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Delegates to consider policy statements
Delegates to consider policy staternents
OR nurses are in a personal and professional race to keep up with rapidly changing standards. "Getting ahead of it all" seems a perpetual dream.
AORN has done well in its primary thrust education for OR nurses. Now it seems our traditional thrust must expand. Historically we have not been a policy-making body but have pursued whatever promoted good nursing care for surgical patients. Our job now i s to speak out officially as an Association representing 15,000 operating
-
room nurses. Today, consumers question everything and they look to the specialists for answers. Our existence as the Association of Operating Room Nurses declares us as experts in intraoperative nursing care as well as perioperative functions. Yesterday, the community's standard of good practice was the legal minimum standard for a hospital's behavior and practice. These local standards are being replaced by national standards. The need for national standards states AORN's job rather clearly.
42
AORN has been consistently asked for an official policy or position on a vast spectrum of OR-related problems. AORN should study each question and make an official, authoritative statement. You will see this action initiated at our 20th annual AORN Congress in Chicago. Be prepared to offer your comments on these statements. You will review, revise and affirm some statements at Congress. Others will require in-depth study, membership survey, and later presentation. The following briefly describes some resolutions anticipated at Congress.
1. Resolution or statement on the need for professional nurses in the OR. Rationale: As step one to the reinstatement of meaningful generic
OR
experience in
nursing education,
we
must
strongly affirm the need for professional nurses in the
OR.
2. Resolution or statement on meaningful professional nursing student experience in the
OR
as an essential of her generic
nursing education.
AORN Journal
Rationale: This is obvious to AORN members, but needs to be spelled out defensibly for our publics.
3. Resolution opposing
institutional
li-
censure.
5. Statement on qualifications for operating room instructors. AORN will develop official policy statements on many intra and perioperative topics. Your input is essential and encouraged as these statements will have direct bearing on your practice, and hopefully will make your nursing function easier.
Rationale: The AORN Board voted against institutional licensure at the 1972 mid-year Board meeting and will ask ratification by the House of Delegates. Under a system of institutional licensure, RNs, LVNs, medical technologists and others would be unlicensed per se, but would be accountable to, and/or licensed by, the employing institution which would then be accountable to a state agency for quality of care provided to patients. The American Nurses’ Association, the
Our policy statements must be developed carefully and painstakingly if they are to become national standards for operating room nurses. Search your knowledge, your experience, and the policy in your area.
National League of Nursing, and others are in public opposition to this system.
Then speak. If you don’t plan to attend Congress, you can write to me. Your input i s welcome and vital.
Some of the topics to be studied include: needle counts, instrument counts, OR staffing (to include ratio and function), hair covering, and footwear.
4. Resolution or statement on a more definitive position toward the physician’s assistant as he relates to surgery.
Ruth S Metzger, RN AORN president-elect
Dermotology index published A new government monthly publication, lndex o f Dermatology, will l i s t the latest dermatology related scientific papers and publications i n all languages from around the world. The lndex of Dermafology i s published b y the National Institute o f Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases (NIAMDD), o f the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute o f Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases has undertaken regular publication o f the lndex t o further i t s Dermatology Program as well as t o respond t o the increased interest and activity in the field o f skin diseases and cutaneous biology.
NIAMDD i s responsible for much o f the NIH support o f research and training for research and the organization of conferences i n the field o f dermatology, primarily through the use of grants. Citations for each month’s lndex are computer selected from the current month’s total input of the National Library of Medicine’s medical literature analysis and retrieval system. Each citation contains the f u l l t i t l e of the article, first author, and iournal reference. If the article was written i n a foreign language, the language i s indicated. Journal coverage i s limited t o iournalr included in lndex Medicus. The lndex i s the latest of a series of well received and unique current awareness periodicals issued b y the
NIAMDD, including Diabefes Literature Index, Gasfroenferology Abstracts and
Citafions, A r t i f i c i a l Kidney Bibliography, and Endocrinology lndex. Inquiries concerning any of these publications may be addressed t o the Scientific Communications Office, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes o f Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014.
