Welcome to today's chapter, Officer Orientation, Getting to Know IAFN, we're really glad that so many of you are able to come today and we appreciate and just want to thank you for the changing orientation dates, we really wanted to have a group of you here today. So we will be monitoring the chat so we absolutely would love for participation in the chat. So please feel free to do that. Great. So if you do want to speak today which we encourage please raise your hand, and we'll be monitoring that. This is a webinar instead of a meeting so it's a little bit different. But please we do want to have conversation and dialogue. So I'll remind us as we switch topics between presentations, but welcome. So we're glad that you're all here. So today we're going to really start off getting to know IAFN. So as chapter officers, you are leaders of your chapter, but you're also leadership within IAFN. And we really wanted to share with you some information about the International Association of Forensic Nurses, we know that you get questions. And we really want you to be prepared to answer those questions that you get from your community members. We also, I know I get a lot of questions from you sometimes and I'm happy anytime somebody has a question that you can't answer to answer those but I really wanted to introduce you to the organization. And she's going to be talking a lot about who we are as an organization our values, and that sort of thing that way you really understand who you're representing out in your community and what the foundation is for the chapters right because the chapters are built on the International Association of Forensic Nurses. So today, our disclosures. So Jen and I are the main presenters right now and we have no conflicts of interest. We are an accredited provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses credentialing centers Commission on accreditation, and by joining this event, you do need to complete your evaluation in order to get your CE credit at the end. And really I just said it, but Jen and myself are going to be presenting on the membership manager here. You will also see Susan Chaston is joining us as well. And Megan Lechner, would you all introduce yourselves. Jen do you want to start. Sure. I'm, I'm Jen Pierce weeks I'm the CEO for if n, and I've been with the association since 2011, a nurse since 1986, and a forensic nurse since 1995. Hi, I'm Megan Lechner I'm the CEO of if n, and I have been with the organization, just about one year to the date, but been a member for many years I've been a forensic nurse since 2007, and a nurse since 1999. I'm Susan Chaston, I have been a member since 1992. When the first scientific assembly was held, and have served on multiple board positions and committees and other opportunities throughout my career that I have been. Excellent. Thank you. So at the end of today's presentation, you will have increased knowledge of the mission vision of ethical practice and strategic plan of the International Association of forensic nurses, and you will have a better understanding of your role as chapter officers and statewide leaders. So I want to talk a little bit about the history of if n. One of the things that is always so impressive to me and I think frequently is coming up, particularly this year as we're celebrating our 30th anniversary as an association, is that forensic nursing is really still a very new specialty. So if n was formed in 1992, there were only 72, particularly stains not even forensic nurses but really folks focused on sexual assault patients that came together and formed the association. In 1995, forensic nursing became a specialty recognized by a and a. And so, we really haven't been. We have a short history both in terms of practice and we see that our practice is continuing to grow. So I think as leaders in if n and leaders of your chapter, you're still at the forefront of the growth of forensic nursing as a specialty, particularly with different subspecialties, as we grow protocols and practice around different patient populations, and it's really an exciting time I think to be a forensic nurse, Jen is there anything you wanted to add about the history of if n. Oh, that, that's good. That's good summation. Excellent. And then when you talk a little bit about the same education guidelines. Sure. So the same education guidelines have been around for a long time in multiple iterations, although they're probably not the most important founding documents although we will get to those, but the the same education guidelines actually outlined precisely what the components of didactic sexual assault nurse examiner training should include whether it's an adult adolescent course or pediatric adolescent course. And that includes the didactic as well as the clinical training expectations of instructors for the program, etc. So that's all readily available on the website for for folks who who need to look at that but this is one of the first documents that gets created by the association historically, and something that routinely gets updated as the evidence base updates. Excellent. Thanks, Jen. Great question here in our question and answer. And we can make these slides available later we are recording today as well so this will be added for anybody who couldn't attend any of the chapter officers so great question. And then, Jen, will you talk a little bit about some of our different products that we have in these this slide. Sure. So, the education guidelines certainly for sexual assault nurse examiners but in addition to that their intimate partner violence education guidelines and death investigation education guidelines though those are, you know that specialty is really crosses over But in addition to that, the, you know, we are and we get into this a little later too but we certainly are the technical assistance provider for the Department of Justice national protocol so the adult protocol the pediatric protocol, the