AORN contracts with leading perioperative research expert

AORN Journal, August, 2005

AORN is pleased to announce that Victoria M. Steelman, RN, PhD, CNOR, will serve as an independently contracted nursing researcher for the Association. Dr Steelman, an advanced practice nurse with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, currently chairs the AORN Recommended Practices Committee. In her new role, she will provide support to other committees, including the Nursing Research and Nursing Practices Committees. She also will support the Association's members as they adopt evidence-based practice and support members as a resource for nursing research (eg, study design and reporting of results).

Dr Steelman has extensive expertise with evidence-based practice, especially in perioperative nursing. She has been a perioperative nurse for more than 20 years, and for the past 15 years, she has focused on implementing changes in clinical practice based on the evidence available from research, case reports, expert opinion, and scientific evidence.

Dr Steelman has published extensively and presented on issues related to perioperative patient care. She is one of the authors of "The Iowa model for evidence-based practice to improve quality of care," which was published in Nursing Research. Two of her published, evidence-based practice protocols of special interest to perioperative nursing are "Latex allergy precautions" and "Infection control for prion diseases." In 1999, Dr Steelman received the Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Nursing Research Award and the Outstanding Achievement in the Application of Perioperative Research Award from AORN for this work.