General Session speakers amuse and enlighten Congress attendees; Sunday, April 21, to Thursday, April 25, 2002 - General Sessions

AORN Journal,  July, 2002  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The 49th annual AORN Congress in Anaheim, Calif, once again featured a variety of entertaining and enlightening General Session speakers. Speakers ranged from well-known nursing consultants to humorists to motivational speakers. All had a message to deliver to Congress attendees, and they did so in a highly entertaining manner.

PAST ERRORS AND HOPE FOR FUTURE

With her typical sparkling wit, keynote speaker Leah Curtin, RN, MS, MA, DSc, FAAN, captivated attendees during the session titled "Shared Values for a Troubled World." Attendees laughed, cheered, and were sobered by Dr Curtin's message as she talked about changes that have occurred during the past decade in health care based on flawed predictions of what the future held. These changes include systems redesign, product line development, job reengineering, and job cuts.

Dr Curtin said that in 1982, there were 1,200 acute inpatient beds per 100,000 patient population. Now she is not even sure what a bed is. There are licensed beds, beds that actually exist, beds that have people in them, staff member beds, and adjusted occupied beds, which is a concept that leaves Dr Curtin scratching her head.

Health care is suffering from the fallout of changes that occurred during the past 10 years. Dr Curtin cited statistics that show in 1990, hospitals had a 3.7% error rate. In 1997, the rate jumped to 17.7%, and in 1999, based on a study by the Institute of Medicine, the error rate in US hospitals was 37%. In addition, inpatient and outpatient admissions are up, and patient acuity is increasing. The intensity of the job for nurses has become overwhelming, said Dr Curtin.

The statistics about how the quality of health care is slipping are having an effect, and legislators and others are moving to try to correct the situation. They are introducing concepts such as limited nurse to patient ratios. "The most significant impact of decent ratios is that we will rescue patients that start getting in trouble," said Dr Curtin. Better staffing means that patients are less likely to be reintubated and less likely to return to the OR.

Dr Curtin maintained that there are "more RNs in this country than ever before," but many retire early or only work part time because of the current situation facing nurses in the health care industry. "We have the lowest morale I've ever seen in our profession," said Dr Curtin, who adds that nurses are angry, and they have the right to be angry because of what has been done to them.

That was the situation as of Sept 11,2001, when the unthinkable happened. Dr Curtin said she is "deeply concerned that this nation has gone into denial ... and that many of my colleagues in nursing have gone into denial, and we cannot afford it." The medical community is the nation's most important defense against any type of terrorist, chemical, or biological threat, and US health care workers cannot deny their importance. "The whole concept of mass casualties is a reality, and we have to be prepared for it," said Dr Curtin.

In the process, nurses have to take better care of themselves and their colleagues. One way to do this is to turn to values held by people all over the world, said Dr Curtin, citing a work by Rushworth M. Kidder titled Shared Values for a Troubled World. These values include love of fellow humans, which can be defined as the willingness to reach out to others; truthfulness; fairness; freedom to define for ourselves who we are; responsibility; tolerance; the role of women; respect for life; respect for the rule of laws; and honor. According to Dr Curtin, "there are things that need changing everywhere in this world." She said that the kind of competition and anger nurses have seen during the past decade are utterly destructive, and we have to change that, but she added, "We don't have to change the world, just our little piece of it."

NANCY K. KUEHL
SENIOR EDITOR

TIGGER VERSUS EEYORE

Native Australian and resident Texan Amanda Gore gave the Jerry G. Peers Lectureship, sponsored by the Exhibitors' Advisory Committee. She greeted attendees by saying she lives in Dallas, "even though my hair isn't big enough." In a style reminiscent of a stand-up comedian, Gore had audience members roaring with laughter and participating in goofy exercises to learn how to let go.

"We are living for connection," said Gore. People need to learn to reconnect their heads to their hearts and their hearts to the hearts of other people. She encouraged attendees not to sit with friends throughout Congress week but to get to know new people.

Gore explained that people are either energy suckers or energy givers. She donned a pair of Eeyore ears and told attendees to keep a pair of these ears at work to show the energy suckers. "With any luck, they'll go away," she said, adding, "I don't know how you sterilize them (the ears), but try." She then donned a pair of Tigger ears and urged attendees to keep a pair in their car to renew their energy. "At the end of your normal workday, you need these," Gore said.