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Thanks to all for a wonderful year

AORN Journal, March, 2006 by Sharon A. McNamara

After spending more than 100,000 miles flying during my year as President, I have become intimately acquainted with airline magazines. In an article from the November 2005 issue of the United Airlines magazine Hemispheres, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, chair of the American Red Cross, speaks of the "personal gift of ourselves." (1(p16)) Her short article is a thank-you to United Airlines for all their efforts to assist with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief, but her message spoke clearly to me and reminded me of the gifts that so many of you, my AORN colleagues, give throughout the year to AORN, to each other, and to our patients. This giving continues every day at the patient's side; in your local chapters, state councils, specialty assemblies, national committees, and task forces; at the Board table; and in collaboration with our dedicated staff members at AORN Headquarters. We are a virtual army, like the Red Cross, "with dignity of purpose, sharing intellectual and creative stimulation in solving issues and, within the process, making colleagues and friends for life." (1(p16)) This President's Message, colleagues and friends, is my thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to represent and serve you this year as your AORN President.

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A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE

The year has been a life-changing experience for me as I traveled the United States and the world interacting with perioperative nurses who face similar challenges in providing patient care and dealing with workplace issues, whether they work in a two-room or 75-room OR suite. The similarities in our problems were striking, but the diversity in how we solve our problems was energizing. I realized how dynamic the nursing process is and how creatively we use it, knowingly or unknowingly, to address all levels of opportunity for change. I also became grounded in the fact that AORN is the unifying force that helps you, the experts, come together and discuss, research, validate, and provide information, tools, and resources to educate perioperative nurses and, thus, standardize and raise the level of care for all our patients.

Together we have developed or revised 11 position statements, seven guidance statements and guidelines, three competency statements, and seven recommended practices. This has taken a phenomenal amount of time, energy, and dedication from our volunteer work force and the Headquarters staff members. Our second annual National "Time Out" Day has expanded AORN's reach and recognition. The Safe Medication Tool Kit brought us attention in national and local print, radio, and television media. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices awarded AORN one of its National Cheers Awards, which honored us for having "set a superlative standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events." (2)

The Perioperative Nurse Week theme, "Perioperative Nurses: Vital to Care, Knowledge to Share," energized our chapters and members to reach out to high school and grade school students, educating these potential perioperative nurses on the difference we make to our patients and the joy and purpose a nursing career can bring to one's life. Three hundred This is Perioperative Nursing videos were distributed. Twenty members reported visiting 42 schools and interacting with 2,607 students. I hope that in some way, you will keep the lines of communication open to these students so that if they have questions or need information, they will have a perioperative nurse expert to mentor them in their quest.

THE WORK OF THE BOARD

I especially want to thank you for electing the outstanding Board of Directors that you gave me to carry out the work of the Association this year. We had a number of difficult decisions to make, and I was proud that these volunteers put in long hours at home studying data, questioning or requesting more information, and making extra trips to interact in person when necessary to be sure that we had all the important information to make knowledge-based decisions. Business related to fiduciary responsibility that ultimately would affect our ability to advance the profession of perioperative nursing required tough deliberation and decision making.

Management Solutions. One of the Board's decisions was to restructure AORN Management Solutions, an AORN subsidiary that recruits interim managers for hospitals and surgery centers. The business will be expanded to include consulting services. This required an outlay of money to support the strategic direction and purposeful plan for enhancing operations and service.

Legislative agenda. Action to set AORN's legislative direction and promote the requirement for an RN circulator in every OR in the regulatory or legislative language of all 50 states prompted a closer evaluation of how the Association's resources are used to accomplish our legislative goals. The Board made a decision to hold action on RN first assistant (RNFA) reimbursement at the federal level that would involve money, time, and resources from the Government Affairs Department for two years. The Board can readdress this issue when the legislative and regulatory environment has recovered from natural disasters, the war in Iraq, and the disaster-and terrorist-preparedness initiatives that are a current priority. Clearly, the Board stands by the position of philosophically supporting reimbursement for RNFAs and will move forward in addressing this opportunistically at the state level.

Health Care Industry

Thanks to all for a wonderful year

AORN Journal, March, 2006 by Sharon A. McNamara

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