President's Message
Greetings:
Warm greetings! I had the privilege of being the founding member and first secretary of Indian American Nurses Association of North Carolina (IANA-NC) in the years 2010-2011. My journey continued since then and I have been associated with our organization and served as a dedicated member at various occasions. I have served as an advisory board member and Vice president of the chapter (2019-2020).
Organization Growth and Talent:
When I recollect, our organization was formed by few nurse leaders belonging to Indian origin with a great vision and mission in mind. Their dedication and determination has led us to the present status of an organization well recognized in the state of North Carolina as a minority active organization with many talented nurses.
First, I want to share my observations and recognize the talent among our Indian nurses. I have seen the growth of our membership numbers, the expertise of our members in different areas. The educational qualifications of our members has reached to the highest level as our members were able to get PhD, DNP, Post-Doctoral degrees etc. Our members specialized in different fields such as information technology, nurse education, online education teaching specialization, mental health nursing first aid instructors, nursing administration, quality improvement projects, family health nurse practitioners, adult health nurse practitioners, pediatric nurse practitioners, mental health nursing practitioners and many more. Many of our members have taken up different key leading roles in various hospitals and clinics as clinical nurse leaders, chief nurse for critical care, coordinator, nurse managers etc.
Our members talent in clinical excellence has been well recognized and they were nominated and received awards as:
- Daisy award
- Nurse Excellence
- Palmetto Gold award
- Karen Lorne Nurse Practitioner of the year award
- Great 100 Nurses in North Carolina award
- NC State award “Nurse of the year for practice”
- Outstanding volunteer for excellence in service and leadership in International Education
- Faculty Mentor for foodlionfeeds NC Campus
- Health Sciences Author Recognition Award
- Research Nurse of the Year North Carolina Nurses Association (NCNA)
Mentoring:
Our members take up the roles of mentoring junior staff, students, and other team members very willingly and do the excellent job. We have so many talented nurse researchers who have taken up the lead role in the research projects both in the hospital and community settings. Our talent in presentation of information in the seminars, conferences, workshops is commendable. Our members served as panelists, keynote speakers, presenters in the local, state, national and international workshops/conferences. A few of our members collaborated with multi-disciplinary team and conducted community educational project on key topics such as Covid spread and prevention, emotional resilience, prevention of Covid among older population etc.
Community Projects:
I have come across immense caring community projects conducted by our members such as:
- Food drive
- Blanket drive
- Mask drive
- Gloves and warm clothes drive
- Backpack and book drive
- Blood drive
- Donation for flood, earthquake, pandemic victims
- Conducted and participated in health fairs, health education activities
- Provided scholarships to nursing students
- Trained public in basic life support
- Served as valuable members in the medical missions
The organization has supported not only for local community members but served for global citizens. Few of the examples are Nepal flood relief food, provided scholarships to nursing students in India as well as in USA. Our organization served as a learning platform for the nursing students, gave an opportunity to present their posters and participate in cultural exchange programs. We always encouraged our own talented speakers to participate in different workshops and conferences at various levels.
Family cultural events:
I remember before Covid we had many fun-filled family picnics, games, varieties of food which was shared reminded us of our childhood memories. Our members demonstrate unity in diversity. I feel it is my honor and privilege to lead this organization for two years especially during this pandemic time. We can serve in many capacities either face to face or virtually. We can serve our own nurses as mentors and support their educational goals. We can partner up with other community and health care agencies in quality improvement projects. We can recognize the talent among our Indian nursing members. We can spend time together to share our stories and listen from each other to find ways and means to over come unique challenges we have as nurses from Indian origin. In conclusion I feel it is my honor and privilege to serve this prestigious organization.
My Vision and goals of IANA NC 2021-2022: CARES
Community engagement through caring projects & education:
e will encourage our members to share their knowledge and skills in various health related topics. Conduct health fairs, food drives
Advocacy for members:
We will identify and meet members’ needs by serving as their advocates
Research activities to enhance nursing profession:
We will encourage our members to take active part in the research activities, join the NAINA’s research interest groups, encourage to attend the evidence-based workshops, submit grant proposals, serve as members in the research committees, work on quality improvement projects
Empowerment:
We will support and encourage our members to utilize their fullest abilities by encouraging them to share their skills with other members by serving as mentors. Share the resources such as training webinars, grants information, opportunities to apply for awards. Recognize our members abilities and award them
Sharing success stories and resources:
We will encourage our members to share their success stories by providing an opportunity to share during our general meetings. Encourage them to share their write up and post them in the IANA NC recognition corner. We will also share in the National Association of Indian Nurses of America (NAINA) newsletter and NAINA face book
I want to thank every nurse of Indian origin for providing this great opportunity to me to represent as your leader.
My motto “Believe in yourself, stay positive”
Sujaya
Sujayalakshmi Devarayasamudram PhD, M. Phil, MSN, RN, ACUE
President - Indian American Nurses Association of North Carolina
www.iananc.org
iananc2010@gmail.com
