President’s Message

Happy Fall!

September is flying by with football season in full swing and cooler mornings enjoyed on my deck with a hot cup of tea. As my tenure as president of SPCN is winding down and thoughts of retirement are more frequently on my mind, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my benefits of SPCN membership and board involvement. I was fortunate to have a cardiology nurse practitioner mentor who introduced and included me in SPCN’s mission and annual educational meeting associated with AHA early in my career. That mentorship assisted me in making national connections that have undoubtedly contributed to my career. I have made life-long friends, collaborated on research projects, presented at national and international meetings, and served in multiple positions on the SPCN board as a benefit of this mentorship.

Perhaps you have received similar benefits like me. Perhaps you are questioning your personal benefits from SPCN membership. Whatever the situation, don’t settle for where you are today. Reach out, make connections, become more involved by recruiting more friends and colleagues to become members, share your expertise by presenting at an upcoming webinar, or take a step to increase your personal involvement by becoming a new member of our SPCN board. Who knows what opportunities await unless you take that first step. I’ve never looked back on that first step.

Do you want to join me and other amazing mentors on the SPCN board? There’s no time like the present! We are accepting nominations for the following positions: President, Secretary and Member-at-Large. All positions are for a two-year term with a max of two terms per position. Please email Karent Uzark @ karenu@med.umich.edu with your name, office for nomination and a brief bio by October 1 to ensure you are on the ballot for 2026. Ballots will then be shared electronically so new board members can be announced at the annual educational meeting on 11/6 (hybrid with live version in Chicago). This will be the launch of our 2026-2027 webinar series theme of “Beyond the Beat: Elevating Pediatric Cardiac Nursing.” Members will have the opportunity to claim 7 FREE hours of CE throughout the year by attending live virtual webinars or listening to a recording within 30 days of the webinar.

Our last webinar of the 2025-2026 series will be held on Friday, 9/25 at 11 am eastern, “Simulation-Based Education for Caregivers of Infants with Shunt-Dependent Physiology: Decreasing Caregiver Anxiety.” Simply click the link below:

Registration required by September 23, on UVA site at:

https://uva.cloud-cme.com/SPCN9.25.2026Registration

 

Do you have something to share with the membership? A recent promotion, award, publication or presentation? We would like to share members’ achievements, both on the SPCN web site and social media. Please forward your name, credentials, current role/position and achievement details to jodi-feipel@uiowa.edu and skaczor@med.umich.edu for recognition. This is also an excellent time to update your SPCN profile @ www.spcnonline.org By keeping your information updated, you will continue to receive the latest membership updates and benefits. We had some issues with PayPal payments from late spring through the summer (which have now been resolved), so if you were due for renewal via automatic PayPal payment during that time, please sign in to make sure your membership is active. For any concerns or issues with membership, please contact Rebecca Sam @ rebecca.m.sam@uth.tmc.edu

The annual CHOP conference will be held on 2/3-2/7/27 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. SPCN will be sponsoring registration for two active members to attend and present their work at this prominent meeting. Please watch for application information to be shared soon with the membership.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead SPCN. One of my leadership goals is to increase membership to 500. That number is currently at 404. With your outreach to nursing friends and colleagues, I know we can reach this goal together.

Gratefully,