Today, Wednesday, April 5, 2017, the BYU Student Nurses Association board are attending the 2017 National Student Nurses Association convention in Dallas, Texas. This year, the BYU team is bringing both dancing shoes for a country hoedown and extra votes with which to influence NSNA policy at the event.
The NSNA convention is a yearly gathering where NSNA members from across the country receive training, vote on bylaws and resolutions, and elect new NSNA officials. Thanks to new initiatives by the BYU SNA board, they now have three votes to use on each resolution.
“With every fifty members of NSNA we have, we get one delegate,” Jessica Small, BYU SNA president, says. “This past year, we’ve been working towards involving our students not only in our local chapter, but at the national level.”
One student, Heather Merrill, is running for a national position in NSNA, with fellow board member Sarah Megan running her campaign. Megan is excited not only for the legislative and election aspects of the convention, but also the chance to learn from other schools.
“I think for me the most exciting thing is that we’ll really get to bond with each other and learn how to work as a board, and get lots of good ideas from a national standpoint of what other people are doing and be able to incorporate that here in our own SNA at BYU,” she says.
Chelsy Foulk, one of the board’s vice presidents, agrees.
“I just think it will be cool to see how different schools approach the same things we’re approaching, and I think it will be good to get leadership experience,” she says.
The multi-day convention offers the BYU board the opportunity to come together as they decide their position on issues and work to positively represent BYU.
“We’re just hoping that this is going to be helpful to become a great cohesive group and learn how to be better leaders,” Small says. “That’s really the ultimate goal of this.”
“I think that we want to portray that [nursing] is more than just grades and being the top of the class and being on all these boards. It’s about who you are as a person,” Foulk adds.
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