Like firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers, nurses are unsung, everyday heroes - Executive Director's Message

AORN Journal, July, 2002 by Tom Cooper

Editor's note: At the 49th annual AORN Congress in Anaheim, Calif, AORN's Executive Director, Tom Cooper, CAE, made moving comments during Opening Session regarding the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and perioperative nurses' role in society. Following are his comments. The photograph is reprinted with permission from Certification Board Perioperative Nursing.

September 11 was a defining moment in our history that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. I first learned of the terrorist attacks while on a plane flying back to Los Angeles from New Zealand, where I had attended the AORN World Conference on Surgical Patient Care. At the World Conference, perioperative nurses from more than 40 countries came together to share their knowledge and experience with the common goal of improving the care of surgical patients worldwide. The tremendous contributions of our American members and their willingness to share their wisdom and experience were recognized and appreciated. It was a terrific event and a wonderful time of sharing with our international colleagues.

The faces of those international colleagues soon faded from memory that week in September, replaced by new faces--those of firefighters, police officers, and rescue workers--heroes. The tragedy of 9/11 gave national exposure to the faces of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances--everyday heroes.

Like them, you too are everyday heroes. You are the last bastion of hope for a damaged health care system and the lifeline for surgical patients. Each day, AORN members devote their lives to ensuring the welfare of thousands of surgical patients while enduring long hours, hazardous conditions, double shifts, endless hours on call, and debilitating verbal abuse. They do it because they care, because their patients need them, because it is their calling, because they are heroes.

The collective pain and anguish I saw unfolding on my television screen last September is not much different from the individual pain and suffering being experienced daily in every community across the country. Pain and suffering that is invisible to most people, but very visible to you--the young mother with breast cancer; the parents of the 10-year-old with a brain tumor; people needing bypass surgery or kidney transplants; victims of car accidents, spousal abuse, or gang violence. Like the victims of the tragedy in New York, these people have parents, children, friends, and loved ones who are suffering along with them. Yes, there were thousands of people victimized by the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, but there are also across the country thousands of victims of a variety of ailments that can be helped with surgery. Every day, in every major city in the country, you provide care for these people and their families. You are the unsung, everyday heroes of the health care system, and like our firefighters and rescue workers, our nation owes you a huge debt of gratitude.