On May 18, 2024, the founding members and officers of the National Consortium of Academic Nurse Educators, Inc. (NC-ANE) announced the official launch of the organization. The event took place via Zoom from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST, with the presence of 58 active members.
NC-ANE President, Dr. Edmund J.Y. Pajarillo, called the official launching ceremony in action by providing a brief history of NC-ANE and how nurse educators across the US came together via an online platform to discuss the current struggles faced by them, which led to the official start of NC-ANE in 2023. Dr. Zelda Suzan, director-at-large, was the moderator of this virtual launch and efficiently coordinated the entire event.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Amy Hall, Dean of SON-Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, AL, delivered a highly engaging and remarkable keynote speech on self-care, joy, and happiness with examples from the realm of genetic research. The key takeaway from her speech was that, irrespective of their busy schedules, every nursing professional is expected to engage in a self-care practice of their choice to improve their own energy and health so that they can better focus on their assigned tasks in their practice settings.
Following this, Dr. Edwin-Nikko Kabigting, research co-chair of NC-ANE, highlighted the NC-ANE’s achievements on various research projects and how the members of the organization disseminated these works via publications and presentations, which was inspiring to the attendees. Dr. Susan Seibold-Simpson, co-president elect and the current lead of the organization’s ‘Delphi Research Study’ on the academic nursing shortage, shared the progress of the study and the current and future plans to disseminate the findings from this work. These presentations were followed by the induction ceremony, where all the current officers took the pledge and announced their dedication and commitment to serve the NC-ANE with their full potential to support the mission and vision of the organization. Dr. Amy Hall, who was the keynote speaker, recited the induction pledge for all the officers. The virtual launch concluded at 1 p.m. with closing remarks from Dr. Catherine Quay, co-president elect of NC-ANE.
