Hello everyone,

It is with great sadness and regret that the IAHC Board has decided to cancel the 2009 International Association for Human Caring Conference scheduled to be held in Malta.  With the recent economic crises, here and abroad, it does not seem fiscally sound to offer a conference this year abroad or in the U.S.

This decision to cancel the Annual Conference was difficult and not made lightly.  We strongly value and believe in our international connections and to recognize and honor that, The Board decided not to hold a conference for 2009, if we could not make it happen in Malta.  We have also been in contact with another organization that cancelled their conference in 2009...so the global changes are affecting all of us. 

With that being said, we have a strong commitment to our global connections and we will be discussing the financial health of IAHC and how often we can be able to host conferences outside the US.  The Board will hold a retreat to discuss the ongoing business of the organization and develop a long term strategic plan. 

I am hopeful that you will continue to support IAHC during these difficult and challenging times.  Please feel free to contact me or any of board members with comments or concerns. 

Warmest Regards,

Donna Taliaferro, President, IAHC

Hello everyone,

It is with pleasure that I report we had a wonderful 30th Anniversary Celebration in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Valerie Lunsford, Gwen Sherwood and the planning committee provided a fabulous program with dynamite keynote speakers and lots of great presentations and posters.  Dr. Margaret Sandelowski’s opening keynote address was about “Materializing Caring”.  She spoke of how women’s work is something that disappears and that we need to align the “virtue ethic” of caring with the branding that we see today.  Banks care, your supermarket cares, your car dealer cares, yet the economics of caring are so important today.  Our market is driven by caring actions.  Nursing has been invisible and it effect and affect both care and caring. 

Patrick Dean, Chairperson for the 31st conference in Malta, stated that he sees nursing has the traditional sense of women’s work and a traditional association of men with technology—and these two cause an ambivalent relationship with men in nursing.  Sandelowski states that the barriers between caring and economics (materializing) also relate to gender inequality in nursing (Dean, 2008). 

Additional to Sandelowski, Pam Triolo spoke of the need to engage bedside nursing in the role of caring…reaching out to them to make a difference in the lives of others.  How do we reach them and connect with them…that has been our challenge over the years.  While most of us are in academic settings, we need to reach the masses.  I know of one bedside nurse that attended the conference and had a poster presentation…her comment was “I have never been to a conference like this before…it is so different”.  We have to ask ourselves, how are we different, don’t we want the same things; advance the caring knowledge to those at every level? 

There were so many wonderful ideas and practices presented, I cannot go into them all, but we would like to see another 30 years of IAHC.  We need your help.  We need to engage those around us and what it means to be a part of this growing movement in a society that continues to devalue caring.

Next year we will be in Malta, Italy.  Mark your calendars for May 27-30.  This is their holiday time of year and there will be so much to see and visit.  This will be a great time to bring the family and make a vacation out of it. 

I wish each of you a great summer and health and happiness. 

Sincerely,

Donna
President, IAHC