Please join ARIN Tuesday April 12, 2021 as we celebrate Radiologic and Imaging Nurses Day with an open membership meeting.   Nursing award announcments and presentations will be made including our Mary F Sousa RN ! 

Congratulations again  to our own Mary Sousa for being selected ARIN’s prestigious award this year.   Mary has been a ferocious advocate for Radiology Nursing and in 2007 when she found a local chapter that was dormant.  NEC-ARNA had been established but did not have an active board or membership.  Mary not only joined the board she became the life and breathe of NEC-ARIN for decades.    She is tenacious in her commitment to recruiting new members.   Anyone that has met Mary at a conference knows that she is often sizing up where you would fit on the board or how you can add to an educational opportunity she may be planning.  She is always trying to draw in someone with new ideas and fresh enthusiasm for Radiology Nursing. 

During Mary’s tenure, NEC-ARIN developed its own logo and began to brand itself.  NEC-ARIN has become synonymous with quality education at a good value.  It serves its members with educational seminars presented at various hospitals.   Mary; along with her small group of nurses worked tirelessly to reach other struggling radiology nurses in the New England area.    We were all searching for guidelines and standards and trying to find our way into the Radiology world.  No one knew what a Radiology nurse did.   Mary exemplified it before it could be articulated.   She developed policies and practices for her own organization but also helped others to build their own. 

She developed NEC-ARIN’s champion program.  This program was part of her vision of uniting Radiology nurses from the New England area.  She often said, “Hospitals compete, nurses don’t”.   NEC-ARNA champions were nurses from VT, ME and MA, CT that shared information and ideas.    We were in the infancy of the amazing specialty we now see across the country and the world .   The champion program was used to send flyers and information on upcoming conferences and to build  NEC-ARNA.    There were many of us who were the lone radiology nurse struggling to improve the practices in radiology departments.   She united us with this program and I will be forever grateful.

Over the years ARNA has become ARIN and NEC-ARIN today remains respected and synonymous in the NE area for quality and professional educational symposiums for Imaging Nurses of today.  Under her leadership, this Chapter has reached southern CT, captured the teaching hospitals in the Boston area and serves rural VT and NH as well.   The COVID pandemic has limited our opportunities but we will rebuild and regroup.   Mary has stepped away from the Board due to health reasons and her presence is honestly irreplaceable.   Her tenacious recruitment is truly  missed during the tenuous time in our Chapter.

Mary has not limited her contributions to radiology nursing at the local level.  She has served as President of ARIN.  Her 3 year commitment as President elect, President and Past president was one of the few times she stepped away from NEC-ARIN.  During her Presidency Mary developed nursing education programs that included the use of capnography and radiation safety.  Her time with ARIN grew memberships and offered courses not only in the US but Saudi Arabia as well.  She found ways to improve revenue and to reach members. 

Mary has had a lifelong commitment to the education of Radiology Nurses.  She has served as a mentor to nursing students and she has been on the Education Committee of  NONE (Northeast Organization of Nurse Educator) and served on their Board as well.   She has authored publications in the Journal of Radiology Nursing.  She has also been an editor and contributor for numerous other articles in the Journal of Radiology Nursing.  Mary is a tireless nursing advocate and never seemed to tire of looking for opportunities to teach, to lead and to support others in this field.

Her vision and her support for Imaging Nurses has helped countless other nurses who now take for granted what she and so many others fought so hard to establish.  It was not easy.  Today we are respected members of the Critical Care community, a JCHO mandate and recognized by the ANCC.   It is due the efforts of Mary Sousa and other brave nurses who fearlessly ventured into this world.  

It is my pleasure and privilege to congratulate Mary on being awarded the 2021 Radiology Nurse of the Year.  On behalf of all of the current and past members of NEC-ARIN  I wish her well deserved congratulations and our thanks for all she has done over the years!

 

Martha M Manning BSN, RN, CRN

NEC-ARIN President – 2020-21