training standards for sexual assault forensic examiners. And I think we talked about those a little further in, and, and the strangulation toolkit is also readily available on on the website and something that has been developed by the association. Typically when anything is developed by the association is created oftentimes by members staff board, and, and then finally certainly approved by the board before it's released to the membership, you can go to the next slide if you want to. Christina. So, more importantly, so. Okay, did you skip a slide. Go, go back one. Oh, no, I guess not. So, so, more importantly, is really the scope and standards of forensic nursing practice, I have a slide that you don't have and you're going I don't know why. But, but this is the document that outlines the scope and standards of forensic nursing practice not specific to saying but specific to the broader discipline that is forensic nursing, and it's really the guidebook just like the nursing scope and standards of practice are the guidebook for nursing practice. This is the guidebook for forensic nursing practice, and, and it really outlines the, the elements of both practice in forensic nursing and professional So it's all of the same standards that you see in in the nursing scope and standards of practice but it is specific to forensic nursing so that is the foundation of our practice that really anyone practicing as a forensic nurse should live by so it's the, that's the document that we have and that's a document that we created hand in hand with the American Nurses Association. So sorry now you can go to the member benefits one, which I will let you cover. You use that so often that it's handy right by your computer right. It is because for everything I do in forensic nursing. I will consult it first to see what is my obligation as a forensic nurse under our scope and standards. It's behind me on the shelf to yeah it's a critical critical book. It's nice to see pull those out and have them handy you know I know it could have virtual world that's something that that kind of goes, goes away a little bit. But it's nice to see you know there is there's something that's consistent that we're all referring to and there's a lot of times that chapter officers come to me with questions and we do go back to, you know, your, your founding documents, whether your affiliation agreement or your bylaws for know how you are as chapter officers and what your responsibilities are. So yeah, I think sometimes we really excited about moving forward. But really knowing what that foundation is that we're working from. That's really consistent throughout is really important. I think it's particularly important because oftentimes we're portrayed as the, the same organization when in fact it's much broader than that. And in order to think of it more broadly you really have to look at that foundational document and recognize that the majority of the nurses practicing when the organization was first formed were sexual assault nurse examiners it was that specific response that really created this association and while the forensic nursing response is much broader and that is the where we teach from, and we try to promote in the world. The sexual assault nurse examiner body that makes up a good portion of our membership had a lot to do with where we are today. Right, so we're not just a sane organization we're a forensic nursing organization, but sayings make up a good portion of the membership body. Thanks Jen. I think sometimes when I think about it too, from my perspective as an advocate. It's, you know, when there's sexual assault that patients coming into the ER and or wherever and they're saying this is what happened to me. A lot of the other patient populations don't necessarily disclose first, they might come in seeking medical care and then maybe disclose throughout the process of getting it. So, in some ways it makes a lot of sense that that is how things kind of built around a specific patient population. Alright, so something that a lot of you know a lot about is your membership benefits on because you are members you receive your benefits, but I still get a lot of questions about member benefits. And I hope that you're all you know utilizing all your member benefits all the time. But as chapter officers I think one of the critical things to know about member benefits is that membership recruitment for your chapter, and for the International Association purposes. So being able to talk about member benefits is a critical component of what you're expected to be able to do. And so I think that when we think about membership benefits I really think about them in terms of a couple different categories. And one of those is education. And one of those is networking. And then the other one really is research. So I have on here the first thing is that you do receive that free electronic subscription to the Journal of Forensic Nursing, and that's huge. But that's huge because it really connects you to the up to date most current research in the field of forensic nursing. I also think about like I said education right. So, not only do you receive discounts on access to a variety of courses in the Online Learning Center. But you also receive free education so anything that's three hours or less than that includes any courses with CE are free to you. And that is a really critical thing for forensic nurses who need to continue accessing, you know, education that's relevant to this field or that continue to need CE, like applying for certification, renewing certification, the courses in there are tagged for that. And we are adding new courses on a regular basis, some with CE, some without CE. So that's something I think that's really critical because a lot of people say, where can I go for next education, where can I go and if you're not familiar with what's in there, always feel free and comfortable to reach out to us. If you know no members looking for