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Health Care Industry

Representing and working for the members - Health Policy Issues

AORN Journal, Jan, 2004 by Frederick P. Franko

Each month, a staff member from AORN's Government Affairs Department writes this AORN Journal column about issues of importance to AORN members. This month's article highlights more activities that the Government Affairs Department and the Center for Nursing Practice undertake on members' behalf.

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AORN Congress. AORN members who have never attended the annual AORN Congress are missing a special event. Last year, more than 6,000 members gathered in Chicago to learn, teach, and discuss topics of concern and interest to perioperative nurses. For several years, the booths for AORN's staff departments were located in different spots inside and outside the exhibitor's hall, so conference attendees sometimes had to walk some distance to Fred the staff members for whom they were looking. Last year, for the first time, the Association brought together its various departments into a convenient centralized location--the AORN Resource Center. Attendees again will have the opportunity to visit the Government Affairs Department booth in the resource center at the 2004 AORN Congress in San Diego.

Congress provides the best opportunity for Government Affairs Department personnel to learn the problems that members are confronting on the front lines and determine whether these problems are public policy issues that require the attention of the department. Attending AORN's Congress is a good way for members to share their experiences first hand and to find out in more detail the issues AORN is tracking and promoting. Members are encouraged to visit the AORN Resource Center in San Diego and stop by the Government Affairs Department desk.

This year, as in previous years, Government Affairs staff members will present an education session at Congress: "Advocacy at AORN--Review and Preview." The objective of this session is to update members on current state and federal legislation and regulations that relate to AORN's legislative priorities. During part of the session, presenters will discuss opportunities for perioperative nurses to become involved in legislative activities and public policy.

National Conference of State Legislatures. Every year, Government Affairs Department staff members attend the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting and exhibition as exhibitors. Attending this annual meeting affords AORN staff members the opportunity to interact with thousands of state legislators, as well as legislative and administrative staff members, at the largest meeting of its kind in the nation. At the exhibitor's booth, Government Affairs staff members share with legislators and their aides important background information about AORN as a professional membership Association for perioperative RNs (Figure 1). Typically, when Government Affairs Department representatives strike up a conversation with legislators or their aides, they have to define the name AORN by explaining what a perioperative nurse is. The brochures and displays at the booth are designed to describe, in layman's terms, perioperative nurses' professional preparation, the professional association that supports them, their various roles and responsibilities, and the public policy issues that face the profession.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Work with other organizations. AORN staff members and volunteers represent AORN outside the Association in many other ways. Although these activities are not functions of the Government Affairs Department exclusively, they represent AORN's positions on improving patient safety, positive patient outcomes, and file perioperative nursing profession. AOICN's Center for Nursing Practice specialists, for example, are involved intimately in supporting perioperative nursing through their interaction with other associations and organizations. The Center for Nursing Practice works closely with the Government Affairs Department to address member questions, examine legislation or regulations, and review content in government affairs publications.

Some of the organizations that the Center for Nursing Practice experts work with include file

* Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' Hospital Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (JCAHO's Hospital PTAC),

* JCAHO's Ambulatory PTAC,

* Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation,

* American Institute of Architects, Health Guidelines Committee

* American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, and

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee.

Although much of the work that the Center for Nursing Practice staff members perform does not fit neatly under the umbrella of government affairs, some of their work influences or intersects with public policy. For example, state boards of nursing and state boards of medicine are interested in JCAHO standards because the federal government holds the power to accredit health care organizations for participation in its Medicare programs. Through their work in the PTACs, AORN's nursing specialists advise the Joint Commission on standards development and survey procedure changes.

Health Care Industry

Representing and working for the members - Health Policy Issues

AORN Journal, Jan, 2004 by Frederick P. Franko

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