2020 FNA Book Of Reports
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<strong>2020</strong> Florida Nurses Association<br />
Re-Imagine <strong>FNA</strong> – Creating an Amazing Future<br />
in a Changing Normal<br />
George Peraza-Smith, RN, APRN - President, Florida Nurses Association<br />
The title of this year’s <strong>2020</strong> Florida Nurses Association Membership Assembly is apropos to the times,<br />
especially considering that the board of directors (BOD) selected the assembly title and theme well before<br />
the pandemic had changed everything. The plan for this year was to re-image <strong>FNA</strong> using the framework of<br />
Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The board of directors met in Orlando for a 2-day retreat to dream and create a shared<br />
vision that focused on our strengths by engaging in strategic thinking for the future of <strong>FNA</strong>. The AI facilitator<br />
for this work was led by our own, Dr. Roberta Christopher, who guided us to discover and dream what we<br />
will become (our destiny) and to begin intentionally designing the Association of our dreams. We aligned our<br />
appreciative insights to the <strong>FNA</strong> strategic plan – Nurse Advocacy; Member Services; Nurse Development &<br />
Support; Public and Professional Awareness; Professional Unity; and Organizational Excellence. In addition to<br />
the retreat, as nurses will do, we also had our board orientation to improve our board competencies, as well<br />
as, a board meeting. We are nurses, we can do it all.<br />
I am so grateful for each of our board members. Each bring a strength and perspective that I believe<br />
represents us all from novice practicing nurses to seasoned nurses to advanced practice nurses. They are<br />
active leaders who are superbly representing you and <strong>FNA</strong>. Your board members are inquisitive, energetic,<br />
thoughtful, introspective, challenging, and engaged. There are so many other adjectives I could use to describe<br />
the board, but these are the descriptors that make this experience rich and rewarding. The BOD has been<br />
active during this new normal to address personal protective equipment failures, capricious inadequate<br />
application of standards that placed both our patients and nurses at risk, as well as, dialoguing and moving<br />
to eradicate racial and social injustice in our communities and places of work. Nurses have for too long been<br />
taken for granted. This pandemic has demonstrated the heroism and altruism of nurses. Nurses for the first<br />
time in my lifetime are being hailed as heroes. Nurses are being seen as necessary and valuable. As we<br />
continue showing up to care and protect our patients, <strong>FNA</strong> will use this newfound opportunity to continue<br />
advocating for a safe work environment and pushing the recognition of our value to healthcare leaders with<br />
more than just words but with their pocketbooks. Nurses and Nursing have value and add to the patient care<br />
experience and outcomes, we are not a cost on the balance sheet. As we tame this pandemic, and we will, we<br />
must continue to awaken others to our value in the overall health of Floridians.<br />
Oh well, the world did not go as planned. Yet, I think that through our AI sessions the BOD’s realized that<br />
the future would encompass a more agile and virtual membership experience. The pandemic just moved us<br />
in that direction more quickly than we could have even imaged. <strong>FNA</strong> is on the forefront of creating a virtual<br />
association. Willa Fuller, executive director, and the staff at <strong>FNA</strong> have taken on the mantel of going virtual both<br />
in their work at <strong>FNA</strong> and in meeting the needs of our members virtually. The staff have worked tirelessly to<br />
create those virtual opportunities by organizing virtual education and discussion sessions with members to<br />
address the COVID pandemic crisis, organizing townhalls to gain member input and assess for opportunities,<br />
providing a successful and well-presented virtual research conference experience, and continuing to support<br />
the union and non-union colleagues in advocating and ensuring safe work environments so that nurses can be<br />
the heroes without losing our lives or livelihoods. We have accomplished so much in spite of this pandemic.<br />
I am proud to call myself a nurse. I am proud to be a member of <strong>FNA</strong>. I am proud to represent each and<br />
every one of you in this Association. My heart is full from witnessing all that nurses have accomplished and<br />
contributed during these most challenging times. Thank you for supporting <strong>FNA</strong> and let us know your dreams<br />
and ideas on moving our Association to our future destiny. I close with the words of Walt Disney – ‘All our<br />
dreams can come true. If we have the courage to purse them.’<br />
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