April 28 - The Newsletter Gets a New Look

In 1998, when my predecessor, Dr. Ruth Corcoran, began her tenure as CEO of the NLN, she instituted the bimonthly NLN Member Update. At that time, an online message from the CEO of a membership association was quite unusual, and, I am told, several member schools did not yet have email. Someone from the NLN staff printed the copy and snail-mailed it to a number of members. Oh, how the world has changed.

When I succeeded Ruth as CEO in 2007, I continued the tradition of communicating directly with our members, and I am so glad I did. Over the years, colleagues, many of you have told me how you share this column with your students as a way to provide insight into nursing leadership and important trends in nursing education. It is also a reflection of our commitment to informing and engaging our members.

What do you think about our new design? I really like it. The text is clear and easy to read. And necessary information about what's coming up at the NLN is in your line of vision. I like the NLN Member Update as a way to reflect on important happenings in and outside of nursing and share some of my thoughts about how NLN initiatives are linked to the League's mission, goals, and core values. I value the opportunity to link the realities of life with the ongoing possibilities in nursing education.

May 20 Teaching Care of Older Adults: An ACES Workshop May 31 Early Bird Registration Closes for NLN Education Summit 2014 May 31 NLN/Villanova Prep Course for Certification as a Nurse Educator August 8 Applications due for November 7-9 Scholarly Writing Retreat  Three more states have taken steps to allow nurse practitioners to work without oversight by a doctor in an effort to alleviate physician shortages.  Nephrology nurses monitoring the care of their hospitalized hemodialysis patients can use a specially designed protocol to reduce the risk of bed ulcers.  Thanks for the leadership of Secretary Sebelius. History will justify her amazing accomplishments. I don't have to wait for history. @HHSGov  #ACA has led to an even greater increase in #health coverage than previously estimated, according to new Gallup survey data, which suggests that about 12 million previously uninsured Americans have gained coverage since last fall.

But - and this is a huge but - we know that things happen fast and there are so many ways to communicate nowadays. As Dr. Diane Skiba reminds us in her Emerging Technologies column in each issue of the NLN research journal, Nursing Education Perspectives, we live today in the Connected Age . We have smartphones and tablets, and we want breaking news about health care, nursing and nursing education, and medical research. We want to know about the latest teaching resources for the classroom and clinical setting, and we want to know about professional development opportunities and calls for abstracts and grant applications as they are announced.

So, colleagues, it is time for you to communicate with the NLN via social media. We first tiptoed in via Facebook, and now you can follow us on LinkedIn and add us to your circle on Google+. In the first quarter of 2014, the communications department increased the combined following of NLN social media accounts to 9,918 users.

And now I am on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrBevMalone. I see Twitter as a platform for you, colleagues, to engage with me and share challenges, accomplishments, and information. It will offer a direct line of communication between you and me, not quite 24/7, I hope, but often and as things happen.

For some of us boomers, this is a brave new world, but it is an exciting one. We now have multiple ways for the NLN to become even more meaningful to nurse educators everywhere. And colleagues, please know that not all information is duplicated on each platform. We hope you will like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and add us to your circle on Google+.

You may be wondering who is behind all these happenings at the NLN. Well, I would like to introduce you to one of our innovators. Our digital marketing communications manager, Ivonne Padilla, joined the Communications Department in January, moving to Washington from Connecticut. Ivonne learned about the NLN through her work as a communications and design consultant with the Connecticut League for Nursing. She also worked for about three years as a program manager for Empower New Haven, overseeing a multi-million-dollar HHS grant focused on community development organizations. And she is an accomplished musician. Ivonne studied jazz vocal performance as a Promising Artist Scholarship recipient at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and also attended McNally Smith College of Music.

We are so pleased to have Ivonne join us in our DC offices. You will surely meet Ivonne at our next Summit, September 17-20 in Phoenix. Perhaps we can persuade her to sing.

And a final word. As we approach Nurses Week 2014, I want to congratulate Dr. Deborah E. Trautman, who will join the American Association of Colleges of Nursing as its new chief executive officer, effective June 16. The theme of Nurses Week this year is Nurses Leading the Way. What a fitting time to welcome a new partner in our shared goal of supporting nursing education and creating a more highly educated nursing workforce to meet the health care needs of our nation. Dr. Trautman currently serves as executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Transformation at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has authored and coauthored publications ranging from health policy to the use of music in the emergency department. As a member of the senior leadership at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, she represents the hospital on the Baltimore City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team. I am looking forward to working with her closely.

All best wishes,


Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN
Chief Executive Officer

Next Issue of the NLN Member Update: April 28, 2014. View previous issues of NLN Member Update »