CHICAGO -- Top emergency nurses from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia have been elected to the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) Board of Directors. They will begin their term on Jan 1, .

 The ENA board provides overall direction for the nation’s premier emergency nursing association. The ENA serves more than 24,000 emergency nursing professionals through research, professional development, publications, and injury prevention.

 “These individuals bring a vast amount of experience and knowledge about emergency nursing to the ENA board,” said Cheryl Smart, ENA’s interim executive director. “Their strategic leadership will help guide the association as it addresses the critical needs and challenges faced by emergency nurses, such as the current nursing shortage and increasing patient loads.”

The emergency nurses named to the ENA board are:

President-Elect: Nancy M. Bonalumi, RN, MSN, CEN, director of emergency nursing, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A current member of the ENA board and winner of several nursing awards, Bonalumi is a consulting editor for the Journal of Emergency Nursing (JEN) and a published author of numerous emergency nursing articles. She previously served as a director on the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing and the Emergency Nurses Association Foundation.

Secretary-Treasurer: William T. Briggs, RN, MSN, CEN, nurse manager, emergency department, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

Currently serving as a director-at-large on the ENA board, Briggs is a past president of the Massachusetts State Council of the ENA and also served on the ENA board from . In addition, Briggs was a member of the ENA Foundation’s Board of Directors, the ENA Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing, and the EN CARE/ENA Institute for Injury Prevention Board. Since , he has also worked as a per diem nurse in the emergency department of Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, Mass.

 Members-at-Large (three-year term):

-- Annabelle “Anne” May, RN, BSN, CEN, staff nurse, adult/pediatrics emergency department, Montgomery General Hospital, Olney, Md.

An ENA Board member and chair of Maryland’s EN CARE/ENA Institute for Injury Prevention program, May has been active in local, state and national ENA activities since the early s. She was a member of the ENA’s first Leadership Symposium Committee in and served two terms as president of the Maryland State Council of the ENA. May also coordinated the creation of the ENA’s 25th anniversary quilt, now displayed at the association’s national headquarters in Des Plaines, Ill.

 -- Diane Gurney, RN, MS, CEN, emergency department educator and trauma coordinator, Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis, Mass.

Active in local, state, and national ENA activities since the early s, Gurney served as president of the Massachusetts and Connecticut State Councils of the ENA, and as a state delegate to the ENA’s General Assembly. She is the current “Triage Decisions” section editor for the Journal of Emergency Nursing (JEN).

 Member-at-Large (one-year term):

-- Christine Gisness, RN, MSN, FNP, CEN, nurse practitioner, department of emergency medicine, Emory University at Grady Hospital, Atlanta.

Gisness has been involved with ENA activities since , serving as president of the Georgia State Council of the ENA. In addition, Gisness was a state delegate to the ENA’s General Assembly and a trustee of the ENA Foundation in and .

Source: Emergency Nurses Association