Saturday, November 12, 2005: 2:45 PM-4:00 PM
Special Session: Community Building Open Forum Supported by the Chapter/Community Building Advisory Council
Learning Objective #1: Participants will learn about the work of the Chapter/Community Building Advisory council, discuss their vision of a global community of nurses, and begin to build a shared vision of a global nursing community for the organization.
Learning Objective #2: Participants will gain an understanding of the key components of community building, learn how community is strengthened, discuss how technology can be used to build community , and discover what nurses will be able to do some day through communities.
As a future strategic direction, the Board of Directors is enabling the honor society to envision and build strong communities by continuing the work of the Chapter/Community Building Council. This global community, as the advisory council envisions it, will contain intersecting core communities. The core communities of the society would include knowledge, service and learning communities, encircled by four key components of organizational focus: nursing leadership, social responsibility, nursing excellence and sustainability. Knowledge communities will enable nurses to develop and disseminate the body of information necessary to improve health for all. Service communities are where nurses will apply knowledge and leadership in order to provide care that makes a difference. Learning communities will enable the ongoing educational and professional development of all students and nurses across the span of their careers. A central piece to the model is the center, or hub, where all communities overlap. This is identified by the Greek word Koinonia, which means close relationship, sharing, association, generosity. Koinonia represents to Sigma Theta Tau International that being relationship-centered, community-centered is at the heart of the organization. As part of our journey to build a strong global community, we can start by dreaming together about how communities could become real, what they would look like, how they would meet the needs of nurses across the globe, and begin by creating communities of interest to you and your colleagues. During the next several months, there will be many opportunities for discussion. The goal is to engage in “every-logue” where each person contributes to the community building conversation. By beginning the conversation, we can build our collective vision for what a global community of nurses can be.
Organizer:	Karen M. Pehrson, MS, APRN, (BC)
Presenter:	Karen M. Pehrson, MS, APRN, (BC)

Sigma Theta Tau International
38th Biennial Convention - Clinical Sessions
November 12-13, 2005
Indianapolis, IN