The Constant Challenge of Change

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To everything, turn, turn, turn; there is a season, turn, turn, turn. Remember that song by the group called the Byrds? To me, that song was a message about change, though a more measured, predictable change. There will always be changes in our lives. These days, it seems that the challenge lies in how exponentially more rapid the change is occurring, and how unpredictable it is

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In the past few years, our world as we know it has been marked by radical changes, especially since 9/11. Our view of the world is not the same anymore. Our country has been on heightened alert since that monstrous terrorist event. The whole world has changed as well. It is a fact of our lives when we travel that we take off our shoes to go through the security line, or that our luggage is scrupulously searched for contraband.

We have experienced many economic changes in our lives during the past few years—from exuberance to economic “downturns.” Many of us know someone who has lost their job or who has been affected by the new global economy. Daily discussions of the economy are not unusual in our everyday world. Personally, we are bombarded by the media every day with the changing forces of the war effort in the Middle East. We have experienced the sorrowful, painful knowledge that our young men and women have again died for our country. Unfortunately, the winds of war are still changing. No one knows how events will unfold. Today's news, that Saddam Hussein has been captured, is uplifting, and a great credit to our military, but who knows where we go from here. Hospitals are not able to offer as many educational benefits, costs have increased for health insurance, and is anyone receiving a healthy raise anymore? Downsizing, rightsizing, reorganization, managed care—new words for new phenomena—are all part of our vernacular.

Professionally, our lives as health care workers have changed. No more nurses and doctors; we are now “providers.” ED nurse managers in facilities across the country are planning for potential disasters with new urgency and with a growing set of new vocabulary words like HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration).

The nursing shortage has changed our professional lives. Changes in staffing because of the nursing shortage have affected numerous health care systems. Certainly Congress and the general public have an awareness of the nursing shortage in our society, but will remedies satisfy the need quickly enough? After all, our nursing colleagues are also aging. Our populations are changing too. The baby boomers are fast entering the geriatric generation, and we need to get ready for this explosion of elderly patients.

We have had many changes in our emergency nursing practice. Think about the myriad of technological advances in the past 20 years alone, and we have much more knowledge as well. Our patient assessments, for example, are certainly more sophisticated than in years past.

What does this mean for the future? John F. Kennedy once said, “Everything changes but change itself, and change is the law of life.” And there are certainly changes ahead for our country and our professional society, the Emergency Nurses Association. But the United States has never idly rung its hands and bemoaned a challenge, nor have our country's emergency nurses. Responding to change, ENA is preparing a geriatrics course which will be offered in September, lobbying Congress for funding to prepare more nurses, updating ENPC (Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course), offering nurse manager courses, and planning for the long-term future of ENA with a Blue Ribbon Commission. Pursuing our dreams of excellence in our practice will necessitate changing our current reality, and I am confident in our association's ability to make the right decisions to further enhance our practice and enhance our members' benefits.