Blast from the past!  Check out these photos and items from GKCC past.  

Every Spring, we award one AACN member, a scholarship to attend both days of the Greater Kansas City Visions Symposium, usually held in early March.  This year, the due date for the "Visions Symposium Scholarship" has been moved to January 12th, 2012 (instead of February 9th).  This will allow additional time to review the applications and provide enough prior notice to the recipient.  To apply, go to the Scholarships page....We look forward to reviewing your applications.  

Hospital Representatives for the Greater Kansas City AACN Chapter are the main communication network to-­and-­from the 20+ hospitals we serve in our region. Hospital Representatives help disseminate information from the Chapter to their network of critical care and progressive care colleagues at their facility. On September 19th, 2011, the Board hosted a "Hospital Representatives Meet and Greet" in appreciation of their service.  We wanted to get-to-know the new representatives, and put a face to some who we have known by e-­mail for many years! Over a dinner of pizza and salad, we discussed how we could better serve their needs.  

To find out who your representative is, go to the "Leadership" tab on our website. If you are interested in professional development opportunities by serving as a Hospital Representative, we would love to hear from you. 

We are currently seeking representatives for the following facilities: Cushing Memorial Hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas; Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas; Stormont-­Vail Healthcare in Topeka, Kansas.

-Akiko Kubo, President-Elect

In August 2011, we sent out a Member Needs Assessment Survey for the 2011-­2012 Greater Kansas City Chapter of AACN. The survey asked about continuing education needs, chapter community involvement, networking opportunities, and communication. In just a few weeks, we received over 70 responses! Your thoughtful responses were reviewed at the September Board Meeting to help plan future programming and services. We would like to share some of the more interesting results of the survey with you!

Our GKCC colleague with the longest AACN national membership is 39 years. Wow! On average, our members have been part of the AACN organization for 15 years;; which is indicative of the amazing depth of collective experience our chapter holds.

Our chapter's mission is to provide educational opportunities and scholarship support. 67% of you wanted one to four continuing education (CE) offerings per year. 60% of you thought that each CE offering should be at least 4 to 6 hours. In the past, we have made an effort to focus on obtaining national speakers;; however, the survey showed that you value qualified local speakers equally, if not more. The most requested CE topics were: Ventilator Management, Advanced 12-­Lead ECGs, How to Submit for a Beacon Award, Sepsis, Applying Evidence Based Practice at the Bedside, Interpreting Research, Leadership Topics, New Innovations/Clinical Trends in Technology, Advanced Hemodynamics, CV Pharmacology Update. All of this information will help us with future programming efforts. 

We also offer several scholarships to help fund certification costs, NTI travel costs, Visions Symposium cost, research grant, and academic pursuit. We were interested in your familiarity with these scholarships, and reasons for not applying.  The majority of the respondents had "no need for the scholarship"; therefore, had not applied.  Since approximately 25% were not aware of the scholarships, we will make an effort to advertise through your hospital representatives, website, and other modalities. We want every member to take advantage of this opportunity!

You spoke loud and clear about the need for meaningful Certification Recognition! We have at least 60 members affiliated with our chapter that have a current CCRN or PCCN certification. We appreciate your feedback. The Board has been discussing plans to provide meaning recognition.  

We recognize that providing avenues for chapter networking is important for active participation within the chapter. We asked you to rate the importance of the various networking channels. The most important method was through the Chapter Newsletter via e-­mail, followed by the website. A quarterly meeting on chapter updates would also be well-­attended. Some were also interested in social functions, but hardly anyone felt it was necessary to attend the monthly board meeting!

Our Communications Chair has worked hard to provide interesting information in our Chapter Newsletter. We received excellent feedback on additional content to improve this newsletter. Formal recognition of members in the news through a member highlight, member achievements, and/or recognition of instructors who volunteer their time to teach the review courses and consortium classes are all very good suggestions. An addition of a regular column on evidence-­based practice tips and practice alerts is also a good idea. Most of all, our members expressed that a Calendar of Events with early notification would be very helpful.

Our website is still in its infancy, and we have discovered over the past year, what works and what does not. As a result, you can look forward to a revamp of the website with up-­to-­date information that will serve as your one-­stop-­shop for all things related to GKCC AACN. 

Professional development is very important to the Chapter. A significant number of respondents expressed interest in being part of a planning committee for classes/events, and/or mentoring new nurses into the critical/progressive care field. We are also pleased that at least 10 of you are interested in being a local speaker for future CE offerings, as well as a goal of presenting (podium or poster) at NTI. Our board officers and long-­time chapter members have an amazing depth of experience with national presentations at NTI. We would be honored to mentor those interested in pursuing these goals. To respect anonymity, the survey did not have an option for you to give us your name and contact information if you were interested in any of the above professional development opportunities. Please e-­mail us at aacn.gkcc@gmail.com so we can get in touch with you. The ball is in your court!

