ENA Celebrates

35th Anniversary 25500

Members Strong

J Emerg Nurs 20053

0099-1767$3000

Copyright n 2005 by

doi 101016jjen20

E D I T O R I A L

2

Gail Lenehan RN EdD FAAN

Boston Mass

This year the Emergency Nurses Asso-

ciation celebrates its 35th anniversary

For those who do not belong and for

those who do but have lost track allow

me to share an update ENA one of the largest and most

inf luential specialty nursing societies is now 25500 mem-

bers strong It includes emergency nurses from across

the United States and 28 other countries and territories

Emergency nurses in Australia Bahamas Canada Cayman

Islands France Guam Greece Hong Kong Iceland Israel

Italy Japan Kenya Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria

Northern Mariana Islands Philippines Portugal Puerto

Rico Saudi Arabia Spain South Korea Sweden United

Arab Emirates United Kingdom and the Virgin Islands

are all part of the ENA family

There are 50 ENA state councils and more than 200

ENA chapters in the United States and its territories Our

organization owns its national headquarters building in

DesPlains Ill and has 63 staff members They serve in

such areas as Educational Services BCEN (Certif ication)

Meetings and Conferences Research Injury Prevention

and Practice Course Operations Members Services Mar-

keting and Communications Development the ENA

Foundation Finance Human Resources and Informa-

tion Technology ENA has a Web site (wwwENAorg)

and three off icial publicationsmdashthe ENA Connection

newsletter and two clinical journalsmdashthe Journal of Emer-

gency Nursing and Disaster Management amp Response

12-3

the Emergency Nurses Association

0412016

Members of our national board of directors come from

across the country to meet six times a year to represent

emergency nurses on a national and international level

Two national meetings are held each yearmdashENArsquos an-

nual meeting is held in the fall (Nashville this year

September 14-17) when 2500 nurses and 1800 exhibitors

and others come together The Leadership Challenge meet-

ing (Ft Lauderdale March 10-13) gathers 1500 attendees

1000 of them nursing leaders There are also many other

ENA state or regional sponsored educational conferences

(see lsquolsquoComing Meetingsrsquorsquo in each issue of JEN)

Now a mature sophisticated organization ENA is a

respected member of the community of organized nurs-

ing We have liaisons with countless other professional and

lay organizations Our public relations f irm Fleishman-

Hillard helps ENA to give a greater public voice to emer-

gency nurses and press releases heralding emergency nursesrsquo

accomplishments and their positions now go out to hun-

dreds of publications

With full on-line access and the availability to search

back issues our Journals have extended the reach of the

Associationrsquos education around the world During 2004

alone JEN received 264277 separate lsquolsquohitsrsquorsquo to www

JENonlineorg and during the first 10 months of 2004

25381 full-text articles were downloaded from Elsevierrsquos

Science Direct service

These are diff icult times Staff nurses and ED nurse

managers are staggering under relentlessly heavier burdens

but our 35th anniversary is a cause for celebration and a

reminder that ENA can help in ways that not everyone is

aware of Newer less experienced nurses coming to work in

the ED ENA has an Orientation Program and offers many

courses including Trauma (TNCC) and Pediatric Emer-

gencies (ENPC) Newer less experienced nurses assuming the

JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 311 February 2005

E D I T O R I A L L e n e h a n

position of ED nurse manager ENA offers an ED Nurse

Managerrsquos Course At Chapter and State ENA meetings

ED nurse managers can lsquolsquoconnectrsquorsquo network and share

what the latest JCAHO visit was like or how a new com-

puterized tracking system or a new policy to reduce the

use of restraints is working More stresses being put on

ED nurse managers ENA has a listserve for nurse man-

agers and each issue of this Journal is packed with strate-

gies for nurse managers to deal with everything from

overcrowding to EMTALA to HIPPA Emergency nursesrsquo

knowledge and expertise not being acknowledged Becoming

a certif ied emergency nurse tells everyone that an indi-

vidual emergency nurse has acquired a body of specialty

nursing knowledge

Please join in the celebration If you donrsquot belong

join If you do belong consider giving the gift of ENA

membership perhaps as a birthday or Christmas gift from

a group of ED colleagues or encourage your institution

to do so (Hats off to Abington Memorial Hospital in

Abington Pa For the last 2 years it has paid for ENA

memberships for all 125 members of its emergency trauma

center nursing staff )

Febru

If you donrsquot belong join If you dobelong consider giving the gift of ENAmembership perhaps as a birthday orChristmas gift from a group of EDcolleagues or encourage your institutionto do so

ENA is involved in a dizzying number of initiatives

and services all to accomplish its broad missionmdashexcellence

of emergency nursing practice The Association helps

emergency nurses to respond to what is but at its best

ENA also helps to envision and create the future of emer-

gency nursesmdashwhat could be With fond remembrance of

its founders and early supporters and patrons all those

who labored tirelessly to create ENA in the very beginning

best wishes to ENA and its community of emergency nurses

on the occasion of this 35th anniversary

ary 2005 311 JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 3

• ENA Celebrates 35th Anniversary 25500 Members Strong