continuous renewal that will get it done. It is never too early or too late to begin.
I believe ASPAN, ABPANC and Perianesthesia Nurses face unique opportunities.
We Professionals will seek new heights by looking at the future through a new set of eyes and a renewed sense of urgency.
Health Care Providers, especially those who are committed to Continuous Value Improvement, will recognize the added value to patient care services and offer greater recognition and incentives for certification.
The ABPANC Vision will be viewed as prophetic. Nurses will seek it, managers will require it, employers will support it and the public will demand it.
I believe our future is at the edge of Vision, Anticipation, Innovation, and Action. That is where ASPAN and ABPANC must continue to be — on the edge — authoring the new rules for the future of Perianesthesia Nursing.
We BreathLiners share a destiny.
Solidarity of purpose will make it all that it can be.
Thank you very much.
