This first issue of CARE Centre’s IEN Connector for 2014 brings the opportunity for our Board of Directors to release CARE Centre’s 2014 – 2017 Strategic Plan. Through a consultative process with our membership, staff, and key informants in the healthcare and settlement sectors, we renewed our Vision, Mission, and Values and identified our strategic priorities for the coming three years. We will enhance our continuum of service to support IENs to become successful in Canada while we increase public awareness of contributions made by IENs in nursing and healthcare. Our continued efforts to achieve long-term financial sustainability, promote a healthy work environment and nurture current partnerships and cultivate new ones, will all be important enablers for us during this next three year period.
As in the past, CARE Centre’s success in its new directions will include collaboration with key organizations who continue to work with us and inform us. CARE Centre is currently in discussions and actively working with a variety of new partners, including Confederation College, pRN Alberta, Georgian College, Carecor and Rouge Valley Health System. These organizations are working to educate, orient, employ and advance IENs in Ontario and Canada, and CARE Centre is grateful to be able to both give and receive advice from these partners to further develop our programs and services. Many of CARE Centre’s custom offerings have been adapted for external delivery, and we look forward to working with partners old and new in advancing our service to IENs.
On that note, I would like to thank the CARE Centre staff team who continue to balance a challenging workload, both in the number of IENs they support while also engaging with the community through various networks. They make CARE Centre’s achievements possible, and it’s an honour to work with them. I say the same for our volunteers on the board of directors, who are constantly striving to provide firmer footing for the organization in all matters, especially financial sustainability. We will be welcoming new board members this spring and look forward to their direction joined with the ideas and energy of staff to together deliver on the 2014 – 2017 Strategic Plan. Please view it in more detail on our website: www.care4nurses.org/strategicplan.