The work of CAFHNA is underpinned by the support of our membership. One way in which members can be actively involved in the work of the Association is through contributing to the sub-committees. At the Annual General Meeting held in November each year, members are able to volunteer to join one of the sub-committees of the Association. The sub-committee is chaired by a member of the Committee of the Association, and meetings are arranged at the convenience of the sub-committee members to begin the work in hand for the year.

There are four sub-committees of the Association:

• Editorial
• Education
• Events and Marketing
• Standards and Practices

CAFHNA is grateful to the many members who contribute their time and expertise to achieve the mission of the Association in representing the views and interests of child and family health nurses.

EDUCATION SUB-COMMITTEE

The CAFHNA Education Sub Committee is committed to providing support and professional development opportunities to CAFHNA members, though workshops, seminars and conferences. These educational events are sometimes run in partnership with other like minded organisations with a commitment to best practice, enabling a pooling of expertise and resources to provide a range of professional development opportunities for child and family health nurses.

The Committee would appreciate your valuable input into the planning of educational events. Please feel free to send suggestions for topics, speakers or venues that would be of interest to you and your colleagues that you feel would support your role as a child and family health nurse. You can e-mail your ideas to: cafhna@cafhna.org.au  or by mail to CAFHNA c/o PO Box 241 Villawood, NSW, 2163.

STANDARDS AND PRACTICE SUB-COMMITTEE

This sub-committee is given responsibility by the Committee of the Association to carry out tasks and write policy statements on matters that affect child and family health nursing practice.

The major role of this sub-committee is to update and oversee the distribution of the CAFHNA Competency Standards for Child and Family Health Nurses. The Competency Standards are reviewed at regular intervals, usually five years. The members of the Sub-Committee lead the group of expert child and family health nurses, recruited from the membership, who are asked to review and revise the Competency Standards.  The method used is similar to the Delphi Survey, in which the proposed changes are sent to the Expert Reference Group in a series of rounds for review, until agreement is reached on the changes to be made to the Competency Standards.

The sub-committee also updates and publishes the Scope of Practice of Child and Family Health Nurses and prepared policy statements, such as the CAFHNA Guidelines for Clinical Supervision of Child and Family Health Nurses.

Members of the Sub-Committee represent CAFHNA on relevant policy and practice committees of the NSW Department of Health and Area Health Services. The most recent major project has been the project headed by the Nursing and Midwifery Office in the NSW Department of Health, to develop the Professional Practice Framework for Child and Family Health Nurses, which is due for release by the Department in 2009.

EDITORIAL SUB-COMMITTEE

This sub-committee is focused on providing opportunities for members to receive and disseminate information to support their practice as Child & Family Health Nurses.

One of the primary vehicles for this communication is the CAFHNA journal. The journal is published twice a year, containing information to support clinical practice development, areas of interest, professional development opportunities and updates on issues relevant to our specialist field of nursing. CAFHNA produces 2 state journals (March-April and Sept-Oct) per year for members, distributed in addition to the 2 national journals which are produced by the Australian Association of Maternal & Child Health Nurses.

Regular features of the CAFHNA journal include the President’s Report providing members with information on activities of the CAFHNA executive committee on behalf of members and initiatives to promote the field of Child and Family Health Nursing, including discussions held regularly with the NSW Chief Nurse. This section has proved an important communication strategy with members, enabling updates on activities such as the development of the new Competency Standards for Child & Family Health Nurses and CAFHNA’s involvement with NSW Nursing & Midwifery Office Practice Standards Framework project.

Clinical Chatter with reviews of journal articles, books and websites is also a regular feature together with 'Diary Dates' alerting members to future conferences and seminars. Reports from committees and other forums attended by representatives on behalf of members are also included to keep you up-to-date on a state and national level.

Feature articles appear in each edition. We often aim to link these articles together with a common theme. The journal also includes editorial features on issues of importance to Child & Family Health Nurses.

An additional communication strategy is currently being developed in the form of e-newsletters to increase the frequency and access to information of members.

The Editorial Sub-committee welcome readers’ contributions to the journal and the e-newsletter. Both provide a wonderful opportunity for members to take their first steps into publication.

• You may have developed a paper for study you are undertaking which can be adapted for publication.
• You may have a story to tell about an inspiring colleague or innovative programs.
• You may have come across a poem which encapsulates your feelings about supporting families or you may feel strongly about an issue and wish to write a letter to be published, bringing to light concerns or highlighting successes.

These are just a few ideas and this list is certainly not exhaustive. Please feel free to contact the Editorial Sub-committee at any time for more information about these opportunities. We will do our best to support and encourage you and before you know it, you just may be able to add ‘publication’ onto your CV!

Deborah Nemeth Chair – CAFHNA Editorial Sub-committee