October, 2014
2014 Highlights & 2015 Plans
BONENT starts a new fiscal year on October 1st, 2014. It is amazing how fast this year has gone. It is the time to look at last year and plan for what we are going to do next in all areas of the organization.
Continuing Education
Lots of CE at Our Seminars
We had 3 BONENT Regional Continuing Education Seminars:
- BONENT 2014 Northeast Regional Seminar on May 4th in Newark, NJ
- BONENT 2014 Midwest Regional Seminar on July 13th in Chicago, IL
- BONENT 2014 Southwest Regional Seminar on September 28th in Houston, TX
These were all great seminars that the participants truly enjoyed. Unfortunately, there were not as many PCT’s and nurses in attendance as we had hoped. Many of you ask about more Group A CE availabilities, so consider attending one of our seminars to get 8 CEs!
There are several who I would like to thank:
- Cryolife and NxStage for their support in providing interesting speakers on extremely important topics.
- BONENT member, Diana Shelkov, for speaking at the Houston and Newark meeting
- Mark Neumann and Nephrology News and Issues for speaking on “Politics and Dialysis”. If you are not on their email list, I would recommend that go to their website and sign up.
Finally, I would like to thank nurse and technicians, BONENT certified or not, that attended these seminars, whose participation, brought an interactive nature to the program and great chance at networking at lunch.
Target Areas for 2015 Seminars
We will again be presenting three BONENT Regional Seminars in 2015. The dates and locations have yet to be determined. We are always interested in your suggestions on topics and speakers.
Join the CE Committee
With the new year approaching, we will be naming a new Continuing Education Committee. If you are interested, contact Lyle Smith at lyle_bonent@msn.com. You need to be BONENT certified and current with your dues. No experience is needed - just be ready to work hard! We will especially focus on getting the word out about our seminars and getting more attendees. We will be forming a “host committee” for each of the sites, responsible for marketing the meeting and developing contacts with the local Network. If sounds interesting to you to help locally, contact Lyle.
Examinations
New BioMed Exam Up and Running!
Finally, after three years of hard work of many individuals, we have released the new Certified Hemodialysis Bio-Med Technician certification (CHBT) on September 4, 2014. It is something that is very much needed in the dialysis community. It is only available currently in the computer-based testing (CBT) form. Check the website for more details.
I would like to thank Dennis Schell CHT for leading the group that developed this new exam and all of the technicians that took time out of their busy schedules to make this happen. I would particularly like to thank Ed Castroverde, Byron Roshto CHT, and Scott Giesen who spent many hours at the end of this process to get it across the finish line.
Spanish CHT Coming Soon! Spread the News
Our goals for the Exam committee may sound modest after what the committee and all its volunteers accomplished in 2014, but they are very important. First, we should have the Spanish language CHT exam done and available in the 1st quarter of 2015. Hopefully, it will launch January 1, 2015. We plan to market this the U.S. first and then to Latin America.
CHN Exam to be Updated
Next up on our busy plate, we will update the CHN exam. Any nurses interested in being part of this process contact Paulette Sheeley at PSheeley22@gmail.com.
Our 40th Anniversary The Loss of One of Our Founders
2014 was the 40th anniversary of BONENT! In the past few issues of the newsletter, we gave you the history of BONENT, including why we were founded and who the Founders were. On a sad note, we lost one of those founders, Sally Burroughs-Hudson, small in stature, but with a giant of a heart. The renal community is significantly poorer with her passing. Our memory of her will drive us to be better. Sally and her husband, Martin were among those BONENT claims as our Founders.
40th Anniversary to Continue to 2016!
We are going to continue with 40th Anniversary Celebration. BONENT was founded in 1974, but did not give their first exam until 1976. So, we are going to continue our 40th Anniversary Celebration through 2016!
We’re an Organization of Volunteers - Think About Volunteering
In addition to the staff’s duties, BONENT is a non-profit association, and volunteer organizations live and die by what volunteers do. So, I would like to thank all of you who have volunteered in the past year. But, I would like to encourage the rest of you to get involved. As a professional, it is each professional’s responsibility to do something to make the profession better. So, again, I would encourage you to volunteer! It will make you feel good about yourself and may lead to you accomplishing something you never thought you could. Remember: “The Journey of a 1000 miles starts with 1 step”.
Have a great holiday season and I will see you in 2015.
Click here to read previous Letters from the President.