CTSGNA President's letter
Welcome to 2023!
Greetings and welcome to CTSGNA 2023
The Connecticut Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates (CTSGNA) is our local branch of The Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates (SGNA), which is the professional nursing organization that addresses the challenges facing nurses and associates in helping to provide guidance and education for safe practice in Gastroenterology.
It is my privilege to serve as CTSGNA’s 2023 President and have received a great orientation from my predecessor Kathy Vinci, RNC, CGRN.
My nursing career spans forty years and my introduction to GI Nursing was in a private Gastroenterology practice part-time while working full-time nights at the Hospital of St Raphael in the mid 1980’s. My profession encompassed a variety of experiences that included; Med/Surg, Telemetry, Orthopedics, IV Therapy, Emergency Department, Interventional Radiology and Gastroenterology. Presently, I am at Yale New Haven Health’s North Haven campus in the Endoscopy Center with an occasional shift at the hospital campus.
CTSGNA has certainly continued to provide educational opportunities despite the challenges set forth by Covid. Some of the accomplishments for 2022 were; six monthly educational opportunities each consisting of one GI specific credit hour, and a live program that provided six GI specific credit hours.
Professional organizations like SGNA, support and advocate for our practice and together we are a strong force with insight and health-related research to provide the best possible care to our patients.
One of my challenges for CTSGNA this year is to increase participation of our state members in the opportunities that avail. Communication is key, we are working to keep our website current and send out blast emails to inform, highlight, and remind of our sponsored events and such. An incentive for SGNA membership is the rewarding benefits of significant discounts on programs and resources, subscription to Gastroenterology Nursing Journal, certification discounts, eligibility for numerous scholarships, networking opportunities as well as a voting voice in your practice.
There are many ways to be involved without a major sacrifice of time. Being involved can be attending a meeting, presenting, teaching, joining a committee, or contacting a board member with a concern, idea or opinion. One example is that we are looking for other social media platforms to help with communication. We do have a CT SGNA Facebook page and looking for assistance with keeping that current and viable so any ideas are welcomed.
Do you know of the scholarship opportunities? Do you know how easy it is to attend educational offerings? Our website, www.ctsgna.org is set up to give you access to information and opportunities. The home page will list the most current offerings for news, information and happenings. The meetings page has all the information available on upcoming meetings/education as well as an archive of past meetings. The documents page has all the policies, applications and scholarship information listed and easy to access. Beyond The Scope (BTS) – the annual CTSGNA educational symposium held in the fall, has its own section and the information will be posted as it becomes available. Most importantly so that you receive alerts and communications from CTSGNA please keep your email updated with SGNA and we also provide a link on our CTSGNA home page for you to join our mailing.
The “2023 Beyond the Scope” program is being chaired by Barbara Comstock, BSN, RN, CGRN and will be held on Saturday, October 14th, 2023. Details will be shared when available so for now just save the date!
We will continue to provide a mix of both virtual and live options for the various educational programs. Please direct any ideas, presentation suggestions or concerns to us at ctsgnaboard@gmail.com
Looking forward to working together to make CTSGNA and SGNA a great experience for all.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Saunders, BSN, RN, CGRN
2023 CTSGNA President