training on X, and we're happy to direct them to the best training whether it's here or somewhere else. And then the other thing, along with education so your membership gives you discounts to conference, a discount on certifications, those are all like this really great bundle that gives you not only access, but also discounts and then the other thing I think when I think about networking, I think about the online community. And I think about, you know, the in person events that we have, and which are either conference which is a physical in person, or some of our newer office hour type events where it is a live member to member peer conversation right and so all of those give you access to, particularly the online community, 6000 forensic nurses from all over the world. And I think that's really significant to your practice. Because when you have a question, you don't always know, you know, there's another nurse in this area that's doing X, or this person has the same size program or the same challenges so it's really a fabulous way to network around practice, but also to network with a community of like minded people treating the same patients, because we hear over and over that, particularly for smaller programs particularly for rural programs that connectivity, being connected to other forensic nurses and having support as they continue to go in, really affects their ability to continue to do what they're doing to sustain their programs and to not experience burnout. So I think that's some of the highlights and I really like to think about it in those three terms because usually when you're talking to somebody, one of those, those three things is what is most important to them in their practice at a particular time, like students, talking to students, they wanna hear about networking because they wanna hear about building the connections to have a job. Same thing for all folks, they really want that networking piece or access to the education because it's not something that they can produce or receive in their area, particularly if they're one of only a few forensic nurses there. All right, Dan, will you talk about Safe TA? Sure, so for 16 years, IFN has been the recipient of the Office on Violence Against Women Safe TA Grant, that's what we call it. It's a grant that provides training and technical assistance on the national protocol. It started out as just the national adult protocol for sexual assault medical forensic exams and it has become the adult protocol plus the pediatric protocol plus the training standards. So, and I should say technical assistance is not helping folks figure out how to work their computers and various other technologies, right? So that's not the way the feds use the term technical assistance. Technical assistance is really helping you with whatever your needs are relative to the area of expertise that we're talking about. So in this case, the national protocols and training standards. So again, we've been providing this service under this grant for 16 years, really provided better than 30,000 various trainings or technical assistance efforts with people across the country and across the world. So even though the grant itself is strategic to the United States, the federal government has been very generous with us in regard to this grant and allowed us to venture outside the United States on a number of occasions. So it's a great resource, it's freely available to everyone. All you have to do is go to the Safe TA website. You can click on a link at the website to connect with one of the forensic nurse specialists on staff, or you can call the hotline or helpline number you see there and connect with one of the forensic nurse specialists on staff either way, but it's a great resource. And it's not just for nurses, it's for the multidisciplinary team as well. Excellent, thanks, Jen. And I know a lot of you have somebody on staff here that you reach out to more often than any other staff member. Feel free to keep emailing them if you have a question. And I think that this is a critical thing for chapters too, right? A lot of you are working on a statewide team, right? So you're doing protocol updates or kit updates or something of that nature, right? And you're doing that in your role as a chapter officer or maybe a statewide coordinator, or for your hospital, you might be wearing a couple hats when you sit around that table. And for chapters, we have routinely, when they're working on a protocol, gone line by line and provided some, excuse me, some feedback to them. And part of that is through this. So please, I think, feel free to reach out to us if you have things like that that you're working on as a chapter or not as a chapter. But I think sometimes members don't know how available we are for this type of support. So please, at your meetings, make sure that you're sharing this with your members. Sometimes people, I think, feel a little hesitation to call if they haven't met somebody on staff yet. And particularly where we haven't had an in-person conference, we haven't had those opportunities. So if you do, if you do, if somebody is asking you a question and you're not sure, or you just want to connect them to somebody on staff, please feel free to share this information. And it's really helpful if you say, oh, I know Megan, Megan helped me last time, or somebody else, whoever it is that is your main contact. We really appreciate it. And this is part of why we're here and how we support forensic nurses. Jen, I think you're next. Yes. Okay, so this is just basic structure information. IFN is a 501c6. That's a tax status, right? That makes us a membership association. And based, it's a nonprofit membership association. So the IFN was first formed as this, what you see here, the 501c6. And from that, the foundation was formed. So the IFN foundation is the 501c3, which is a charitable, it's a nonprofit organization, but it's a charitable in nature, right? So you can actually