Critical thinking.

It is hard to believe that my term as president of CACCN is at an end! In the spring of 2006, as I assumed the presidency, I wrote about the desire to make a ripple, full of hope for the creation of a wave. At the end of my term, I believe that the wave has started and a tsunami is approaching!

2008 is a year full of new beginnings and a celebration of the past. It is our 25th anniversary! As this is my last Critical Thinking piece, I hope you will indulge me in a little stroll down memory lane. CACCN was incorporated 25 years ago and I have had the honour and pleasure of serving on the national board of directors for the last five of these years. In fact, I have been involved with CACCN since 1991, the year I graduated from the adult intensive care course. I was invited to come to a meeting by Shirley Ganske. Shirley Atkins was president of the Manitoba Chapter and, with the keen ability to sense fresh blood only an ICU nurse has, both Shirleys POUNCED. Newly married, one stepson and nothing but time and way too much energy! I was immediately recruited as secretary of Manitoba Chapter. I remained on the executive to serve in a number of roles, including president and conference chair. After almost eight years on the Manitoba Chapter executive, I decided to lie low. In 2002, Helga Borchert, then president of the Manitoba Chapter, submitted my name to be western representative on the national board of directors. I was welcomed officially onto the board by Lori Garchinski, on April 1, 2003, as director at large. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Over the course of my tenure, I have come to appreciate the vision of those foremothers, way back, in 1983, who had the desire to bring critical care nurses together to learn, share and advocate for our specialty and the unique population for whom we care. It has been my honour to work with critical care nurses from across this vast country to carry this vision forward.

My personal goal, while on the board, was to achieve financial stability, honour nurses, to give back to our members and to ensure that all the "glitches" of the past were straightened out and the national office was as paperless as possible. For these things to happen, we needed to ensure that we had money and resources available to fix many of the issues we were facing. We were fortunate to have had many successful Dynamics conferences that have allowed us to become financially stable. We have a fabulous editor (Paula Price) and an editorial board that has worked with our publishers, Pappin Communications, to make our journal, Dynamics, the Official Journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses, financially viable for the first time in CACCN's history. We have had two national administrators, Tracy Porchak and now the awesome Gina Mustard, who have worked energetically to organize our national office, our website and our database, creating a number of on-line links, information for chapter executives, the board and membership, that can be accessed electronically, thus making much of our national office paperless. The implementation of the Critical Connections Bulletin has enhanced e-communication to our members and the Joblinks initiative has brought in funds to help further enhance our website, with the goal of a "members only" site and an on-line journal in the near future. Our board of directors took the bold step, with the help of the chapter presidents, to raise membership fees by $10.00, for the first time in 10 years, to ensure that we could support our operating budget in the future. This year, the board was able to offer a financial bonus to the chapters to help them recruit new members. The money is to be used to pay for food at an education session, bring in speakers, offset tuitions or in whatever creative ways the chapters choose to spend it. We now offer our Standards on-line, free of charge and CEU credits are free to members who apply. The hard work of both Grace MacConnell and Cecilia St. George-Hyslop has helped to increase the variety and dollar value of the awards that our membership can access. We have been working hard on updating the Position Statements, developing new ones and updating our Standards of Critical Care. We have strengthened our partnerships and links with other critical care organizations and the Canadian Nurses Association, ensuring our voice is heard nationally, at many forums and in many venues. Finally, this past fall, I had the honour of presenting the first Brenda Morgan Leadership Excellence Award to Brenda Morgan. It had been my goal that we honour critical care nurses who had gone above and beyond, who set an example for the rest of us to follow. The board of directors shared this vision and developed and funded the award, which will serve to honour and celebrate critical care nurses for years to come. We also honoured Brenda Morgan again, by nominating her to be recognized by CNA as one of Canada's 100 nurses that they are honouring as part of their centennial celebrations in 2008. Enhancing the benefits of membership only serve to enhance the professional lives of critical care nurses who advocate and care for the critically ill and their families.

And speaking of families, I would like to thank mine, Grant, Ally, Veronica and Marlo. I would also like to thank the families of all the board members. It is only with this support that the members of the board can devote so much time and energy to a volunteer board such as CACCN.

With the support, vision and hard work of Joy Mintenko, Glenda Roy, Grace MacConnell, Sue Williams, Cecilia St. George-Hyslop, Patricia Hynes, Lori Garchinski, Pam Hughes, Pam Cybulski and Kate Mahon, as well as Tracy Porchak and Gina Mustard, the past five years have been extremely rewarding. We accomplished a lot and we created a strong, strong wave from a tiny little ripple.

It is my honour to congratulate the new board of directors, Kate Mahon, Pam Cybulski, Tricia Bray, Joanne Baird, Teddie Tanguay and President Cecilia St. George-Hyslop. I know they share the vision of our foremothers and will continue to ride the wave of the tsunami that is coming!

Respectfully submitted,

Asha Pereira

President, CACCN, 2006-2008