March 1973
43
OR nurses are in a personal and professional race to keep up with rapidly changing standards. "Getting ahead of it all" seems a perpetual dream.
AORN has done well in its primary thrust education for OR nurses. Now it seems our traditional thrust must expand. Historically we have not been a policy-making body but have pursued whatever promoted good nursing care for surgical patients. Our job now i s to speak out officially as an Association representing 15,000 operating
-
room nurses. Today, consumers question everything and they look to the specialists for answers. Our existence as the Association of Operating Room Nurses declares us as experts in intraoperative nursing care as well as perioperative functions. Yesterday, the community's standard of good practice was the legal minimum standard for a hospital's behavior and practice. These local standards are being replaced by national standards. The need for national standards states AORN's job rather clearly.
42
AORN has been consistently asked for an official policy or position on a vast spectrum of OR-related problems. AORN should study each question and make an official, authoritative statement. You will see this action initiated at our 20th annual AORN Congress in Chicago. Be prepared to offer your comments on these statements. You will review, revise and affirm some statements at Congress. Others will require in-depth study, membership survey, and later presentation. The following briefly describes some resolutions anticipated at Congress.
1. Resolution or statement on the need for professional nurses in the OR. Rationale: As step one to the reinstatement of meaningful generic
OR
experience in
nursing education,
we
must
strongly affirm the need for professional nurses in the
OR.
2. Resolution or statement on meaningful professional nursing student experience in the
OR
as an essential of her generic
nursing education.
AORN Journal
Rationale: This is obvious to AORN members, but needs to be spelled out defensibly for our publics.
3. Resolution opposing
institutional
li-
censure.
5. Statement on qualifications for operating room instructors. AORN will develop official policy statements on many intra and perioperative topics. Your input is essential and encouraged as these statements will have direct bearing on your practice, and hopefully will make your nursing function easier.
Rationale: The AORN Board voted against institutional licensure at the 1972 mid-year Board meeting and will ask ratification by the House of Delegates. Under a system of institutional licensure, RNs, LVNs, medical technologists and others would be unlicensed per se, but would be accountable to, and/or licensed by, the employing institution which would then be accountable to a state agency for quality of care provided to patients. The American Nurses’ Association, the
Our policy statements must be developed carefully and painstakingly if they are to become national standards for operating room nurses. Search your knowledge, your experience, and the policy in your area.
National League of Nursing, and others are in public opposition to this system.
Then speak. If you don’t plan to attend Congress, you can write to me. Your input i s welcome and vital.
Some of the topics to be studied include: needle counts, instrument counts, OR staffing (to include ratio and function), hair covering, and footwear.
4. Resolution or statement on a more definitive position toward the physician’s assistant as he relates to surgery.
Ruth S Metzger, RN AORN president-elect
Dermotology index published A new government monthly publication, lndex o f Dermatology, will l i s t the latest dermatology related scientific papers and publications i n all languages from around the world. The lndex of Dermafology i s published b y the National Institute o f Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases (NIAMDD), o f the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute o f Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases has undertaken regular publication o f the lndex t o further i t s Dermatology Program as well as t o respond t o the increased interest and activity in the field o f skin diseases and cutaneous biology.
NIAMDD i s responsible for much o f the NIH support o f research and training for research and the organization of conferences i n the field o f dermatology, primarily through the use of grants. Citations for each month’s lndex are computer selected from the current month’s total input of the National Library of Medicine’s medical literature analysis and retrieval system. Each citation contains the f u l l t i t l e of the article, first author, and iournal reference. If the article was written i n a foreign language, the language i s indicated. Journal coverage i s limited t o iournalr included in lndex Medicus. The lndex i s the latest of a series of well received and unique current awareness periodicals issued b y the
NIAMDD, including Diabefes Literature Index, Gasfroenferology Abstracts and
Citafions, A r t i f i c i a l Kidney Bibliography, and Endocrinology lndex. Inquiries concerning any of these publications may be addressed t o the Scientific Communications Office, National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes o f Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014.
March 1973
43