Exploring the Power of You: The RN

A fundraising and chapter meeting was held on October 28, 2014. The event was unique in that it included a film viewing and a Talk-Back with the producer of the film and engaged the community of nurses and health systems. The local chapter leadership of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society (STTI) was looking for a new way to recruit members as well as a way to recognize and highlight nursing while increasing the visibility of the chapter. One hallmark of a successful organization is the ability of the leaders to effectively collaborate and communicate to bring about successful change and opportunities for engagement (Akans et al., 2013). As the leadership of the local STTI chapter brainstormed ideas for meetings and engagement, they determined to host a film viewing of An American Nurse – a documentary that depicts nursing and the diversity of nurses along with a Talk-Back via Skype with the producer of the film. The film viewing idea began as a way to bring recognition to nurses and soon blossomed into a fundraising event, community partnership development, fundraising and collaborative educational opportunities with local colleges.

This poster presentation is intended to provide chapter leaders with information and resources to assist other chapters with events that are designed to bring recognition to nurses and to the STTI chapters. The intention of this presentation is to serve as a catalyst for the generation of ideas for increased membership growth, partnerships and fundraising opportunities and visibility – all methods demonstrated to increase chapter sustainability (Akans et al., 2013). This poster will include a description of the processes of obtaining viewing rights to the film, coordinating with the producer of the film for the Talk-Back, and utilizing the available online resources related to the film for group discussion of the film at the event. Also included will be descriptions of how the viewing was publicized and the multiple steps needed to secure adequate technology at the host STTI School for the film viewing.

This poster presentation is also intended to describe various methods of fundraising that were associated with the film viewing event. Fundraising is vitally important to sustainability of non-profit organizations and is the responsibility of the leaders of the organization (Whitney & Gale, 2015). As the viewing began to generate interest the leadership team of the chapter recognized an ability to raise funds for the local STTI chapter. The local chapter leaders began to develop fundraising strategies including a basket raffle, 50/50 raffle and charging of admission as a means of meeting the costs associated with screening the film. A description of the budget for the film viewing as well as the total income following the viewing will be available.

Finally, this poster presentation will demonstrate how the chapter engaged with the local community in an effort to increase visibility of the chapter, recruit potential members to STTI, collaborate with local health care systems as leaders in the local market and offer educational support to local colleges and students pursuing nursing degrees. Partnerships are one way to build sustainable organizations leading to potential benefits of professional development, mentoring, leadership development, networking and advocacy (Whitney & Gale, 2015). Partnerships also increase an organizations’ visibility while building strong collegial relationships (Caughlin, Crain and Sherwood, 2014). This poster will describe the various benefits realized through community collaborations.

The presenter will be available during the poster presentation session to answer questions and discuss how other chapters could discover ways that participants can tailor the information to best fit their chapters’ individual needs for future chapter programs designed to collaborate, fundraise and recruit new members.

References

Akans, M., Harrington, M., McCash, J., Childs, A., Gripentrog, J., Cole, S., & ... Fuehr, P. (2013). Cultivating future nurse leaders with student nurses associations. Nursing For Women's Health, 17(4), 343-346. doi:10.1111/1751-486X.12054

Caughlin, D. E., Crain, T. L., & Sherwood, J. A. (2014). Gaining visibility for your program: Working in local and broader communities. TIP: The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 52(1), 68-73.

Whitney, K. B. & Gale, S. A. (2015). Positioning professional membership organizations for success: Achieving sustainability. Nurse Leader, 13(1), 55-57, 61. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2014.11.008