GKCC belongs to Region 14, which serves Kansas and Missouri. Along with all of you, our hearts go out to the areas that
have been turned upside down by all the floods and tornadoes that have wreaked havoc in our Region this year. We are inspired by all of the stories of bravery demonstrated by our colleagues. Our community service project for 2011-­2012 will focus on helping the critical care/progressive care nurses in Joplin, Missouri. Stay tuned for more information on how YOU can assist in this endeavor!  Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We look forward to serving you.


-Akiko Kubo, President-Elect

Mary Stahl, RN, MSN, ACNS-BC, CCNS-CMC, CCRN, is currently serving a one-year term as President of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) board of directors from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. Mary has held director positions on the AACN board from FY2007 to FY2009 and on the AACN Certification Corporation board in FY2009, the year she served as AACN board liaison for the "CNS Scope and Standards" revision.  Between FY2004 and FY2006, Mary served on the exam development committee for the CCNS specialty certification and as an item writer for the first PCCN exam.

Mary values nursing education!  She graduated from Saint Luke's Hospital School of Nursing in 1980 with a diploma in nursing, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Webster College, St. Louis, in 1982. She also attained a Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, in 1984.

Mary has been a critical care nurse for over 30 years.  Since 1995, she's been a clinical nurse specialist, medical cardiology, at Mid America Heart Institute, Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, where she oversees heart failure management, cardiac transplantation and ventricular assist device nursing care. Mary is an active member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and belongs to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Mary has also received national recognition for her nursing achievements, such as when she was ranked on the 1993-1994 list of "Who's Who in American Nursing."  Mary has been described as a "prolific educator and lecturer" (AACN website, 2011).  She has given more than 100 presentations on professional topics, including healthy work environments, nurse retention, and evidence-based practice. Mary has also presented numerous clinical topics related to ventricular assist devices and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

-Kay Luft

Greater Kansas City Chapter AACN Members:

This is a great transitional year for the Greater Kansas City Chapter of AACN!!  The current President of the National AACN, Mary Stahl, is from our very own chapter, which I believe necessitates that we seriously consider how we can more effectively stand together and make a stronger and bolder presence in our local and global communities as critical care nurses. 

The new board has been actively planning chapter activities and educational offerings for the upcoming year, which began with a Strategic Planning meeting at the "New Board Transition" meeting and an informal networking meeting with our current Hospital Representatives preceding the September board meeting.   Akiko Kubo's message outlines many of the accomplishments the Chapter has already accomplished and plans for the near future based on our Membership Needs Survey. Please be sure to take a moment to read this report in its entirety! 

Just a reminder that as of July 1, 2011, we are now implementing a nominal annual membership fee and will continue with the membership cards and monthly email updates. Please keep your email updated on the National AACN website so we caneasily access your information and continue to send you local chapter updates. As stated by our previous Chapter President, Laura Sanders, "it is our hope that we will be able to serve our chapter members in a more responsive and informative manner."  If you would like to renew your GKC AACN chapter membership and/or receive a membership card, please send us your name and email address to aacn.gkcc@gmail.com.  One of the biggest advantages of being a local member of the chapter is that it allows you to receive discounts on local educational offerings, including our annual two-day symposium, VISIONS.

One focus of the Chapter Newsletter that we would like to continue this year is to feature one of our chapter members who has played an active role in the AACN organization, either at the local and/or national level. It seems very befitting that we continue this tradition by featuring Mary Stahl as our first highlighted chapter member.  (See entry on Mary Stahl).
In conclusion, Mary Stahl's AACN theme of "Together, Bolder, Stronger" is one that we fully plan to incorporate throughout our chapter programs and activities in the year to come!! I look forward to serving as your Chapter President for a second time in several years. Please let me know if and how we can meet your professional and/or learning needs by contacting me, or any one of the current board members, through our website: www.aacngkcc.org


Thank you!
Kay Luft
2011-2012 President

The 2011 Fall GKCC Newsletter is hot off the press. See this edition for an update from our local president, a recap on the needs assessment, and info about the hospital representative meet and greet!  Read it now!

The registration form and information for the next Certification Review Course has been posted.  Click here for more details.

Welcome to the new look of the GKCC's website!  Thanks to your feedback through the Needs Assessment Survey, we will do our best to include valuable information at this site.  Feel free to provide comments for ongoing discussion.  We would love to hear from our members.