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Nancy Davis AORN's Next President Talks About Her Career
FEBRUARY 1987, VOL. 45, NO 2
AORN J O U R N A L
Nancy Davis AORN’s Next President Talks About Her Career
“T
eaching is one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” said Nancy B. Davis, RN, FNP, when asked about her practice with Cardiovascular & Chest Surgical Associates, Boise, Idaho. “I love being skillful with my hands, but I wouldn’t be happy just doing that.” As a family nurse practitioner and RN first assistant, Davis enjoys the best of perioperative nursing. She is involved in patient care from admission to discharge, which includes assuming the first assistant role in many cardiovascular and thoracic procedures. But it has not always been easy for the future AORN president. Davis decided she wanted to be a nurse when she attended a career day in her senior year of high school. She decided to attend the four-year nursing program at the University of Portland, Ore, which offered a three-month clinical experience in operating room nursing. It was in that course during her sophomore year, that Davis determined that operating room nursing was for her. “As soon as I had a taste of operating room nursing, I became enthused,” Nancy recalls. “It was so action-packed.” During the next two years she took advantage of every opportunity to gain more OR experience; she worked in the OR on her vacation from classes, and chose an extra fourweek elective in her senior year. Some of her instructors tried to dissuade her from pursuing a career in operating room nursing because they thought it wasn’t “real nursing.” But Davis thought differently. Davis began her perioperative career as a staff nurse and eventually became a charge nurse in cardiovascular surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital in Portland. When one of the cardiovascular surgeons, Rodney Herr, MD, asked her to relocate to Boise, Idaho, to help him set up a cardiovascular program at St Luke’s Regional Medical Center, Davis accepted the challenge, and she and her husband, Lyle, relocated. And a challenge it was. As the head nurse for 228
preoperativel, Davis amsutfts with a member ofthe nursingstaff~thepatient‘scatdiacstatus. ~
~~
the new cardiovascular OR and cardiac catherization laboratory, Davis faced many challenges. ‘‘I was frustrated at first. . . some did not welcome the open heart program . . . and every change was met with resistance. I learned very early to put my requests for equipment or policy change in writing.” Davis conducted literature searches to document solutions to problems, used AORN’s recommended practices as a guide, and then documented her needs to her supervisor, the OR director, and eventually to the hospital administration. “Sometimes I had to be the bad guy,” she recalls. But her efforts paid off, and the open heart program prospered. She instituted preoperative patient visits to help her staff plan patient care, and eventually she was promoted to house
AORN JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 1987. VOL. 45, NO 2
Intraoperatively, Davis first assists for David Ashbaugh, MD. supervisor,and then to assistantdirector of nursing. Davis, however, envisioned more. She talked with Dr Herr about her ideas and decided that the family nurse practitioner course offered at Boise. State University would give her the education she sought to assume the role she imagined. “It taught me patient assessment skills I hadn’t learned as a student . . . . Now I am able to use those skills during all three phases of perioperative nursing,” Davis says of the program. As an RN first assistant and family nurse practitioner for five surgeons, Davis and her colleague Augie Hyatt, RN, see patients preop eratively to assess them, teach them what they need to know about the surgery and nursing care, and initiate routine orders. “Communication [with the nursing staff, patient, and family] is a big part of the job,” Davis says. If she learns something unique about the patient, she shares that knowledge with the nwses; if they have questions, they feel free to call her. Regarding patient acceptance, Davis says, “They are comforted by
having me come in . . . they can cry in front of me. .. hold my hand. . .some patients wouldn’t do that with their surgeon.” On the day of surgery, Davis juggles her time between first assisting and making postoperative rounds. The postoperative follow-up continues after discharge for at least a year. Davis often sees patients or calls them to continue teaching, help solve home care problems, or regulate routine medications such as anticoagulants. It is an aspect of her role that Davis enjoys because of the “trust and positive feedback.”
