Annual awards banquet

SERPN NEWS ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET

HE TWELFTH ANNUAL Conference of the Society tbr Education and Research in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (SERPNI, held in Arlington, Vi~inia, opened on Wednesday, Novcmber 1. 1995 with a poster/cocktail session, followed immediately by the annual Awards Banquet. This year's awards and their recipicnts were:

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1995 SERPN Psychiatric Nursing Education Award--Cecelia Monat Taylm: Thc College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota

1995 SERPN Psychiatric Nursing Research Award--Verona C. Gordon, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Eileen F. Morrison. University of Alabama, Birmingham

1995 SERPN Psychiatric New' Investigator Research Award--Barbara E. Wo!fe, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston

1995 SERPN Jeanette Chamberlain Psychiatric Nursing Sere,ice Award--Joyce K. l.aben, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessce Also recognized at the Awards Banquet were the two Student Award winners. The master's student award was given to Suzanna Connick Jamison, University of Virginia. and the doctoral student award was given to Lynn Wasserbaucr. also of the University of Virginia. These students presented their papers at a special session on Thursday, November 2nd. Congratulations to all the honorees!

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

The Annual Business Meeting, chaired by President Margery Chisholm was held on Thursday morning. As prcviously rcporled, two major items were addressed. The first was a proposal to restruclure the organization of SERPN with the inlention of: • Maximizing member involvement and input • Providing continuity of leadership • Increasing the organization's ability to respond rapidly to emerging issues

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• Providing more effective means of communication between meetings • Clarifying functions ;rod responsibilities • Ensuring accountability and feedback Gretchen LaGodna, Chairperson of the Restructuring Committee, led a discussion of the ch~mges recommended by the Committee to achieve these goals. These reconnnendations will be Iorwarded to the Bylaws Committee, chaired by Lee Walker, for translation into Bylaws language. For these bylaws changes to be voted on by the largest possible proportion of the membership, the Executive Board had determined that a mail ballot was prefcrable to a w,te at the Business Meeting. Thus. it was necessary to vote to amend the existent bylaws to allow for a mail ballot. This motion passed so SERPN mcmbers will receivc a mail ballot asking for a vote on these bylaw changes. Watch your mail! The membership also heard a report from Doris Greiner and Ona Riggin, Co-Chairs of the Education Committee. The proposed guidelines for undergraduate and graduate education in psychiatric mental health nursing were presented and discussed at lcngth. These guidelines will bc revised as suggested and incorporated into a single document with SERPN's previously issued position paper on cducation for psychiatric-mental health nursing practice. This new document should be available in late winter of 1996. It is the responsibility of the membership, as well as of the organization, to see that these positions are disseminated as widely as possible. Finally, a report from the Nominating Committee was given. The following were elected to two year terms: "l~'easurer--Patricia Howard, University of Kcntucky Midwestern Region President--Kathleen R. Delaney. Rush University, Chicago Western Region President--Beth VaughnCole, University of Utah

Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Vol. X, No. 1 (February), ! 996: pp 60-61

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SERPN NEWS .

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Two announdements ~f geat'inte~rest m members~ ',','ere SERPN's t~ew policy t~t"accepting, credit cards ti;,r ,payment bf dues Or i-egigtrati0n"fee/;~iafid the dale of the "mid-year '.conference. This. One day conferei~ce.wiJl beheld on March~30 {n Washing:ton, _DC and.),!i!l ad.dress jhc~ .issue of psychiatric'_ ,nur~,ing outcon~es. The Executive Boaid and Commiitee Chairs will c6nverie on March 29th at 1 PM. KEYNOT'E'AI~DRESS . . . . . . . '

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hn:ilmdiately afle'r lunch oii Thtirsdii~'. the I~arti~:ipants had the privilege of-hearing the keynote addres.4 given 14yCourlenay M; Harding PhD.RN. Dr.'Harding reported and discussed the findings of several limgiiudinal s'tudies ~;fbuicoinesof deinkti; tiitioiia}i~,.ed psychiatric pa!ients Who'were retu..med to ihc community in a purposefuLplaz!ned manner and assisted with active rehabilitati0n. The ivery positiv e outcomes of: these studies provided an • upbeat ton e f0r:the remalhiiefof'the ~onferefiL'e and cncouraged participants-to took'at individuals with a serious imd :persistent menta!_ilhmss., i6 a new, more optimistic light:

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PRA(~TICF: S'URVEY .

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During a plenary session later on Thursday. the i~ar'ticipants had'thc 0pporthni(~' t(o hi,or a repoi:t of 1he Advanced Practice Survcv, co-chaired by President Margery Chisholm and Immedi/~te Past President Jeanne Clement. Tliis survey is the lareest of its kind arid wili be iucocporated into the.minimmn data set already compiledby Jeanne Fox. Univer..sitv of. Virginia, .and .Elizabeth Mcrwin, .Virginia .Commonwealth UniVersity. TILe raw dat a from this survey will ,be published in monograph form. "Discussion of vax:iouiparts bf the data ,,~q[I .be • published as articles-in Archive.v of Psw'hiatric N~rsbl,v. , The.remainder of th}s very successful conference was devoted to papers, workshol:;S, and symposia "addresging"innovaliang' in practice: innovatmns in -research, and-inuovatmns in education. The.J3th • Annual.Co!ffercnce is a!ready scl'/eduled for November 7-9. 1996 in Nashville. TN. Mai'k your calendars no',','! f

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Taylor Aa,sociate Edi}o}