A MESSAGE FROM THE MNRS PRESIDENT
Greetings MNRS Colleagues,
It is a true honor to serve as President of the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS). This organization has given so much to me, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to give back to MNRS through this role. As a dedicated and active member of this great organization for nearly two decades, I have had the opportunity to gain considerable organizational experience through service in a variety of capacities. I served on the Board of Directors as Vice President 2016-2018. I led the Communications Committee (aka the Engagement and Membership Committees), and served on the Nominating, Grants Review, and Scholarship Committees. I am a past chair of the Perinatal, Sexual, and Reproductive Health RIIG, many years ago when it was known by a different name. I also regularly contribute to MNRS through abstract reviews, and I review manuscripts for the MNRS journal, the Western Journal of Nursing Research. MNRS has welcomed me with open arms in such a variety of capacities, and one of my goals is to ensure that every individual who joins our community is warmly welcomed into the organization.
MNRS fills a critical need in our profession that cannot be filled elsewhere. I especially value how through offerings such as the annual conference, committee, RIIG work, and the Emerging Scholars Network, MNRS brings together emerging and experienced nurse scientists and scholars in a way that transcends institutional boundaries to create and strengthen social networks. These networks support the advancement of nursing science and its implementation along with facilitating the development of its member’s careers through various types of mentorships like the chair + chair-elect succession model for our committees and RIIGs. It’s examples like these and more that provide tangible support to developing individuals. MNRS allows one to be mentored, and subsequently, to mentor others. MNRS members serve as sponsors to help others increase visibility and land opportunities the member otherwise would not have access to. Through its Foundation, MNRS funds grant opportunities, and MNRS is a great place for finding members to add to your research teams and seek out career opportunities. While the conference is our annual highlight, our organization has many levels of engagement between annual conferences.
Deep engagement and service to MNRS is a contribution that provides incalculable benefit to one’s career. By contributing to MNRS, individuals gain a type of networking that is different from what they can get either on their campus or within or specialty-based organizations. Networking that crosses all institutional boundaries and generations of scholars is a key strength of MNRS. If you are in need of a new kind of networking, involvement with MNRS through committee work, RIIG participation, the Leadership Academy, the Emerging Scholars Network along with collaborating to create symposia and workshops are examples of the various ways that you can experience the teamwork, collaboration, and collegiality that makes MNRS a thriving organization.
The Midwest Nursing Research Society is a beacon of support for each other during these challenging times in higher education, within the scientific community, and within our local to international communities with regards to health and science policy. The changes we are seeing are having the (intended) effect of diminishing science, higher education, and the public’s trust along with diminishing efforts to create equity in health and healthcare. As nurses, we take these threats seriously, because this is our work and these are our communities. Given nurses often do so much for others without filling our own cup, it is important that we take the time to engage in self-reflection and surround ourselves with the care and support we need to keep fighting the good fight for our communities. We need each other especially during these times. MNRS is a place to come fill your cup and expand your resilience bandwidth. We need each other to be able to thrive in these types of circumstances through activism, helping others, and advancing science. I encourage each of us to both fill our cups (whatever that means for you) and also reach out to one another. Check in with colleagues, because we can do so much more together than we can alone as individuals. Let’s support each other and the organization to take MNRS to its 100th anniversary!
In my presidency, I am committed to strengthening MNRS’ capacity to mentor future generations of nurse leaders by giving to, and giving back, to this wonderful organization. One way I want to do this is by strategically increasing engagement and visibility of small (< 500 students) and medium (501-999 students) schools and their access to the social capital that exists within MNRS. The MNRS Board responded to the membership on the issue of school representation by creating board positions that are designated for institutions of different sizes. This will ensure the voice of small and medium-sized schools have representation so that we strategically promote the development of faculty and industry scientists across a variety of settings. This diversity makes us strong collectively as a profession.
I also want to support the development of material and multimedia supports to ease access to the culture of MNRS. Abstract templates for the variety of abstracts we accept will be under development shortly along with the creation of an abstract workshop. Creating short videos to help describe the experience of the conference from our members’ perspectives will help ease the transition of people becoming members to engage. The Hivebrite communication platform will be released shortly and will also support the ease of engagement with the organization.
I am thrilled to lead MNRS into the celebration of its 50th Anniversary at the 2026 conference in St. Louis, MO. As an organization, together with our wonderful host schools, we will honor the vision of the twenty-one founding members; they knew what this organization could become. Seeing that vision realized now 50 years later will be a celebration to remember! My hope is that every school of nursing and health care system partner will reflect on their own institutional history with MNRS. What impact has MNRS had on your institution across the past 50 years? We will be offering an option for institutions to reflect their engagement with MNRS over the past 50 years, so dig up those archives and get ready to share your institution’s unique history.
This and many more opportunities are in the works. To this end, we have formed the 50th Anniversary Task Force to curate the Anniversary experience at the conference to be held March 30th to April 2nd, 2026. If you are asked to provide something, we would be delighted with your participation. Furthermore, we have drafted a letter template that will allow members to invite individuals to the Anniversary. It would be lovely for members to personally invite, to this prestigious event, colleagues who may have attended once in the past or members who perhaps drifted away, but who remain committed to the organization’s mission to the 50th anniversary. If even 1 in 4 of our membership of more than 1200 members invited one colleague and half of those attended, it would be a wonderful reunion of past and present members to come together to consider and support the next 50 years of MNRS, Nursing, and its science.
I will leave you with a mystery that I hope to solve by the 50th Anniversary Conference. Around 10-15 years ago, there was a trophy that looked like a rollercoaster. It was the prize for the school who performed the best skit at MNRS, an annual tradition that was popular for years (newer members, ask your senior faculty about this). The Board is on a hunt for the rollercoaster trophy along with some of the stories behind it. We believe the trophy is likely in storage with the school who last took it home. It would be a fun piece of our history if it were to show up at the 50th anniversary conference.
I look forward to seeing you all at St. Louis in 2026!
Jennifer Doering