A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Kim Cahill, R.N., BSN
Hello PADDNN,
I hope everyone is finding some time to enjoy the sun and summer fun with family and friends. Hard to believe we are into mid-summer already and that soon it will be back to school time and time for our quarterly meeting on September 8, at the Lackawanna County Center for Public Safety. The education committee is in the process of arranging the line-up of speakers for that meeting, so stay tuned on paddnn.com, as arrangements are finalized. Additionally, I hope everyone has been enjoying the movie clips Melody-Wolf has been forwarding regarding our 6th Annual Educational Conference, scheduled for October 13, 2010, at the Eden Resort in Lancaster. We are very excited about this year’s event. Covering topics from Wound Care and GI problems in I/DD, to Comple-mentary Medicine and "Lipodemia" for nurses, this year’s conference will examine new topics for both consumers and nurses, seeking to improve health outcomes for all. The education committee has been working tirelessly to bring you interesting topics and pro-vide CEUs at our meetings. Special thanks to Ramona Bosse and Jack Toomey for their efforts.
Please join the Scholarship Committee in congratulating the 2010 PADDNN Conference winners: Diane Smith RN, Linda Dutrow – Geisinger -Central HCQU, and Kathy Halibur-ton –ACHEIVA. These lucky ladies won an overnight stay at the Eden resort and free admission to our 6th annual conference, at the drawings held in December.
We continue to break records for involvement in PADDNN, thanks to all of you! We are now at 190 members strong, and growing, at a time when most organizations are strug-gling with decreasing memberships and activities due to the poor economic situation. Thanks to Sandy Corrigan and Ronda Dysinger for their efforts in heading up the mem-bership committee. We have developed a post card mailer that will be sent out early January to continue efforts in recruitment of student nurses to our organization. Our goal is to heighten awareness of the I/DD field through outreach to this population. If you know of a nurse working in the field, help extend our reach by informing them about PADDNN and directing them to the membership page on our website. There, they can print and complete a membership form. Many advance thanks for your individual recruit-ment efforts! Our June meeting was held in the Northwest, in Erie, PA. Amy Will was a life saver in
arranging speakers and helping Ramona to assure the success of this meeting. Jonathan Will Esq., presented the topic, "End of Life decision Making in Persons with I/DD". PADDNN thanks our sponsor The Barber National Institute for a successful June quarterly meeting. Minutes and trainings will be available soon on "About PADDNN" and "News/ Updates "page of the website. Thanks also Nita for your hospitality in Erie.
If there is any member unaware, we wish to congratulate all of PADDNN for receipt of the DDNA’s 2010 National Recognition Award for Outstanding Network Achievement 2010! We were so proud to ac-cept this award on behalf of all of you at DDNA’s Annual Conference in Reno, Nevada. Pennsylvania was well repre-sented in Reno, and we had an excellent time networking together and with nurses across the nation who shares our passion for the field of I/DD nursing. Conference highlights and photos can be found on DDNA’s website. Additionally, DDNA members who were unable to attend will be able to purchase the presentations at www.ddna.org