A message from the President, Professor Irena Papadopoulos
ETNA members and friends,
Another year is coming to an end; a year full of excitement and possibilities for ETNA.
This is the time of year we look back and reflect on all the things we have achieved and those which, for whatever reason, we did not manage to address.
So, allow me to share my reflections with you.
We began 2015 gazing towards two big goals we set ourselves for the year: a) The ETNA conference, b) The relaunch of the ETNA website.
A number of people worked very hard to organise the wonderful 4th ETNA conference which took place in beautiful Budapest, Hungary, in June 2015. Everyone who attended the conference had an enriching and enjoyable experience. We left Budapest with lovely memories to treasure for a long time. Thank you everyone for making it such a successful event. The biggest thank you goes to Katalin Papp and Zoltan Balogh for their commitment, compassion, and hard work.
In October we successfully re-launched the ETNA website. The site contains useful information to which we can continuously add and I hope you will all be contributing so that the ETNA resources can be enriched. This can provide the reason for nursing and other healthcare students to visit the site and engage with ETNA. It can also provide the opportunity for you to showcase your work! There are other useful functions of the website clearly and logically designed by our volunteer web designer Sean Collinge ably helped by the ETNA webmaster Alfonso Pezzella. I thank them both very much.
There were of course many other achievements such as for example the establishment of an ETNA facebook page and a twitter account. You can access them both via the ETNA website. Another achievement I must mention is the quarterly newsletter which is produced and edited by Christiana Kouta. This year a number of you contributed news and short articles for the newsletter which was a delight to read. The ETNA members are all over the world and they are making a difference. Thank you Christiana and all contributors.
We have also been exploring the registration of ETNA as a non-profit charity. This work is led by our Vice-President, Eileen Richardson. We have not completed this task but we are getting nearer to it, which will be a marvellous achievement. Thank you, Eileen.
And I have even more achievements to report! News about the forthcoming 5th ETNA conference. Start planning your abstracts and your travel arrangements…we are going to Odense, in marvellous Denmark. We don’t have the exact date yet but it will most probably be the 19th and 20th June 2017. I want to thank Dorthe Nielsen and her team for all the work they have done so far and the work they will be doing during 2016 and 2017!
As I am sure you will all be thinking about the children and families in war and conflict zones, in refugee camps or those trying to navigate their journeys to safety, say a little prayer, make a donation, or any act of compassion which will make the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves more bearable or even a little happier.
I am sure you will agree that ETNA brings us together in so many ways so that we can share our humanity and appreciate each other. I feel blessed to have the ETNA family and I hope you do too.
I wish you all a wonder Christmas break. May the New Year 2016 bring peace, love and understanding to the world!
Warm wishes,
Irena Papadopoulos, London 2015
