INSIDE AVA

INSIDE AVA: NOTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE TEAM

Cate Brennan, MBA, CAE, AVA Chief Executive Officer

Tonya Hutchison, CAE,

AVA Chief Operations Officer

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

The last few months have been busy ones for AVA volunteers and staff. Tonya and I are pleased to announce that Jennifer Finlayson joined the staff as our muchneeded Administrative Assistant in April. Here are a few of the highlights, in case you missed them.

NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

The Board of Directors approved a new strategic plan in February. The plan focuses on the member benefits AVA does best: providing the best-quality continuing education to improve clinical practice and workforce entry, featuring the Fundamentals of PIV 3-part course.

New in this updated plan is a focus on building awareness of the value of vascular access specialists with employers, public policy makers, and like-minded organizations. AVA has a renewed focus on advocating for VA clinicians and patients. Advocacy takes many forms, including Vascular Access Specialty Day and demonstrating that AVA is the dominant thought leader in vascular access. The Board also put a special emphasis on diversifying AVA’s membership. We want membership to mirror the multi-disciplinary healthcare teams found in your workplace. Please help us recruit more physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists, and others in order to strengthen AVA’s voice and impact.

CARES BY AVA

Working with the over 50 AVA Networks, a joint membership recruitment and retention campaign was launched: CARES by AVA. CARES stands for Competency • Action • Results • Education • Satisfaction. This marks the first time AVA and its networks have had a coordinated effort to recruit new members to both AVA and its Networks. An important aspect of CARES is that AVA can now collect dues for the Network. Being able to pay both Network and national dues is a huge convenience for our future and current members. A big “thank you” to MOKanVAN and COVAN for being the first to sign up! New members to AVA also receive a special, one-time discount of 20 percent off, which makes first-year dues $99. If your Network hasn’t signed up for CARES yet, contact cbrennan@avainfo.org.

NEW INDUSTRY PARTNERS

AVA is pleased to introduce its new Industry Partners:

AccuVein – Its corporate statement is, “AccuVein is a global leader in medical imaging solutions. Vein illumination with our breakthrough device, allows health care professionals to see a map of peripheral veins on the skin’s surface with the goal of improving venipuncture, the most commonly performed invasive medical procedure, and other vascular access procedures.” CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 5

6 INSIDE AVA: NOTES FROM THE EXECUTIVE TEAM, CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Ben GuardTM – Its corporate statement is, “Ben Guard™ is dedicated to changing the standard of care, in pediatric catheter securement, creating a safer environment for children and their caregivers, preventing serious and expensive complications and subsequent hospitalizations.”

CareAline Products – Its mission statement is, “At CareAline, our mission is to help patients live safely and fully by providing clinically proven vascular access securement devices to hospitals and patients. Our goal is to increase safety, comfort, and quality of life for patients in the hospital and at home.”

Gus Gear Inc. – Its mission statement is, “Our vision is for our products to be the standard of care and have them be available to as many individuals as possible. We work on seeing this vision through by assisting those with financial hardship through resources and advice to get support from clinics and companies to gain access to our life-changing products.”

Mighty Well Inc. – Its corporate statement is, “Mighty Well designs innovative and stylish Adaptive Wear that transforms the patient experience, enabling users to maintain dignity and confidence while securing their medical devices. Mighty Well also cultivates and supports a robust patient and caregiver community of Friends in the Fight.” AVA is pleased to partner with the company on its Ultimate PICC Guide.

MAKING FRIENDS AND BUILDING FRIENDSHIPS

AVA Board announced priority organizations for ongoing outreach for their potential ability to support AVA’s strategic goals and impact.

1. American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) 2. American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) 3. American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) 4. American Society of Nephrology (ASN) 5. Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) 6. Infusion Nurses Society (INS) 7. Oncology Nurses Society (ONS) 8. Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR)

HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT’S NEW IN JAVA AND IQ?

✓ AVA has partnered with British Journal of Nursing (BJN) to provide complimentary 30-day access to its BJN IV and Vascular Access supplemental issues, published January, April, July, and

October.

✓ AVA has secured supplement articles from British Journal of Nursing in its Spring and Summer issues

✓ Special issue of Intravascular Quarterly in May. This special issue focuses on the value of VA specialist and teams. Please distribute to your CNOs, CMOs, risk management, professional education and compliance colleagues.

✓ JAVA is recruiting for a new Editor-in-Chief. Contact cbrennan@avainfo.org for details