make tax deductible donations to the foundation. Foundation exists as a result of the association existing. The missions are the same in the sense that the foundation is there in a 501c3 tax status, nonprofit charitable organization status to support the mission of the larger association, IFN, the 501c6. Also as a result of the parent organization, IFN, we have chapters for those that want them, right? We don't have mandatory chapters in every state or anything like that, but where people want to establish chapters of the association, they can following certain guidelines. They all have their own individual tax status that is nonprofit as a result of IFNs. Again, furthering the mission of the association, okay? There are also two other bodies in the sense that they have their own boards, okay? Which I'll talk about in one second. And that's the Journal of Forensic Nursing, which has its own editorial board, but it is part of the larger association. And the Commission for Forensic Nursing Certification, which also has its own board, but is part of the larger association. Each of the chapters, you, as you know, have your own board. You make up that board of leadership right here today. And the foundation has its own board as well. So, but all of those entities, as far as the boards go, are really furthering the mission of the parent association. I think that's like it in a nutshell for you, right? So we don't keep you here all day long. Yeah, Susan, you came off mute. Was there something you wanted to add? Well, just that as a 501c6, we are allowed to lobby and to bring forth policy issues to our legislators, which is different from a 501c3. 501c3s cannot lobby, but we can. So we are in a better position to strongly support the needs of our forensic nurses. Excellent. And this is kind of a good example of that. Kind of a good example too. So as chapters, any donation to you is not tax deductible. That would only be the 501c3. So that's a question that comes up a lot, but this, I think this slide does a good job illustrating why that's the case, how those two things are different. And when the foundation reaches out to the chapters to do fundraisers or that sort of thing, and last year they did a competition related to international members, that's a separate arm as well. So kind of thinking about that, if and when they do reach out to you, I think it's important. All right. Jen, do you want to talk about what our goals are as an organization and where we're headed? Sure, and these are obviously broader goals, right? But we want forensic nursing access for the patients who need it, right? That's the bottom line. So we want forensic nurses to be sought after in communities for both their compassion in caring for patients who've experienced violence, but also their expertise. And that has a little bit to do for sure with the overlap when we get into things like criminal court cases and other aspects of the legal system. But the basis of that is that we provide evidence-based forensic nursing care, that IFN provides evidence-based forensic nursing education, and that whether it's, for instance, we're often approached, Susan mentioned lobbying, so I'll say we're often approached for our feedback on pieces of legislation that impact forensic nursing practice. You at the local level may be sought out for that same expertise. And that's exactly what we want to see. We want to see you working at the local level. We want to be working at the national and international level, but this is what we really want to achieve. We want to be leaders in research, leaders in education, and experts in the forensic nursing care that is provided. That ultimately is our vision for the association. Thanks, Jen. And as chapters, you all duplicate that locally, right? So people are looking to you locally, and we do hope there is a reciprocal feedback back and forth and we'll talk about what that looks like in different areas throughout the rest of the week, you know, education and policy like Jen just mentioned. And while this slide says, you know, every victim of violence will receive care from a trained forensic nurse when they seek care in a level one or two trauma center, you know, the broader goal is what I said before. It's that patients who need access to forensic nurses have them, right? The level one and two trauma center comes in because for a number of years now, we actually have had a white paper outlining that this is one of our primary goals is to make sure that level one and two trauma centers have forensic nurses. Forensic nursing is really the only specialty missing from the expected specialties at a level one trauma center. So, you know, 30 years, baby steps, right? But our goal is really to make sure that this service is provided to the patients who need it. Thanks, Jen. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the history of our chapters as well. So in 1989, we had first three chapters were formed and the longest running chapters so far are New Jersey and Virginia, so kudos to you. We have 20, actually 24 chapters right now. The newest chapters are Tennessee. So they became an official chapter in 2021 and Mississippi, they just became a chapter this year in 2022, so kudos. I know they've been working on that a really long time. So I'm really proud of you for the work that you put in to become a chapter and congratulations on officially getting that recognition. Throughout the course of all of the chapters that we've had, 12 chapters closed. And I just wanna point that out because every year you all do the annual renewal. Every year we engage kind of in conversations back and forth about what service you're providing to your members locally. And it is really critical that if you have a chapter, you are present, you are communicating on a regular basis with your members and that you're accountable to them, right, because it is your job to represent your chapter locally. And that means that you're providing