Note from the Instructor: You have something to offer to the CDI community

By Laurie L. Prescott, RN, MSN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC

I was brought up with the understanding that volunteering your time to a cause is the best way to learn, grow, and influence your world for the better. The earliest volunteer endeavor I remember is Green Up Day, a springtime ritual in Vermont where volunteers spend their day out picking up trash and greening up the roadways after the long winter. It always felt like a party and I went home satisfied that my time was well spent, and the added value of a new group of friends.

As an adult, my husband got me involved with Habitat for Humanity. I always go home with the same feeling: the satisfaction that I accomplished something, and happiness in gaining new friends and skills. (I am quite good with a hammer, drill, and skill saw now!)

Presently, ACDIS is working to find new members for our many boards and committees. If you’ve been hesitant to volunteer because you feel you are not knowledgeable enough, or have nothing to contribute, I encourage you to rethink that assessment. If you think it’s not worth your time, or your skills or contributions will be unused or unappreciated, again, I encourage you to rethink your assessment.

Let me tell you about my experience as a member of the ACDIS Advisory Board, the CCDS, and the CCDS-O exam committees. I want to start first with my biggest gain: I learn something new every time we meet. The individuals involved in these committees are too numerous to list, but they are some of the most talented leaders in our profession. They come from diverse backgrounds and no one individual is thought to know it all.

I’m often inspired by our volunteer’s commitment to the profession of CDI and working to ensure our ACDIS members are receiving the best guidance to grow in their role. I have never been involved in a project in which I did not feel their support and commitment to creating and sharing the best developed guidance with our profession. They push me outside my comfort zone and hopefully I offer that same experience for them.

Whether it be the ACDIS Symposium Committee that works tirelessly over several months to create a worthwhile and stimulating agenda for our conferences, the exam boards that work to ensure our certification exams provide a valid, reliable credentialing experience, or the advisory board that painfully struggles over every word, every statement in the latest white or position paper, all involved strive to support our profession.

That said, members of these groups must commit to volunteering their time and talent. But I promise you that you will receive more than you give in this process. The networking with others within our industry is priceless. And I can personally say that your involvement will make you stronger in your CDI and professional life.

So, I ask you to please consider taking on a role within one of our committees. And if you feel you cannot formally make that commitment, get involved on the ACDIS Forum. You have experience, skills, and knowledge to share, even if you are “young” in this profession. I learn by teaching and enjoy interacting with our CDI and coding professionals. We support each other, and this makes us stronger as a group.

I want to end with a sincere thank you to all our current board and committee members and to those who have given their time and talents in years past. Both the ACDIS community and the CDI profession are stronger due to your generosity.

Editor’s note: Prescott is the CDI Education Director at HCPro in Middleton, Massachusetts. Contact her at lprescott@hcpro.com. For information regarding CDI Boot Camps, click here.