Leading Change: Building Healthier Nations

American Nurses Credentialing Center President Debbie Hatmaker, PhD, RN-BC, SANE-A, and Executive Director Jeanne Floyd PHD, RN, CAE, recently participated in the International Council of Nurses (ICN) meeting in Durban, South Africa. ANCC participates in this meeting as a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association, the organizational representative from the United States. Some highlights of the meeting included:

ANCC sponsored a meeting of the Middle East Task Force, a group of Middle East chief nursing officers who are interested in accreditation, certification, Magnet®, and Pathway to Excellence® recognition. The discussion was rich and included a celebration of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon's six-year journey to earn Magnet recognition. The Magnet staff in Silver Spring arranged with the AUB staff to make the announcement live via electronic connection. Staff at ANCC saw everyone in the hospital's auditorium, spoke with them, and later learned that it was like a wedding with patients hearing the announcement over the PA system and joining the staff in the halls to celebrate. The chief nursing officer, Gladys Mouro, glowed as she repeated the story. She plans to escort 20 of the AUB nurses to the National Magnet Conference in Louisville, KY on October 1. Gladys and the AUB President call their journey as one being "against all odds of achieving success." They touched our hearts with the stories of their valor during the two wars that occurred while they were on the Magnet Journey.

A panel of distinguished nurses presented a session on "Magnet as a Strategic Platform for Improving Nurse Proactive Environments in the Middle East". The presentation introduced ANCC's Magnet Recognition Program® and its international activities, posed the question of whether a healthcare facility could be developed by applying the Magnet Model as the guiding framework, highlighted expected outcomes of a pilot project in Dubai, and showcased the AUB Journey to Magnet Excellence. Presenters at this meeting included:

• Linda Aiken, PhD, FAAN, FRCN, RN
  Director
  Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research
  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

• Lauren Arnold, PhD, RN
  Chief Nursing Officer
  University Hospital, Dubai

• Jeanne M. Floyd, PhD, RN, CAE
  Executive Director
  American Nurses Credentialing Center
  Silver Spring, MD

• Gladys Mouro, MSN, RN
  Assistant Hospital Director
  American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon

• Fatima Al Rifai, PhD, RN
  Director
  Federal Department of Nursing, Ministry of Health, UAE

For several years, ANCC (on behalf of ANCC, ANA, and ANF) has donated $5,000 (pledged annually for five years) to the Girl-Child Education Fund, sponsored by ICN. Girl children of African nurses who have died, primarily of AIDS, are enrolled in schools that address all of their health, education, and social needs.

During the luncheon, a keynote address was made by a young woman who recently graduated from high school under the auspices of the Girl-Child Project. Her remarks were poignant in that when she and her sisters were invited to enroll in school, the family was destitute and literally without food. Before us stood a confident young woman who wanted to go to college to become an accountant and to join that profession to a singing career. She wrote a song of thanks and sang it to the group. She humbly ended by saying, "I often wonder, Why me—Why was I selected to be so fortunate?" All of us knew why she was chosen. She has great things to tackle in life, and now she will have the opportunity to do so.