Message from the Executive Director
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone managed to take some time to enjoy the holiday season with friends and family. 2011 for CNRC ended with our hugely successful con ference held in Gatineau November 10-12th, 2011. There were about 440 participants at the conference. I’m not sure everyone realizes how much work goes into organizing these conferences but our planning committee started more than a year in advance to put together a program that would be relevant, interesting and entertaining for CAEs and CREs. Special thanks to Chair Lisa Cicutto and committee members Sandra Small, Andrea White Markham, Jennifer Olajos-Clow, Donna Hogg, Marie-France Beauchesne and Patricia Cote.
The A Les McDonald Award for Innovation & Excellence in Respiratory Care & Education was awarded to: Ann Bartlett, RN, MN, CRE from Hamilton, Ontario (right) and Shauna McGhan, RN, MN, CRE (left) from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Congratulations to you both! I will be heading out west shortly to look at hotels for our 2013 conference. As soon as one conference ends, we start working on the next one.
We are busy finally with the Recertification Guide update. I generally receive three or four emails a day about the guide. You will all be given lots of notice when the new guide is available. You can still recertify using the old guide but you can choose to wait (without penalty) until the new guide (and requirements) comes out (probably in about two months time).
Currents in Allergic
Living magazine
I am pleased to share some fantastic news! GlaxoSmithKline Canada has generously agreed to provide us with an unrestricted educational grant to
fund our Currents supplement in
Allergic Living magazine. This has been a great vehicle for us to promote the
work of CNRC and our Certified Asthma and Respiratory Educators as well as use
the magazine to engage in direct patient education.
So once again, we are looking for CAEs and CREs to work on the Spring 2012 issue. Our lead story will
be on "the toll of spring allergies" on work and school. We are
looking for strategies for managing these allergies. The article could also
discuss the implications of our longer growing season on these allergies
(milder winters? climate change?)
We are also looking for volunteers to be profiled in the Q&A section. Each
issue we try to profile a multidisciplinary group of CAEs and CREs from different parts of the country. You can
submit questions of your own or the Allergic Living editors will provide you
with questions. (This would also be a great forum for
you to submit your common patient questions.)
And don't worry if your writing skills are less than print-ready! The
professional writers and editors at Allergic Living magazine make us sound
brilliant! We're looking for subject expertise. Email: cconnors@cnrchome.net if you
would like to volunteer.
TimedRight Update
So far,
we've had 196 CAEs and CREs join our TimedRight group. Discussions have been
created on opportunities to become AQHI trainers, content needed for our Currents Allergic Living supplement, the
possibility of separate COPD certification, information sharing that came out
of the conference in Gatineau, educating in First Nations communities, and telehealth technology.
Michael Reist's New Book Released
Extremely popular CNRC conference
keynote speaker Michael Reist's new book has been
released - Raising Boys in a New Kind of World Michael's provocative and
engaging advice is a must-read for any parents of boys today and for all
educators who are currently working with boys.
From video games to the Internet, technology and popular culture are having a profound effect on today's boys. Raising Boys in a New Kind of World is a passionate call for greater empathy. The more we know about boys, the more realistic our expectations of them will be. We need to stop seeing normal boy behaviour as a problem and learn to understand a boy's need for movement, his unique learning styles, and his personal methods of communicating.
