Sharing the stories of perioperative nursing

AORN Journal, Nov, 2005 by Sharon A. McNamara

Perioperative Nurse Week calls for a special celebration of our nurses serving in the armed forces. Many of them are colleagues who work with us and were deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas far from home and family to maintain peace and freedom and provide medical support for our men and women in the military. The sacrifices these nurses make so that we might enjoy the pleasure of continuing to practice nursing in a safe place, enjoying our freedom, deserve special recognition as do the stories they can tell.

I also would like to celebrate our international colleagues during this special week. The tragedy of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the havoc they wrought in our south central states served as a reminder of how we are all bonded as nurses and human beings. After news of Hurricane Katrina hit the front pages of the world's newspapers, e-mail messages poured in from Australia, Canada, China, England, Japan, Korea, Latin and South America, New Zealand, and South Africa with words of support for our members, their families, and all US citizens. I hope that we will remember all of our colleagues who suffered the assault of Katrina and all the volunteers who came to the rescue. We are a profession of expansive caring that is exhibited in the everyday mundane and in the face of great trials, and for those we care for, every experience is personal and life changing.

SPREADING STORIES FAR AND WIDE

I hope that your celebration of Perioperative Nurse Week includes going into grade schools and high schools and telling your story or bringing these potential nurses into your units via open houses and tours. Last month's "President's Message" gave you a plethora of information to use for these storytelling ventures inside and outside the OR doors. Every month, AORN Connections celebrates our nurses through the "AORN Members Making a Difference" column. I am sure that these nurses would consider it an honor to have you retell their stories. These diverse stories relate to life-and limb-saving measures, cultural and patients' rights issues, and game playing with children to demonstrate just a few creative strategies that each of you encounter daily.

Past Presidents Ellen Murphy, RN, JD, FAAN; Jane Rothrock, RN, DNSc, CNOR, FAAN; and Patricia Seifert, RN, MSN, CNOR, CRNFA, FAAN, have given you an opportunity to share your stories in print. They are putting your stories of inspiration, hope, and healing in a book titled Tea & Toast for the Perioperative Nurse's Spirit, which will be published before Congress and will be sold to support the AORN Foundation. These three great leaders are demonstrating how stories can benefit perioperative nursing intellectually and financially through the AORN Foundation's work.

Start with Perioperative Nurse Week to share the knowledge that is so vital to the care of our patients, but don't stop there. Take your stories far and wide. Spread the word about a truly rewarding profession and professional association where you make a difference every day, one patient at a time. Take the opportunity to make the essence of perioperative nursing visible. Through sharing these experiences of therapeutic and caring interventions, you can be a role model for your peers and to future nurses who will preserve the practice of perioperative nursing and ensure quality patient outcomes. Story telling is the art and science of nursing illuminated. Be the light. Never pass up an opportunity to tell your story.