AORN Involvement
D
avis began her involvement with AORN as a member of the Columbia River Region chapter in Portland, Ore, and helped start the AORN of Treasure Valley chapter in Boise with about 30 members. Davis attended her fmt AORN Congress in 1970, and returned in 1971 as president of her chapter. 229
AORN JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 1987, VOL. 45, NO 2
Postoperatively, Davis evaluates a patient’s progress. Although active on the local level since then, Davis began her AORN national involvement in 1977 as a member of the Project 25 Task Force, which was charged by the Board of Directors to define the role of the nurse practicing in the operating room and to propose recommendations to operationalize that role. Out of Project 25 came AORNs definition of the perioperative role, which has since been refined to what we know it as today. At the same time, Davis was appointed to the Ad Hoc Committee on Nursing Practices, the forerunner of today’s standing Nursing Practices OR Committee. Davis also served on Project 26, the Standards of Nursing Practices Committee, and the Task Force on First Assisting. By serving on those committees, Davis helped develop the “Patient Outcome Standards for Perioperative Nursing” and the “AORN Official Statement on RN First Assistants.” Davis was first elected to the Board of Directors in 1980, and was reelected in 1982. In 1984, she was elected vice president, and in 1986,
presidentelect. Davis is grateful for the experience seven years on the Board has afforded her saying, “It has given me lots of time to fully understand the organization, the changes within AORN, and the changes within perioperative nursing.” As president, Davis seeks to continue AORN’s work and make every OR nurse proud to work in the operating room. “Just because we in the OR are physically isolated in the OR, that does not mean we can afford to be professionally isolated. AORN will have to become more involved in legislation. . . we can address specialty issues and work with the American Nurses’ Association on the broader [nursing] issues.” When asked if she had one specitic goal for her presidency, Davis says she would like to see AORN continue to move ahead. “We cannot stay status quo. I’d like to find the key that turns people on . . . motivate them to do more . . . and believe in themselves . . . and I’d like to see the office of AORN president within the reach of any perioperative nurse.” To new perioperative nurses, Davis advises, 231
FEBRUARY 1987, VOL. 45,NO 2
AORN J O U R N A L
“Join AORN. Take advantage of the educational opportunitiesand the Jouml. Vow to continually learn, seek every opportunity, try and identify events that will affect perioperative nursing practice, and keep yourselves marketable.” To AORN members, Davis pledges to be receptive to what the membership brings to the Board of Directors, suggesting that membexs should feel free to bring their concerns forward. “Don’t be intimidated. We [the Board] are all OR nurses, and we are here to serve you . . . my concerns are the same as yours . . . and we must work together. We must be willing to make mistakes to make progress.” Davis acknowledges that her job and AORN involvement take hard work, sacrifice, and very
often more than the standard eight-hour day, adding that she could not do it alone. Her employers and her colleague, Augie Hyatt, together with support from her husband and their four daughters, encourage Davis to keep striving for the best-for herself, her patients, and for AORN. The smile on her face shows pride in her accomplishments-in her family, her career, and in the Association. And when she accepts the gavel of the AORN presidency on April 10, her smile will be seen by her constituency, espeaally if, as she impishly suggests, someone “lowers the podium." PATN ~ N EPALMER, R RN, MS E D ~ R
AORN Publications for Sale at Bookstore
Competent to Care: The World Over-$12 Designfor ContinuingEducation Activities44 Guidelinesfor AORN Chapter Sponsored CE Activities48 OR Management Anthology-$22 Special0 Nursing Courses: O R 4 5 Subject Guide to AORN Journal Columns (1982-1984)-$3 Surgical Experience: A Modelfor Professional Nursing Practice in the O R 4 6 Research AORN Operating Room Staffing Study-$15 AORN Operating Room Staffing S d y : Operating Room Cost Survey-$8 Purchasing Influence of OR Nurses in Hospital Senings and Freestanding Ambulatory Surgical Centers-$12 Modular Independent Learning Systenrs (MILS’“) Care of the Ophthalmology Patientdl5 Nursing Audit: Challenge to the OR Nurse-$7 Nursing Process Series435 ($7 each) Positioning the Surgical Patient-$l5 Reporting and Documenting Patient Care O R 4 7 StaflDevelopment Series I and I . OR-$7 each The Physiological Response of the Surgical Patient-415 The Bookstore will accept payment in cash, travelers’ checks, or personal checks for the amount of purchase. VISA and MasterCard will be accepted for purchases at Congress only.
