President’s Message: Reflecting on the Past, Looking Toward the Future

The 48th Annual TCNS Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, titled Transformative Culture Care, produced excellent outcomes. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Margaret Moss, gave a powerful presentation highlighting the policies and treaties governing First Nation people. This presentation triggered the conference participants to critically examine their approach to providing health care by addressing the social determinants of health and explicating the issues of social justice, equity, and equality as they affect positive health outcomes of individuals, families, and communities. Various presenters from many parts of the world enriched the conference environment by presenting their research focused on topics on diversity, inclusion, and equity with an emphasis on applying culturally congruent care to the people they serve. The poster presentations highlighted topics such as violence, resilience, psychological safety, management of care, nursing students’ experiences engaging in complex conversations, cultural competence training, and the values, beliefs, and perceptions of COVID-19 and the vaccines in the African American/Black community. This conference sets the pace for addressing the Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, launched by the National Academy of Medicine. As nurses play a key role in patient care, they can reduce health disparities by promoting equity in providing care and implementing family-focused care. As president, the TCNS Conference guided me in setting my priorities to (a) engage our members to become more involved in our various activities through their chapters and/ or through the organization itself, therefore sustaining their membership; and (b) to increase TCNS membership by reaching out to nurses in the workplace who provide day-today culturally congruent care to those in need and to engage them in sharing their experiences with members and scholars of TCNS. The goal is to build capacity for bridging theory, research, and practice. Let’s make a difference by staying connected with each other and by remaining an inclusive organization. I am looking forward to a productive 2023, and I am grateful for your collaboration, dedication, and support of the TCNS organization.