Black Nurses Rock (BNR), the nation’s second national black nurse organization representing more than 150,000 African-American nurses and students from the U.S., Canada, Eastern Caribbean, Africa, Japan and Germany, is hosting its first leadership training session in New York (NY) Marriott Downtown, January 12 to 16, 2017.

The BNR Leadership Academy 2017 theme is Building New Leaders to Serve our Communities. The Academy is designed “to equip and train our leaders to serve our communities,” according to organizers. Details are at bnrleadership.com.

This comes after Enid, OK based BNR successfully hosted its first international convention in October. It brought together nurses from virtually every sector of healthcare together to network, learn cutting-edge patient care techniques and share case studies and success stories.

Since its inception in 2014, BNR is experiencing rapid, sustainable growth and has more than 1,600 members and 60 chapters throughout the nation.

“We’re laser-focused on supporting the professional needs of black nurses all across the nation,“ says Dr. Romeatrius Nicole Moss, founder and CEO of BNR.

“I’ve spent my entire adult life in the nursing profession and over the years, I began to see a need for a forum for black nurses to grow professionally and personally, and such a forum simply didn’t exist,” she says.

She continues: “After years of research and introspection, I put together a plan to create a national forum where black nurses could connect, mentor, motivate, inspire and grow together. As the plan came together I recognized that whatever I developed had to not only focus on professional development and issues directly related to the nursing profession, but it also had to be fun…because nursing is one of the most stressful professions in the world.”

She further notes BNR is now the largest online community where professional black nurses share, network and develop together that not only facilitates communication, but also acts as a catalyst of change, bringing attention to critical issues pertinent to the black nursing profession and community.

According to the 2014 World Health Organization’s World Health Statistics Report, there are more than 400,000 black RNs and LPNs in the U.S. and more than three million black nurses worldwide. BNR, blacknursesrock.com, aims to be the leading resource of information and support to the black nursing community domestically and internationally.

“Our goal was to create an online and real-world community to share ideas and support all that nurses do,” explains Moss. “And at the same time, provide members with a strong social bond built around special events, conferences and unique getaways where they can meet fellow nurses in a non-working environment to relax, recharge and then return to work refreshed and ready to manage the challenges of professional nursing.”

To that end, in addition to the conference in October, BNR is hosting two upcoming Caribbean cruises for members that includes a series of professional development seminars.

BNR is also socially engaged around the nation and around the globe. In fact, BNR is building a library in Sierra Leone, Africa and has already amassed a collection of more than 1,000 books. The library is slated to open in late May.