this service to them and that service in conjunction with the mission to make sure that they're receiving education that goes to those goals that Jen just talked about, right? And I always think about our membership numbers in terms of how many people do we have on our team moving towards the goals that Jen just talked about. So I think for us, it's not just this abstract number. Like here we are, here we are, but it's really how many people are engaged in this process to make sure that our patients have access. And kind of to that point, we really do look to you all as partners to make sure that this happens. And again, we hope that you will close. We hope that we can continue to work towards making sure that you're providing the minimum requirements education. And many of you frequently exceed that, which is awesome. And we have had 12 chapters closed. So to Jen's point at the beginning, they're not always the right thing for every state at the right time. And if it's not the right time for your state, it's okay. It is okay to say, you know, we can't do this right now. We're not sustainable. We're not providing a good service here, or we're not connecting and reaching out. And so I just wanna make sure that that door is open. There's no shame. There's no, you know, I think failure if that is where your chapter happens to be. But again, big kudos to the chapters listed on the slide here. So we have 24. I didn't get to highlight Mississippi because it was such a new decision, yay. But this is really where our chapters are. So I just wanted to show a quick map of what that looks like, kind of where our coverage is. And we do have some states that reach out on a regular basis that are interested in exploring becoming a chapter. And right now I'm working with Arizona quite a bit about that. And some other states that just, it's not really the right time for them. We haven't gotten that critical mass of nurses together in order to, you know, really make a case for why they would have a chapter or what that chapter to demonstrate that they would be sustainable in the state with enough leadership interest. I know that's something that some of you struggle with on a regular basis is making sure that there are leaders who are accountable to keeping that chapter going. All right, so now we have 24. So I need to update this. This is just recent decision. But some of the numbers, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about this too because I think it's really exciting and it's really remarkable. So we have a little bit over now, 123 officers. So that's 123 of our forensic nursing members who volunteer above and beyond their regular workload. And I know many of you sit on other committees and hold multiple leadership positions in IAFN. And I just, I think I look to all of you as, you know, kind of super members in the sense that really you're all going above and beyond. I think like all of you have a really strong dedication to forensic nursing and strong dedication to really reaching those goals that Jen was talking about earlier. About a third of IAFN members belong to their local chapter. I think that's really significant because the experience that our members get, the experience that other forensic nurses get from you do speak a lot to their relationship with the overall association. So this is something that, you know, you are in their community, you're the front lines of who they're experiencing and how they're judging, you know, our association and forensic nurses in general, is by the interactions that you're setting right so you're locally setting a standard for the way that you interact with each other for the type of services they can expect. And that's significant right and that's part of the reason, not a whole reason but it is part of the reason we really do care about what is going on locally with you and why we do have a lot of resources to support you and we want to make sure that you have what you need as chapter officers in order to be to be providing these services to the local members. Last year, so in 2021, you provided over 118 training opportunities, which is, again, awesome like I am so proud of these numbers and particularly during a pandemic, where you had extra challenges around connectivity with people and extra challenges around your workloads and everything else going on in your lives. You offer about 140 CE, which again kudos, it's incredible. And there were 10 statewide conferences held last year. So that's again it's huge so about half the chapters did manage to have a statewide conference, some of those are virtual, but that's awesome. And many of you provided scholarships I know that's something that the members really appreciate as well. And those scholarships range to the IFN conference, either full or partial certification renewal or certification international memberships, IFN memberships and chapter memberships. So kudos, I think this is, I just want to celebrate all of you here. So I think that's pretty significant. And Jen, I think you're up next here. Yeah, and so I know you can read the slide. So what I'm going to say here is that's high up on my to do list over the next year for Christina and I to be able to create a framework for chapters outside of the United States. And so I say that because I know that occasionally we will learn things and I wish more members shared this, but we will learn about some of the international work that folks do. But that is definitely high on our list. Right now, certainly the majority of membership is made up of United States members, but we really would like to see that broaden. It is very difficult to be an international association, it is not easy to do that. It's a challenge because not only of the diversity and language and geography barriers, but there are challenges even in what the practice of nursing looks like from country to country, right? But we truly want to be a global association. So that is one of our goals over