A President's Call to Action

President Hester Klopper is the first non-North American to take the position of President within STTI. This is probably fitting since the 1st international site opened in her home country of South Africa. Listening to the new President speak you become quickly enticed by her accent to want to hear her. Then once you actually hear what it is she is saying you want even more to soak up every word.

In the President's Call to Action she asked three things of STTI as a community, Serve Locally, Transform Regionally, and Lead Globally. Some of these goals may feel lofty, but in hearing the President explain them it becomes apparent exactly what she means and just how easily this could be accomplished. I'm going to break it down much like the President did in her address to the delegation just to tease out a few other points.

Let's begin with the idea of Serve Locally. This seems like such an easy concept. Its something that nurses do everyday that they practice whether they realize it or not. To serve the community you come from almost seems unnecessary to say to such a accomplished room of individuals, but I think there was a reason this statement is so important. It is not just talking about serving your local community.

Its about serving the communities you do in a way that behooves you to understand their culture. As the organization becomes more global and more nurses begin working outside of the country it is important to never lose sight of meeting our patients where they are at. Its so simple and yet so impactful. Trying to provide people with services they don't need is one of the ways to quickly not only become an irrelevant volunteer, but its also a way to hinder global relationships. We must as nurses approach communities at home and abroad with our knowledge and determine how best we can help them based on what they say not based on what we think.

The next part of the Call to Action was Transform Regionally. I think this part of the call to action is specifically focused on the nurse members. As the nursing world changes, technology expands, treatments become more complicated, and the world diversifies we need to be able to transform ourselves. We need to as a chapter and a region identify the problems the nursing community is facing and determine the best way to change ourselves to suit those needs while maintaining the true spirit of nursing. It is by no means an easy task to examine what is not working with our practice, our chapter, or our region but it is a necessary step to elevating the nursing practice throughout the world.

The final part of the Call to Action was to Lead Globally. This seems pretty self-explanatory but once again I think there may be more than meets the eye. While it is important to be leaders throughout the globe and be a reputable source of care and information for people in need of help and knowledge, I think it is equally important to lead with a global focus. By this I mean that I think when we lead we need to be thinking about how whatever decisions we make are going to affect the world at large. Certain leadership decision that seem simple may have implications that we have not truly recognized. Leading globally we need to begin to be thoughtful and mindful about our decision making process and just how much one simple decision could change things for a group of people we had not considered.

Ultimately the Call to Action is a call to be and do better. The Call to Action is about embodying the values of being a nurse and being a Sigma Theta Tau (Love, Courage, and Honor) nurse specifically. We must Lead Courageously Throughout the Globe, Transform our Regions with Honor and pride, and we must Love the Service we provide to our Local Communities.