Meet TNA’s New Executive Director

We are happy to announce that Cindy Zolnierek, PhD, RN was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Texas Nurses Association.

Cindy has been a “career-long member” of the American Nurses Association, and is passionate about the nursing profession. She served as TNA’s Director of Practice from 2007 to 2011.

Cindy has worked in the nursing profession for over 30 years, as a staff nurse, a clinical nurse specialist, and in nurse executive positions in Michigan and California. She is an expert in adult psychiatric/mental health nursing. Her dissertation entitled The lived experience of non-psychiatric hospitalization for people with severe mental illness explored the experience of people with severe mental illness in medical-surgical settings, as well as how nurses can better serve this population.

Please join NOEP in welcoming Dr. Zolnierek to the Texas Nurses Association family!

NOEP joins the Texas Team

The Nurse Oncology Education Program was just welcomed as a organizational member to the Texas Team, the action coalition that is charged with implementing the IOM Future of Nursing recommendations in the state of Texas. Among these recommendations are:

• Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health
• Remove scope-of-practice barriers so Advance Practice Registered Nurses are able to practice to the full extent of their education and training
• Increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020

To make these recommends a reality, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with the largest consumer organization in the world, AARP. Action coalitions were created in each of the 50 states and DC to pull together provider organizations, consumers, nonprofits, and other groups to discuss challenges faced, and develop a strategic plan to face issues specific to each state. The Texas Team is the action coalition in the state of Texas.

As a nursing education organization, NOEP is committed to increasing nursing knowledge and competency. The Campaign for Action website states, “If our nation’s healthcare system is  to undergo real transformational change to meet the growing demands of our population, nurses are the key.” We couldn’t agree more.

–Carol Cannon, BSN, RN, OCN