Volume 5, Issue 1
In This Issue: Letter from the President | Online Education-Can it Work at Your Facility? | They Broke the Rules and Founded Sigma Theta Tau International | Making the Most of Your Membership
Learn more about knowledge resources and continuing education in this issue of Create the Future.
Letter from the President
Dear honor society members,
The theme for this issue of Create the Future is building and disseminating knowledge resources. The honor society has long been recognized as a thought leader in nursing knowledge generation, utilization and dissemination. Traditional initiatives have included connecting nurses in academic settings around the world through the International Academic Nursing Alliance (IANA) and connecting users with nursing research resources through the Virginia Henderson Library. More contemporary efforts are directed at developing a fully integrated ‘knowledge portal’ to improve and maximize user experience, share knowledge, develop leaders, celebrate community service involvement, create a sense of community and connect nurses worldwide regardless of their specialty practice, geographic location, and language spoken.
Indeed, being a source for nursing knowledge is a unique “hallmark” of the honor society, with a focus group of young members recently suggesting that the honor society is the “go to” for information. Yet knowledge needs and wants are dynamic. Even knowledge itself is so dynamic that traditional means of securing and disseminating knowledge are far too slow for most users. As a result, many contemporary organizations, including the honor society, are considering peer production or open-source modeling to accelerate knowledge development and acquisition. In open-source modeling, electronic communities work together to create cutting edge, online knowledge repositories. Given this organization’s collective knowledge in terms of research, leadership and excellence in clinical practice, the honor society’s potential for creating a comprehensive knowledge repository that meets the learning and practice needs of nurses worldwide is enormous.
Exploring new models such as open-source modeling requires taking risks and developing new ways of thinking. Coyne, Clifford and Dye, in the December 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review, suggest that “the most fertile questions focus the mind on a subset of possibilities that differ markedly from those explored before, guiding people to valuable overlooked corners of the universe, or possible improvements” (p. 75). They go on to suggest that this type of breakthrough thinking does not necessarily occur from thinking outside the box; nor does it occur from thinking within one’s usual box. Instead, they suggest that it occurs most often when individuals are given a new box and asked to think inside that.
So, the charge to leaders within this organization is to embrace new ways of thinking about how best to assure that the honor society continues to be a thought leader in the development, acquisition, and dissemination of nursing knowledge. This is part of the charge which has been given to the Research and Scholarship Advisory Council and the Nursing Knowledge International board of directors, one of the three honor society subsidiaries. You will hear more in the coming biennium from both groups and honor society leaders about innovative strategies this organization is considering. The honor society will continue to be a global leader in nursing by embracing new knowledge creation and acquisition strategies. As always, I invite your input and ideas as we begin this journey together.
Carol J. Huston
Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International
2007-2009 President
Feature Articles
Online Education-Can it Work at Your Facility?
Nursezone.com
by By Karen Siroky, RN, MSN
Can your staff be "active" learners in an online education environment? Diane Billings, Ed.D., RN, FAAN, and Pam Jeffries, DNs, RN, enthusiastically say, "Yes!" The two educators from the University of Indiana Center for Teaching and Lifelong Learning are creators and educators of many online courses and education systems. Read more.
They Broke the Rules and Founded Sigma Theta Tau International
by Sally Brosz Hardin
The world was different in 1922, when the founders of Sigma Theta Tau International graduated from Indiana University Training School, but this small group of thoughtful citizens founded an honor society that—85 years later—is committed “to create a global community of nurses who lead in using knowledge, scholarship, service and learning to improve the health of the world’s people.” Read the story. Read the story.
Making the Most of Your Membership
Lean more about the honor society’s many knowledge resources:
If you would like to offer your thoughts and experiences for inclusion in this newsletter, please contact marketing@stti.iupui.edu.