At its annual conference earlier this month, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) announced that Anne Hysong, MSN, APRN, CCNS, ACNS-BC, a Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist at Gwinnett Medical Center in Duluth, Ga., has been elected President of the 2018-2019 NACNS Board of Directors.
Hysong has been a member of NACNS since 2005. She joined the Board of Directors in 2012 and served as Secretary since 2014.
“I’m proud to come from a long line of nurses that traces back to my great grandmother, a community health nurse in West Virginia in the 1920s.” said Hysong. “I’m excited to inspire more clinical nurse specialists to get involved, to volunteer and share their ideas on how to improve care during my term as president. Clinical nurse specialists have an increasingly central role to play in ensuring high quality, evidence-based care for our patients. I look forward to ensuring NACNS is at the forefront of supporting and advocating for how clinical nurse specialists make the health system more efficient and safer.”
“Anne’s years on the board have prepared her well to lead NACNS,” said NACNS Executive Director Melinda Mercer Ray, MSN, RN. “She is a passionate advocate for the CNS role and we’re looking forward to her leadership as she helps NACNS strengthen the CNS role within the nursing community and more broadly in health care.”
Hysong served as past president of the Atlanta Area CNS group (now Georgia CNS), is a member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the Society of Critical Care Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing. Hysong served on the Georgia Board of Nursing’s APRN committee from 2009-2014 and is a guest lecturer for local undergraduate nursing programs.
Hysong received the MSN Preceptor of the Year in 2013 from Mercer University, Nurse Practitioner of the Year award in 2012 from the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce, was a finalist in the 2017 Atlanta Journal and Constitution’s Celebrating Nurses Awards, and a finalist in the APRN category for the 2013 March of Dimes Nurse of the Year award.
Hysong earned her MSN in Adult Health Nursing from Georgia State University in Atlanta and her BSN from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
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Founded in 1995, The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists is the only association representing the clinical nurse specialist (CNS). CNSs are advanced practice registered nurses who work in a variety of specialties to ensure high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care. As leaders in health care settings, CNSs provide direct patient care and lead initiatives to improve care and clinical outcomes, and reduce costs. NACNS is dedicated to advancing CNS practice and education, removing certification and regulatory barriers, and assuring the public access to quality CNS services.