the next year is to really try to put a framework in place for that to take place. Sorry, I know that's not the slide, Christina, but I just thought I'd share that with folks. But there are also legal challenges because if you start operating in Europe, you have to follow European community rules. So there's a lot more to this than just saying we're going to start an international chapter. Exactly. Yeah, and I think that's exciting. To that end, a lot of our chapters do support our international memberships, so thank you again for that. I think there's actually a couple chapters, Alabama, not only did you offer a scholarship, but then you almost made a sister relationship with a previous, maybe one or two members where you've invited them to your meetings. And that, I think, so that's really cool. I think some of what the chapters have done in order to be opening and accessible and invite members to show up in their space. So thank you for that. And I think we just put this slide up here to talk about, so the International Association, we're really focused globally, and the chapters are really focused in whatever your geographic area is defined as. Most of you right now are states, or there's one chapter that covers an area, the Greater New England chapter is a couple states. So we work together, right, in that we're kind of like the hub, you all are the spokes, the message that somebody receives if they move from like Texas to Indiana, like one of our members recently did, really needs to be the same, whether it's coming from us or from a chapters. So we really work together to make sure that the information that we're putting out about forensic nursing science practice is in our vision, right, where we want to go with forensics nursing really needs to be consistent out in the world. And, Jen, can you talk about our vision of ethical practice? Sure. So for years, IFN had an actual code of ethics, and much like the American Nurses Association code of ethics, and at one point or another, and actually Susan can probably speak to exactly when this took place, as I recall, historically, but it was a movement toward a vision of ethical practice versus a specific code. So I saw you nod your head, Susan, so I think I'm remembering correctly, you want to speak to this a little bit. So I think one of the things that goes to the central part of IFN is we are not a regulatory body. We are not in a position to regulate practice, and typically when you have a code of ethics, then you have to have some way of enforcing that, and we had looked at some recent legal cases where one of the medical associations spent $250,000 defending their code of ethics in court, and we felt like we really didn't have the capacity to do that, and we also believe that that is truly the role of the boards of nursing of each state and each country, the regulatory, the licensing agencies need to take charge of whether or not practice is appropriate, but at the same time, we wanted our members to recognize that there are ethical standards that we should be following, and that's how we developed the vision of ethical practice as something we should aspire to, but in reality, violations most likely could be violations of your nurse practice act, and they would then need to be handled through your board of nursing, but not IFN. And you can see, you know, you can see the basic tenets of it with honesty and fairness, and responsibility, and so forth. The idea is that, and I think this applies to all nurses, not just forensic nurses, but that we hold ourselves to these, and we should hold one another to these as well, so that really is our vision, our vision of ethical practice is that our members are expected to aspire to the highest standards of ethical nursing practice. Ethics are well outlined in the scope and standards of practice, and the code of ethics for nursing well defines them, too. And again, the only thing we can do to a nurse is take away their membership, if they are not meeting their ethical obligations, and again, they would have to really have breached a very high standard of ethical practice. The reality of it is we tend to refer these issues back to the boards of nursing. And it's a little bit different insofar as things like certification go. So we're a membership association, but the certification commission really oversees that certification process, and there are rules, separate and distinct rules, that are expected to be abided by inside of certification, so violation of those rules, you're convicted of a felony, for instance, right, and your certification can be taken away. You tend not to see things like that inside membership with regard to membership being taken away. But certification is a different thing altogether. So it does a little bit depend on the circumstance, but again, like Susan said, we're a membership association, not a regulatory body. Thanks. And, you know, stuff does come up, right, that is contrary to your ethical practice, and I think we'll talk a little bit about this on the next slide, too. And this is another, I think, service that we provide slash partner with the chapters around is really, if there are things going on in your state, trying to strategize on how to either address them or educate around them, right, because we're not going to say there are no problems, and we're not going to say that, yeah, they don't exist, right, but I think part of what we do is do try to educate around them, right, we always, I think, lead with the best intentions that maybe this is a lack of knowledge that's maybe creating misbehavior or, you know, something else that maybe we can address, but we do frequently have strategy meetings with chapter officers if things are happening that you're seeing that you, you know, want assistance with or you want to make sure you have a good policy around. So and sometimes that's meeting with leadership at IAFN for strategies, and sometimes that is, you know, working with a