The advantage of buying AORN publications at Congress is that you can look at them first. Otherwise, they can be purchased anytime from the AORN Accounting Department. The AORN publications will be sold at the Bookstore in room 305 in the Georgia World Congress Center. The Bookstore will be open: Saturday-10 AM to 5 PM Sunday-9 AM to 5 PM Monday-9 AM to 4 PM Tuesday-10 AM to 4 PM Wednesday-10 AM to 4 PM, and Thursday-10 AM to 4 PM. In addition to the following items, a limited number of delegate packets will be available at a cost of $5, and AORN jewelry will be sold. Orders will also be taken for the computerassisted instruction modules and OR credentialing computer software. BookdHandbooks A Commitmentto Caring-$12 Ambulatoy Surgery Anthologv-$22 AORN Standards and Recommended Practices for Perioperative Nursing412 Bibliography AORN Journal Q & A and Legal C~lUmns(1971-1981)-$3 Competency Statements in Perioperative Nursing-$5
233
AORN J O U R N A L
Nancy Davis AORN’s Next President Talks About Her Career
“T
eaching is one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” said Nancy B. Davis, RN, FNP, when asked about her practice with Cardiovascular & Chest Surgical Associates, Boise, Idaho. “I love being skillful with my hands, but I wouldn’t be happy just doing that.” As a family nurse practitioner and RN first assistant, Davis enjoys the best of perioperative nursing. She is involved in patient care from admission to discharge, which includes assuming the first assistant role in many cardiovascular and thoracic procedures. But it has not always been easy for the future AORN president. Davis decided she wanted to be a nurse when she attended a career day in her senior year of high school. She decided to attend the four-year nursing program at the University of Portland, Ore, which offered a three-month clinical experience in operating room nursing. It was in that course during her sophomore year, that Davis determined that operating room nursing was for her. “As soon as I had a taste of operating room nursing, I became enthused,” Nancy recalls. “It was so action-packed.” During the next two years she took advantage of every opportunity to gain more OR experience; she worked in the OR on her vacation from classes, and chose an extra fourweek elective in her senior year. Some of her instructors tried to dissuade her from pursuing a career in operating room nursing because they thought it wasn’t “real nursing.” But Davis thought differently. Davis began her perioperative career as a staff nurse and eventually became a charge nurse in cardiovascular surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital in Portland. When one of the cardiovascular surgeons, Rodney Herr, MD, asked her to relocate to Boise, Idaho, to help him set up a cardiovascular program at St Luke’s Regional Medical Center, Davis accepted the challenge, and she and her husband, Lyle, relocated. And a challenge it was. As the head nurse for 228
preoperativel, Davis amsutfts with a member ofthe nursingstaff~thepatient‘scatdiacstatus. ~
~~
the new cardiovascular OR and cardiac catherization laboratory, Davis faced many challenges. ‘‘I was frustrated at first. . . some did not welcome the open heart program . . . and every change was met with resistance. I learned very early to put my requests for equipment or policy change in writing.” Davis conducted literature searches to document solutions to problems, used AORN’s recommended practices as a guide, and then documented her needs to her supervisor, the OR director, and eventually to the hospital administration. “Sometimes I had to be the bad guy,” she recalls. But her efforts paid off, and the open heart program prospered. She instituted preoperative patient visits to help her staff plan patient care, and eventually she was promoted to house
AORN JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 1987. VOL. 45, NO 2
