Prof. Dr. Maria Müller Staub (PhD, EdN, MNS, RN, FEANS)
Dear ACENDIO members,
I hope you and your loved ones are healthy despite the problems that the Covid19 pandemic has brought worldwide. Since the beginning of this year, many things changed in our personal lives: Nurses face big challenges in caring for patients and their families, and educators / families (and others) with further issues such as online schooling/home office. As in former difficult times, nurses are at the center of treating and preventing this new illness, and not few were affected and even lost their lives. The shortage of masks, disinfectants and other supplies is only part of the whole picture. Downsizing the nursing workforce took place long before and is a part of ‘economizing the health care market’ that is weakening health care worldwide.
This crisis shows how vulnerable we as humans are, and that solidarity and being there for each other is most important. Supporting others (with physical distance), such as by calling or even by writing letters, was – and still is – encouraging during lockdowns. Paying thoughtful attention, respectfully performing preventive measures and taking care of others and oneself have shown to be essential, and helped to overcome difficult situations. The effect of becoming more caring societies is encouraging and strengthening.
As you know, ACENDIO had to cancel the eHealth Workshop in St. Pölten (March 20) including the Jubilee Dinner and General Assembly. We are now planning the 13 th ACENCIO Conference with the title: SUPPORTING AND ADVANCING NURSING PRACTICE: Improving patient outcomes through eHealth. We plan to offer the two eHealth Workshops and the festivities in Groningen, March 18-21, 2021.
The ACENDIO board is surveilling the Covid-19 situation, and we prolonged the abstract submission and all deadlines. The Scientific Conference Committee (Mariann Fossum and Sergio Barrientos-Trigo) is lucky having a good number of submissions by now, and you can still submit abstracts until September 15th, (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acendio2021). Presenters as well as participants will be informed immediately, should international/national Covid regulations hinder the planned event. A clear and safe refunding policy is in process to make sure you don’t loose the registration fee.
A project group (Fabio D’Agostino, Mariann Fossum, Helen de Graaf-Waar) is working on a new ACENDIO website, member database and automated registration procedures. The Local Organizations Committee seeks means to reach out digitally (Wolter Paans, Rolinka Borkhuis-Koopman from Hanze University, and Helen de Graaf-Waar). In case the conference could not take place in person, we would offer small replacing events and an online General Assembly.
For sure, we stay in contact with you and keep ACENDIO going! Instead of the next board meeting in Sevilla in October, we are now preparing an online board meeting. We are sticking to ACENDIOs strategic plan and ongoing projects (e.g. eHealth Working Groups, website and banking renewal, conference planning). We are proud being able to offer another ACENDIO research grant and invite you to submit your proposal.
Maria Müller Staub
ACENDIO President