TA provider if it's really practice specific. Jen, do you want to talk a little bit about this, too? Yeah. So, you know, I mean, I don't think this comes as a, you know, galloping surprise to anyone on this call, but at least within the nursing community, nurses are known for the quote unquote eating their own reputation, right, and you don't come by that without actually having some experience with it, right, but we are an anti-violence organization, and bullying constitutes violence, and we certainly have spoken to leaders inside the association where they have experienced some of this, and one of the, you know, one of the important, in fact, Megan and I were even talking about it this morning in reference to something else, but one of the most important things that we bring to this specialty is our ability to communicate ethically, and communicating ethically means that you can have those crucial conversations with people when they need to be had, and you can feel safe in doing that, right, and bullying is the opposite of that, but we want the leadership in this association, whether it's at the chapter level or the association level, to not engage in these behaviors, to have ethical communication when they need to, to have the conversations necessary, and with the expectation that if there is bullying behavior going on, that it's stopped, because none of us should be put in that position, and we don't want to see any of our colleagues put in that position. The chapter should never hesitate to talk to us if they have issues like this going on. What I would say is you should also be prepared to have the conversation with the individuals involved as well, in a professional manner, because I feel like unless things get communicated clearly, there can often be confusion and distress when there may not need to be. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Christina. I think that's pretty perfect. We're going to talk a little more about ethical communication in the next hour as well, so we'll dive into some actual examples there. We want to talk a little bit about our strategic plan. There are six pillars in our strategic plan, and they're on the slide here, so we can talk about them specifically, but I think something that the strategic plan pillars do for me personally is knowing these are our values, our goals, where we're headed. I actually have these written down on a sticky note near my desk, and whenever I'm making decisions, I look at this, and I say, what bucket does it fall into? Am I headed in a direction that's consistent with who we are as an organization, or am I not? I think that knowing our mission vision, what we talked about a little bit earlier, where we're headed, what our goals are, but then also thinking about these pillars. I keep talking about the foundation, but these are the pillars that hold up our house. I think for the chapters, thinking about access, whether it's access to education for your members, whether it's access to forensic exams, the trainings that you're offering, are they consistent with these six things? If the answer is no, you don't do it. Are the decisions that you're making consistent with one of these six things? The answer is no, you don't do it. I think sometimes the chapters get a little bit beyond their mission, or sometimes some of the conflict that's created among or between chapter officers is when there's maybe not that clarity around the mission. Just being aware of the mission, our overall goals, but also these pillars, I think really helps clarify what the chapter should be talking about, what direction you should be walking, what road you're on, because sometimes chapters get, and we all do, anytime you get a group of people together, sometimes we get off the road and maybe are hanging out at a pond instead of continuing to move forward on our goals. I just want to share this here, because I think social justice is critical. This is part of what we do, because we want access to forensic exams for everyone, and we want when everyone shows up, we want them to be trauma-informed. We want compassionate care. If we don't think about that in terms of social justice, then that's not going to be the experience that our patients receive or our coworkers receive in their area of employment. There's a lot of ways that social justice permeates all of what we do. We've talked a lot about access. That's huge. Access to careers for forensic nurses, access to forensic nurses, education. We talk about that a lot as well. On the global network, we've covered research. I think the one thing about research that I didn't cover is that we actually offer research awards to members as well, and that's relatively new. It was up a couple years ago. I think that's something to mention. Then public awareness. We do a lot of education about what forensic nurses are, and our lobbying really ties into that. We want to make sure people know what forensic nurses are, where they are in the state, what they're doing. We want to make sure that the laws support these other aspects as well. Anything else you want to add there? I would just say, if ever you feel like you have gone off the beaten path, or what we call going down a rabbit hole and away from the strategic vision of the association, you should not, as chapter leaders, you should never hesitate, and I think you all know this, to reach out to Christina or myself, or frankly, any staff person at IFN, if you just need to do a check-in on something. I feel like we're all pretty readily available for folks when things like that happen. Bear with me while I flip through those. Something else we want to talk about that kind of guide our, our vision, our ethics, and that we really need to speak about one voice on our position papers. And these come into play for chapter officers in particular because if there is something going on locally. Sometimes chapter officers will contact me and they won't know that we have a position paper