PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Gratitude
Laura Searcy, MN, APRN, PPCNP-BC, President and Fellow
I enter the Holiday Season with a profound sense of
gratitude. I am so grateful for my family, as their love
and support provide the foundation that enables me
to pursue my personal and professional goals. I am
particularly grateful for my husband, who graciously
juggles his schedule to adapt travel and time demands
related to my commitments as your President, and often
serves as my early morning or late night editor. My em-
ployers are owed a large debt of gratitude for their sup-
port and the flexibility in my clinical schedule to fulfill
my NAPNAP commitments.
I am so grateful for NAPNAP and my colleagues. The
contributions you all make to the health and well-being
of children are incalculable. This organization and its
leaders and members have been a vital part of my pro-
fessional life. From my first national conference over
20 years ago as a newly minted pediatric nurse practi-
tioner (PNP), I have experienced friendship, support,
encouragement and mentoring from so many col-
leagues within my Georgia Chapter and throughout
the country. The wide ranges of NAPNAP educational
and professional development opportunities have
taken me on professional journeys I would never
have imagined as a novice PNP. I am extraordinarily
grateful for the opportunity to serve as your President
this year. I would be remiss if I did not also express
how grateful I am for our national office leadership
and staff, who do outstanding work behind the scenes
to manage and grow our professional association and
support the needs of all our members.
I encourage all of you to take the time during this
busy season to cultivate a sense of gratitude. It seems
gratitude has more to it than simple politeness and
consideration. Gratitude can be defined as the appreci-
ation of what is valuable and meaningful to oneself and
as a general state of thankfulness and/or appreciation
(Sansone & Sansone, 2010). There is an increasing
Correspondence: Laura Searcy, MN, APRN, PPCNP-BC,
President and Fellow NAPNAP, National Association of Pediatric
Nurse Practitioners, 5 Hanover Square, Suite 1401, New York,
NY 10004; e-mail: laurafseaercy@gmail.com.
J Pediatr Health Care. (2016) 30, 517.
0891-5245/$36.00
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2016.08.003
www.jpedhc.org
body of research that shows many positive benefits of
gratitude and its effects. Gratitude has been found to
be correlated with psychological well-being (Wood,
Joseph, & Maltby, 2009). Adolescents who counted
blessings showed enhanced optimism and life satisfac-
tion (Froh, Sefick & Emmons, 2008). Gratitude has also
been shown to be related to improved sleep quality and
duration (Wood, Joseph, Lloyd, & Atkins, 2009).
I know I often feel frustrated and helpless with the
increased polarization evident in our current society
and the trend toward angry and uncivil discourse. In my
clinical practice there seems to be an increasing number
of barriers that make it more difficult to deliver compre-
hensive, high-quality care. I too often find myself leaving
work feeling frustrated, annoyed, and discouraged.
I also know that if I take time to stop and consciously
attend to the positive little moments of beauty in each
day, my attitude changes. At times, I can even be grate-
ful for some of the challenges, because they create op-
portunities for personal and professional growth.
With all of the demands on our time, and the profes-
sional challenges we face, it is hard not to get caught up
in the rush and fail to be mindful of the positive influ-
ences in our lives. I wonder what would happen if we
all could be just a little more committed to recognizing
the giving, loving and thoughtful acts of the people we
encounter in our personal and professional lives. What
a wonderful prescription to help counter the angry,
self-centered, and destructive influences that seem to
so easily become the focus of our attention.
So, I challenge you to counter the negative attitudes
and emotions we all experience from within ourselves
or from others with a conscious and regular practice of
gratitude. It is a priceless gift to both keep and give away.
REFERENCES
Froh, J. J., Sefick, W. J., & Emmons, R. A. (2008). Counting blessings
in early adolescents: An experimental study of gratitude and
subjective well-being. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 213-
233.
Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2010). Gratitude and well being:
The benefits of appreciation. Psychiatry, 7(11), 18-22.
Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Lloyd, J., & Atkins, S. (2009). Gratitude in-
fluences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 66, 43-48.
Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., & Maltby, J. (2009). Gratitude predicts psy-
chological well-being above the big five facets. Personality and
Individual Differences, 46(4), 443-447.
November/December 2016 517