Thanks for a Great Year!

Much like last year, 2021 was a mixed bag of challenges and accomplishments for JOF.  Despite lingering uncertainties around COVID-19, our volunteers, donors, students, preceptors, and team persevered, and we’re grateful to be able to continue our MSK-focused work through education, research, and service.

We approach the New Year with a renewed confidence, as we prepare to expand our reach to students nationwide -- and ultimately help improve the lives of orthopedic patients and the clinicians who care for them far beyond our original California/west coast roots.

Among our 2021 highlights:

• We recently were accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation (ANCC). This means that we’re now able to offer our Orthopedic Primary Care (OPC) courses -- and their corresponding CE credits -- to nurses and other clinicians across the United States. 
• In addition to this geographic expansion, we expanded the variety of courses available. We launched our Online Mini Courses -- four targeted, 10-hour self-study modules taken online for only $65 each. You can purchase these four courses on our website shop (link) and start learning immediately.
• In July, we held our first-ever JOF Virtual Town Hall via Zoom as a way to expand our engagement with volunteers, donors, students, and other supporters. It was a terrific afternoon of sharing ideas, challenges, and camaraderie. Thanks everyone for your participation and ideas!
• In November, we held our fourth annual Canes Film Festival & Gala -- our most important fundraiser of the year. It was our first in-person event in more than a year (observing COVID protocols), and was combined with a fun YouTube live stream.
• We launched our OPC Office Hours sessions -- monthly drop-in sessions over Zoom for our Orthopedic Primary Care students to discuss issues, questions with our instructors, Kathleen A. Geier, DNP and A.J. Benham, DNP. The sessions are particularly important to our digital-only students so they can have personal connection to working clinicians as they progress through their studies.
• Drs. Geier and Benham also shared their clinical expertise through conferences and academic publishing. They both presented on the Painful Spine at the National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses (NAON) Annual Congress, and gave a NAON webinar on the MSK Effects of Menopause. They also authored a chapter on the same topic in the newly released book Each Woman’s Menopause: An Evidence Based Resource (Springer, edited by Patricia Geraghty). 
• We conducted our annual summer Healthcare Immersion Program -- giving students a unique, up-close experience of health careers that includes shadowing of real clinicians and creation of educational, MSK-focused video projects. 
• We began a new phase of research into the MSK-related curriculum needs of university NP programs.

​Know someone who’d like to support our mission?​

We’re so thankful for all you’ve done to support our mission this year. If you know someone who may want to join us in this effort, please share this blog post with them. They can support us with one-time or monthly, tax-deductible gifts.

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We know it’s not easy out there, but we’re grateful for the support and successes we’ve enjoyed in 2021. Here’s wishing you the safest and happiest of the holiday season and a happy, healthy, and active 2022!