• To offer education opportunities which promote an awareness and interest in rehabilitation nursing and improve the expertise of personnel on all levels;
• To facilitate the exchange of ideas in rehabilitation programs; and
• To represent and promote the objectives of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (the "Association").

Thanks to the foundation established by the prior leaders of GNCCARN, your current Board of Directors continues to work towards the purpose and objectives of the chapter with the intent of meeting the needs of chapter members. This is how the board and committee activities relate to the chapter purpose.

According to GNCCARN by-laws:

It shall be the purpose of the Chapter to advance the quality of rehabilitation nursing service throughout the community through the following objectives:

1.       To offer educational opportunities which promote an awareness and interest in rehabilitation nursing and improve the expertise of personnel on all levels:

·         We have an active education committee, chaired by Marie Welch, which plans and/or supports programs held in various sites across NC. There is always new information in these reasonably-priced programs and networking opportunities are endless…

·         We have reviewed and revised Guidelines for Host Facilities to provide direction to rehabilitation settings that may be new at volunteering their sites for programs.

·         We are exploring “learner-directed” programs that will allow members to obtain educational credit at their own convenience.

·         We have established a Scholarship Committee to develop criteria, accountability, and evaluation of the application. With reduction in education funds at some facilities, this will allow members/prospective members to attend local and/or regional conferences.

·         We will be using the responses of our recent survey of members’ educational needs and preferences to plan future programs.

2.       To facilitate the exchange of ideas in rehabilitation programs:

·         We will be meeting with board members of the Charlotte Area Chapter of ARN to discuss the future needs of rehabilitation nursing in NC, while helping them celebrate their 10^th anniversary as a chapter.

·         With the establishment of a web site—gnccarn.org ---rehabilitation   nurses can access contact persons and links to rehabilitation settings throughout the state.

3.       To represent and promote the objectives of ARN:

·         We have revised our by-laws to be congruent with those of ARN.  Some of the major changes have been to include electronic and telecommunications as vehicles for voting and/or committee meetings.

·         We have approved a budget to include scholarship money, as well as funds for travel for committee members in the hope of attracting new members to chapter committees.