on something so a position paper has been researched, it's been put in front of our membership, it's been approved by the board it's gone through this pretty extensive process before it becomes a position of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and you, you have them you have to talk to them and you know referring to them knowing knowing what we have position papers on, but also knowing they're a tool for you in your community with your members among yourselves as a board if you do have to make decisions about something. I think that that's really important they're on our website they're readily available. And any member can submit a position statement so I think that's another way that the organization is really accessible to our members, is that we're listening to them so if there is something that you feel that is really important you can approach us about it, or submit a draft position paper as well. And then in November we do have an open office hours on position papers like what that looks like how to submit it in the process. Jenny came off mute, sir. I just was going to say it, you know, it would be submitted to the board. Right. So, you can get a position paper draft to the board through any staff person at the association or you can go directly to a board member. One of those is acceptable I wouldn't want it, but a draft from a member posted on the community, because it would leave members with the idea that it was posted for member comment, but there but there is a true process right so the any position paper that's created, most often by staff people staff, create the position papers sometimes board members do as well. All of that gets filtered through the board the board makes all of their edits to it. And when the board has finalized it goes to the member community for comment for a two week period of time. And then whatever comments have been submitted by staff along with the evidence based supporting those things that gets resubmitted to the board further edit and finalization before it's posted on the website. And it's also now published in the journal. So, so that it can be used as you know reference for for you folks as well so I encourage you to take a look at the list that's available. And make sure you know what those things are because they can be very useful when you're trying to sway public opinion on a matter particularly when you're doing public policy work. Excellent. Thanks, Jen. And then I just want to mention kind of quickly committee is so I think a lot of our chapter officers are also on committees which is great. I don't know how you all have the time to do everything you do I find you mostly all very incredible, which is, is is awesome you impress me all the time. But I think knowing what committees we have, even the ones you're not on is another way to talk to your members about their opportunities to build their leadership skills right because particularly for members that might not work in a big institution they don't have opportunities to become or grow their mentoring their leadership skills locally so they they do do that through their professional organization. We have a lot of different committees that we really love to have folks join. And so I put a couple of here, and there's a range of things. And there's a few more here so the government affairs committee, the membership committee you can join any time on those you just email me I'm on both of those. And yeah, there's a plethora of committees and opportunities. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the journal that you got access as a member. But this is another thing that I think when you talk to your members about, it's really important because we're always accepting submissions, and they're actually right now. So the journals and another way for members to get involved in building the forensic nursing, the body of research where we are, and moving things forward. And I think something to that people don't always know is that if you're not a researcher but you're, you know, a bedside nurse and you actually are seeing patients and you have a experience that you do want to write an article about the journal is happy if it's appropriate and everything there's, you know, a couple things but really to get that information out whatever it is that may be, you know, happen during that encounter or, you know, if there's something that might move the practice forward that other folks should know about but this is another thing that I think people, if they're not into research haven't gone through this process yet have some intimidation about but this is something you can refer members to. And then we did update the website recently and if we had some extra time I was going to walk you through some of that. But I'm going to skip that because we're almost at time today but I do really encourage you all to go on and just make sure that you're familiar with the website and where things are if you do need to get folks access to it, and I'm sure that the question that you're looking at is for me to show you how your members can join. And we will have that video to you very shortly and we finally got the information from our, our tech folks, so you will have that video I know that's really important and we've But we are, I think at the conclusion of this PowerPoint present this part of our orientation. So thank you all for being so kind in the comments, I'll throw that out there I really appreciate that it is a pleasure to work with all of you. Yeah, does anybody have any questions that we can answer in the last few minutes. I appreciate that you've all been here for sitting for an hour and we have a lot to get through in the next two hours as well so thank you all so much and we'll see you back here in five minutes.

Officer Orientation

Getting to Know IAFN

Member Participation

Webinar

IAFN Organization

Resources and Benefits

History and Structure of IAFN

Goals of IAFN

Ethical Practice