Monthly Chapter Update : February

This is the first “Monthly Chapter Update” for the Heart of Carolina AACN chapter. Here I hope to keep members in the loop as to what is going on in the background of the chapter. This will help when we meet during our bimonthly meetings as to what is in the works. 

For those who I have not met in person yet, my name is Noah Degen. I was elected at the end of 2022 as president along with Allison Mikula as secretary and Gabbi de Leon as Treasurer. My background is short as I only graduated nursing school in December of 2019. I started working in a step down unit at the start of the COVID pandemic in the metropolitan Detroit area while I was doing my BSN online. Like many others I got burnt out and needed to take some time off. I went back to work in my home town of Traverse City, MI in an ICU before moving down to Columbia. 

Since our last meeting in January we have been working on uploading all past meeting minutes to the HOC homepage. If you are curious you can download these minutes in PDF format at any time to see all that the chapter has accomplished in the past several years. I will be spending some time in the next few months to go through and make a log that chronologizes these major moments. I value the preservation of memories and hope this tradition passes on after my term. 

We have also invited a vendor from Smith & Nephew to host and speak about pressure injury prevention at our meeting on March 22nd at 1800. The location is to be determined, so look out for the posted event soon and RSVP. At this meeting we will be discussing board meetings and seeing who would like to participate on the board. Being a board member entails voting on important decisions regarding budgeting and election of leadership in the event someone has to step down. In order for progress to be made in setting up volunteer opportunities and donations an established board is essential.

In the weeks to come please brainstorm on a “SMART” goal to bring to the March meeting. I would love to hear input on what our members would like to accomplish in the years to come. You can write these down, email them to me, or speak them freely when we meet again. Having specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time appropriate goals is how we can do a substantial amount of good for our community outside our scope in the hospital.

S : Specific

M : Measurable

A : Achievable

R : Relevant

T : Time-Bound

Attached to this announcement you will find a flyer I made promoting the chapter. Feel free to print it out or send it to leadership in your area to get more members at our meetings. It is one of our major goals this year to increase our monthly participation substantially. 

If you have any ideas or questions email me at noahdegen@gmail.com or text me at 231-620-5137 and I will respond as soon as I am able. It will be a wonderful opportunity to work alongside all of you this year. I am looking forward to all that we can accomplish in 2023. 

Starting now, we can break new ground!

Kindly,

Noah Degen