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Message from the President
MESSAGE
FROM THE PRESIDENT Audrey N . Bell, R.N.
My dictionary lists twenty-five meanings for the bord “change” and ten for “progress.” One of my favorite definitions of change is a noun meaning “variation, alteration, modification, deviation, and transformation.” It is more difficult to select only one definition for progress but perhaps its meaning as a noun means most to me, “a proceeding to a further or higher stage, or through such stages s ~ c c e s s i v e l y . ~ ~ There is a phrase, “to grow is to piogress; to remain as is, is to regress.” But what we must not do is to remain as is-status quo. We must modify, alter, transform, or in some manner, change what we are doing. \Ve must move on to another stage, hopefully on a higher plane. Is this not what each of us is trying to do each clay in our professional work? Are we not constantly evaluating what u e are doing, how we are doing i t and in what way ~e can do it so as to improve patient care activities in our operating room? Change or progress is not always a pleasant experience. It breaks our nice comfortable routines. It means learning new ways of doing things, and looking for new answers to the same old questions. This is an era of revolution. Scientific advances of recent years alone demand that all of us become involved with changes daily. Think of the progress that has been made, in hospitals alone, since the turn of the century. Medical science has made
Septernber 1967
tremendous strides, nursing practices are entirely different, computers have affected each of us, and the end is not in sight. We face this challenge every day in our work. As we struggle to keep abreast of changing conditions in our operating rooms, so does our AORN Board of Directors struggle to make necessary changes in order that the Association continues to make progress. The “Road of Progress” is not a straight narrow path. It is bumpy, with many curves, and at times even a detour. But is this not a part of moving onward and upward, as new ways and new methods are tried and as new avenues are explored until the successful answer is found? Your Board is constantly exploring ways and means of making AORN more meaningful to you; to provide you with an organization that can help you continue to grow professionally, and can help you to continue to improve yourself and nursing care for your patients. Admittedly, at times we have perhaps created bumps in the road or placed you on a curve. At the same time, when the road we have taken leads us to a dead end, we are Milling to detour or back up and start over again, after evaluating the situation in a cool, calm atmosphere. Only in this manner can all of us move on to the next stage successfully.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT Audrey N . Bell, R.N.
My dictionary lists twenty-five meanings for the bord “change” and ten for “progress.” One of my favorite definitions of change is a noun meaning “variation, alteration, modification, deviation, and transformation.” It is more difficult to select only one definition for progress but perhaps its meaning as a noun means most to me, “a proceeding to a further or higher stage, or through such stages s ~ c c e s s i v e l y . ~ ~ There is a phrase, “to grow is to piogress; to remain as is, is to regress.” But what we must not do is to remain as is-status quo. We must modify, alter, transform, or in some manner, change what we are doing. \Ve must move on to another stage, hopefully on a higher plane. Is this not what each of us is trying to do each clay in our professional work? Are we not constantly evaluating what u e are doing, how we are doing i t and in what way ~e can do it so as to improve patient care activities in our operating room? Change or progress is not always a pleasant experience. It breaks our nice comfortable routines. It means learning new ways of doing things, and looking for new answers to the same old questions. This is an era of revolution. Scientific advances of recent years alone demand that all of us become involved with changes daily. Think of the progress that has been made, in hospitals alone, since the turn of the century. Medical science has made
Septernber 1967
tremendous strides, nursing practices are entirely different, computers have affected each of us, and the end is not in sight. We face this challenge every day in our work. As we struggle to keep abreast of changing conditions in our operating rooms, so does our AORN Board of Directors struggle to make necessary changes in order that the Association continues to make progress. The “Road of Progress” is not a straight narrow path. It is bumpy, with many curves, and at times even a detour. But is this not a part of moving onward and upward, as new ways and new methods are tried and as new avenues are explored until the successful answer is found? Your Board is constantly exploring ways and means of making AORN more meaningful to you; to provide you with an organization that can help you continue to grow professionally, and can help you to continue to improve yourself and nursing care for your patients. Admittedly, at times we have perhaps created bumps in the road or placed you on a curve. At the same time, when the road we have taken leads us to a dead end, we are Milling to detour or back up and start over again, after evaluating the situation in a cool, calm atmosphere. Only in this manner can all of us move on to the next stage successfully.
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