The following article was originally published in the August 2023 issue of The Oklahoma Nurse, the official publication of the Oklahoma Nurses Association. It has been reshared with permission.
In 2003, I attended my first Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) conference in New Orleans, where the association was known as the National Nursing Staff Development Organization. I recently accepted a position in the Education Department at OU Medical after serving as a unit-based educator in the oncology and bone marrow transplant areas for seven years. While I had experience in staff development and education, I knew nothing really about this association or what to expect at the conference. Upon attending my very first session, I knew I had found “my people.”
The sessions at the conference were geared toward those who practiced in the specialty of educating, training, and orienting new nurses and other nursing staff. After that first conference, and specifically Donna Wright’s workshop presentation on Competency Assessment for the Real World, I knew I wanted to be more involved. I not only became certified in nursing professional development, but I also served as a member and chair of both the Recognition Committee and the Convention Content Planning Committee.
I didn’t want to stop there, though. In 2018, I applied for a director position on the association’s Board and was elected for a two-year term. Once on the Board, I believed I could contribute at an even higher level, so I applied for the president-elect position in 2020. I was elected and spent one year learning the role from the president at the time, Susan Bindon, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, CNE, CNE®cl, FAAN. Now, I am finishing my two-year term as president of the Board. ANPD has grown and flourished since 2003 with increasing membership numbers, the creation of advanced certification for the specialty, and many new products, services, and resources including the Leadership and Evidence-Based Academies. I am proud to have been an active member during this time of growth.
If you aren’t familiar with ANPD, let me introduce you. The association is the thought and practice leader for nursing professional development (NPD). Our mission is to advance quality health care by defining and promoting nursing professional development practice. The organization has been fulfilling this mission for 30 years and counting. As president, I am honored to work with my fellow Board members from all over the country to provide leadership, guidance, and vision to our ever-growing and changing organization and specialty. It is not only the Board that I have the privilege of working with but also the ANPD Education Team and our management company staff at Smithbucklin, including Executive Director Kaye Englebrecht, CAE. It truly takes a village to maintain a successful volunteer-run organization and position it and future nursing professional development practitioners for growth for years to come. I’m appreciative of the time, expertise, and efforts the village brings to ANPD.
As for other healthcare organizations and systems, the past few years have been challenging for ANPD. We faced the hurdles of COVID and worked diligently to meet the needs of our members with “just in time” education and training materials for NPD practitioners to make use of in their facilities. The association also worked to address the topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, and healthy work environments. The efforts in these areas, especially during COVID-19, led to great outcomes for the association and our specialty.
Our membership has grown from around 5,500 to more than 7,300 since the pandemic started. We pivoted quickly during 2020 and held a successful virtual convention, followed by another in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, we returned to in-person conventions due to demand by our membership and continue to be amazed at the attendance numbers. Many of the attendees at the in-person event are new to their NPD position and are hungry to develop their skills and expertise to help others grow.
As ANPD president, I work with the staff team to develop Board agendas and lead the Board meetings; sit on the Financial Committee and work with the Treasurer to ensure the association is financially healthy; provide Board orientation to new Board members; and currently, I am working with the Board and immediate past president to coordinate ANPD’s 2024-2026 strategic planning process. ANPD is an Organizational Affiliate of the American Nurses Association (ANA), and I represent ANPD at Organizational Affiliate meetings, including attending the ANA Membership Assembly in Washington, D.C. While those are the larger responsibilities, I also write guest editorials for the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development (JNPD)—the official journal of ANPD—sat on the volunteer group tasked with refreshing our logo and brand, moved our website to a new online platform that includes a new digital publication—NPD in Motion—and headed up a task force that hired new education team members.
It has been a busy but very rewarding time in my life to volunteer for this association has given so much to me and my development as an NPD practitioner. What kind of ANPD president would I be if I didn’t use this as an opportunity to try and recruit new members? We’re close to achieving 7,500 members for the first time in our organization’s history, and I hope you will join ANPD at what is an exciting time for nursing professional development. If you have served in the role of preceptor, superuser, skills validator/qualified observer, clinical champion, mentor, professional development associate, or academic partner, you belong at ANPD. The association provides specialized resources, tools, and offerings for the roles above to help you grow professionally and increase the impact of your roles. Refer to Figure 1 (ANPD, 2023) for more detailed information about these roles. Our community of like-minded NPD practitioners is vast and there are wonderful networking opportunities available. If you would like more information about ANPD, please visit our website at www.anpd.org. You can use the QR code to quickly navigate to the website. I am also happy to discuss the association with you or if you have thought about becoming more involved in an association much like I have, you can contact me via email.
Volunteering your time and expertise is invaluable and rewarding—and, as it did for me, it could lead you down a path of leadership you never expected.
References
Association for Nursing Professional Development, (2023). [Graphic of You belong] [JPEG image]. https://www.anpd.org/About/About-Us
Sheila St.Cyr, MS, RN, NPD-BC
President, Association for Nursing Professional Development
Sheila St.Cyr, MS, RN, NPD-BC, is the current President of the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD). Prior to this role, she served on the ANPD Board of Directors as President-Elect for one year and as a Director for two years. Sheila's involvement in the specialty of nursing professional development began more than 20 years ago and she has been an active ANPD member since then, including roles on ANPD’s Recognition and Convention Content Planning committees and presenting at the ANPD Aspire Convention several times. Her areas of clinical expertise include oncology, controlled substance diversion prevention, and substance use disorder.
In addition to her volunteer leadership with ANPD, Sheila also sits on the Oklahoma Opioid Overdose Fatality Review Board as a governor-appointed Oklahoma Nurses Association representative. Sheila lives in Jones, Oklahoma with her husband, Mark.