Student Nurses Association - need help!

[CountrifiedRN]

Is anyone (or has anyone been) an officer for their student nurses association? The senior class is wanting to find someone to replace their officers (all five of the officers are seniors), and we are supposed to vote on nominees in about a week. So far no one is interested in doing it, so I'm thinking about stepping up to keep the SNA going for future classes.

What I was wondering is how much time needs to be devoted to it, and what was your experience.

The SNA seniors (only five of them who were willing) had started without much help or knowledge because the previous two classes weren't interested in doing it. In the past two semesters there were only two meetings for the SNA, and one special project for Christmas. They had good intentions, but just didn't have much support from classmates. We have nothing that really describes the duties of each officer, or what we are supposed to do.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

[crnasomeday]

What a familiar situation! I'm currently the SNA secretary at my school, and just like the situation you described, we have no one to run for officers for the next academic year. I think personally that SNA at my school has finally met its demise. It's been a long time coming though. We get so bogged down with course work and clinical time that no one has time to devote to SNA activities, and I can totally understand. I've seen past officers who have gone in with good GPAs (you have to have at least a 3.0 to be an officer) end up flunking classes during their time as officers because they just ended up with too much on their plate. It's a lot to deal with, and we also haven't had much support from our classmates. . .not that I blame them, however, because we all have soooooo much to do, and too little time in which to do it.

[Genista, BSN, RN]

I was a newsletter editor/board member for my student nurse association in nursing school 4 years ago. I probably put in 6-8 hrs per issue of the newsletter (monthly) and another 3 hrs +/- per month for coordinating SNA meetings & participating in community activities/fundraisers. We had the occasional one day/ month devoted to community service or fundraising events as well.We too, had trouble getting nursing students to participate. Many students were busy w/ school, family & other obligations & SNA was the last on their mind. 9 out of 10 times, I had to come up with my own articles for our newletter.Before I joined the board, I had "envisioned" myself mostly as editor (reality, I was author/editor, ha ha).But since I did not receive submissions, I had to find my own material. ;-) It is a great experience, though. The trip to the State convention was very exciting. If your chapter goes to state & national conventions, it is very motivating. You can network with other SNAs & get some wonderful ideas. Please think about it. I really enjoyed it. ;-)

PS- Here's an idea that we used... at the end of each "term" the previous SNA board members take the new board members out to dinner & they hand over a binder of information & tips for the new board member who is replacing them. If you need basic SNA info, contact the NSNA or your state SNA for guidelines. But it does help to have some info & not feel like you are starting from scratch.

Here's the North Carolina Student Nurse Assoc. chapter:

http://www.ncans.com/

and the National Student Nurses Association:

http://www.nsna.org/

[BurnerKG]

i am president of SNA at my school. it really isn't that time consuming at my school. all we have is guest speakers, go over info and ask about future fund raisers. our meetings are 2 times a month. it's all how you have the organization set up

[peaceful2100, BSN, RN]

I am in a similar position. All the officers of the student nurse chapter at my school are graduating and so far there is not much interest in it. So I am thinking of becoming president. As a matter of fact I am meeting next week with the nursing instructor who oversee's it.

[CountrifiedRN]

Thanks for the links, Kona2. It figures that on the ncans site my district is the only one without a representative!

I just want to figure out what we are supposed to do, as an association, if we continue. What are the benefits of joining a student nurse association, other than putting it on your resume? Having a clear mission might help to get others involved.

I plan on discussing it with the instructor who is listed as a contact for the association, but I want to know what I am getting into before I make my interest in a position known. We are scheduled to vote one week from monday.

The officer positions in this group are president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and historian.

I do have some ideas, like starting a monthly newsletter, starting a mentoring team for incoming students, some type of community service project, and having monthly meetings with guest speakers and to organize fundraisers. But are these things the types of activities that most organizations do, or is the association more for political nursing issues?

And one of the problems I foresee is motivation for other students to take time from their busy schedules to participate. I also don't want to get "stuck" taking responsibility for ALL of these projects, I'll need time to study too!

A long time ago, I was president of a support group for Navy wives of a particular ship when it went out to sea, so I know how much work goes into something like this if it is to be successful.

Anyone have any good tips on how to organize events and increase participation?