Gut Check | Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Stronger Team, Better Care

Michelle Day, MSN RN CGRN, 2017-18 SGNA President

What an exciting time at the SGNA 44th Annual Course in New Orleans ̶ we even had our own parade! I hope you brought something you learned back to your units. More importantly, I hope you are planning to share what you learned with others. Sharing what we learn is one way we continue to build a strong team. The Annual Course provided opportunities to network, mentor, develop leadership skills and attend outstanding educational sessions all while surrounded by the centuries of history, culture, sights and sounds of New Orleans.

We had numerous opportunities to connect during the Annual Course, including at the SGNA Zone, in between educational sessions and at networking events. I even spoke with some of you on the shuttle buses going to and from the convention center. Thank you for sharing your stories with me. Your enthusiasm for our specialty is inspiring! I hope many of you accepted my challenge to speak with one of your mentors and let them know how they inspire you. I just mailed some handwritten notes to a few of mine, to thank them for their guidance throughout the years.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our program committee members, speakers and the poster authors for sharing their knowledge with us. When we participate in the educational sessions and seek opportunities to develop and exercise our leadership skills, we grow both personally and professionally. Lifelong learning is essential to maintain knowledge of current practice and to provide high-quality care to our patients.

The cornerstone of high-quality healthcare is patient safety, and nurses are critical to the surveillance and coordination that reduce adverse outcomes. Much work remains to be done in evaluating the impact of nursing care on positive quality indicators. We must all work together and bring our individual knowledge and skills. We must continue to ask questions, search for evidence, evaluate evidence and share outcomes in all of our practice settings.

I invite you to be a part of building a stronger team by being leaders and mentors, and committing to lifelong learning. Our challenge is to use that energy from the Annual Course to keep improving and to keep advancing the practice of gastroenterology. We are fortunate that SGNA has so many programs that enhance our practice; I hope you take advantage of the opportunities we have and continue to improve the practice of gastroenterology.