The NSNA Convention has many breakout sessions anywhere from “Med-Surge Made Easy” to “Working with Cancer Patients –What You Need To Know!” However, each morning the whole convention meets at the Plenary Session for the only time each day that all of the NSNA Convention guests are together and unite for the betterment of the Nursing profession. Dr. Susan Hassmiller, the Senior Advisor for Nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, gave the keynote speech about the future of nursing where she called upon nursing students to make a positive change and widen the scope of practice of RNs and Nurse Practitioners. The campaign has already been successful in advancing nursing education, practice, leadership, diversity, and interprofessional collaboration. We all left feeling inspired and wanted to be a part of a campaign that already has accomplished so much.
Later in the day, we visited the exhibition hall with hundreds of schools for degree advancement, hospitals for employment, and different NCLEX prep courses that are available. We got a lot of valuable information and free goodies, the fan favorite had to be a selfie-stick given out by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. We all took some awesome selfies and put our new gifts to good use! Kaplan already has given Emory an amazing special for an NCLEX prep course, but at the exhibition a five-question test was available and if someone scored a 100, the course would be given for free. Only three people out of thousands got the perfect score and 2/3 were our very own Lindsay Davis and Christie Wehner! Erin Reeves also made Emory proud today when she presented her Resolution on the harmful effects of e-cigarettes and the need for federal regulation at the House of Delegates. Not only did Erin do an incredible job in presenting the resolution, but also fellow nursing students across the country only spoke in favor to the resolution and none against. Nursing students are always making Emory proud.
The Georgia caucus met with the Georgia Association of Nursing Students and Emory had a big showing to the caucus to not only represent Emory but also our incredible state of Georgia. The Council of Student Leaders Convention was discussed and this symmer it will be held in Macon, Georgia. For any Emory students interested in going, please refer your questions to the amazing Emory students on the GANS Board, Rajeeyah Hunt-Strong and Raissa Mutuyimana. After a long, informative day at NSNA, all thirty students and our wonderful faculty, Kathy Markowski, Terri Ades, Sally Lehr, and Arnita Howard, went to unwind together at a cute little British-style cottage restaurant. We spent the night playing cornhole and eating some authentic British food like fish & chips or bangers & mash. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day and we’re excited to do it all again for Day 3 of the NSNA Convention tomorrow!