Intraoperatively, Davis first assists for David Ashbaugh, MD. supervisor,and then to assistantdirector of nursing. Davis, however, envisioned more. She talked with Dr Herr about her ideas and decided that the family nurse practitioner course offered at Boise. State University would give her the education she sought to assume the role she imagined. “It taught me patient assessment skills I hadn’t learned as a student . . . . Now I am able to use those skills during all three phases of perioperative nursing,” Davis says of the program. As an RN first assistant and family nurse practitioner for five surgeons, Davis and her colleague Augie Hyatt, RN, see patients preop eratively to assess them, teach them what they need to know about the surgery and nursing care, and initiate routine orders. “Communication [with the nursing staff, patient, and family] is a big part of the job,” Davis says. If she learns something unique about the patient, she shares that knowledge with the nwses; if they have questions, they feel free to call her. Regarding patient acceptance, Davis says, “They are comforted by
having me come in . . . they can cry in front of me. .. hold my hand. . .some patients wouldn’t do that with their surgeon.” On the day of surgery, Davis juggles her time between first assisting and making postoperative rounds. The postoperative follow-up continues after discharge for at least a year. Davis often sees patients or calls them to continue teaching, help solve home care problems, or regulate routine medications such as anticoagulants. It is an aspect of her role that Davis enjoys because of the “trust and positive feedback.”
AORN Involvement
D
avis began her involvement with AORN as a member of the Columbia River Region chapter in Portland, Ore, and helped start the AORN of Treasure Valley chapter in Boise with about 30 members. Davis attended her fmt AORN Congress in 1970, and returned in 1971 as president of her chapter. 229
AORN JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 1987, VOL. 45, NO 2
Postoperatively, Davis evaluates a patient’s progress. Although active on the local level since then, Davis began her AORN national involvement in 1977 as a member of the Project 25 Task Force, which was charged by the Board of Directors to define the role of the nurse practicing in the operating room and to propose recommendations to operationalize that role. Out of Project 25 came AORNs definition of the perioperative role, which has since been refined to what we know it as today. At the same time, Davis was appointed to the Ad Hoc Committee on Nursing Practices, the forerunner of today’s standing Nursing Practices OR Committee. Davis also served on Project 26, the Standards of Nursing Practices Committee, and the Task Force on First Assisting. By serving on those committees, Davis helped develop the “Patient Outcome Standards for Perioperative Nursing” and the “AORN Official Statement on RN First Assistants.” Davis was first elected to the Board of Directors in 1980, and was reelected in 1982. In 1984, she was elected vice president, and in 1986,
presidentelect. Davis is grateful for the experience seven years on the Board has afforded her saying, “It has given me lots of time to fully understand the organization, the changes within AORN, and the changes within perioperative nursing.” As president, Davis seeks to continue AORN’s work and make every OR nurse proud to work in the operating room. “Just because we in the OR are physically isolated in the OR, that does not mean we can afford to be professionally isolated. AORN will have to become more involved in legislation. . . we can address specialty issues and work with the American Nurses’ Association on the broader [nursing] issues.” When asked if she had one specitic goal for her presidency, Davis says she would like to see AORN continue to move ahead. “We cannot stay status quo. I’d like to find the key that turns people on . . . motivate them to do more . . . and believe in themselves . . . and I’d like to see the office of AORN president within the reach of any perioperative nurse.” To new perioperative nurses, Davis advises, 231
FEBRUARY 1987, VOL. 45,NO 2
AORN J O U R N A L
“Join AORN. Take advantage of the educational opportunitiesand the Jouml. Vow to continually learn, seek every opportunity, try and identify events that will affect perioperative nursing practice, and keep yourselves marketable.” To AORN members, Davis pledges to be receptive to what the membership brings to the Board of Directors, suggesting that membexs should feel free to bring their concerns forward. “Don’t be intimidated. We [the Board] are all OR nurses, and we are here to serve you . . . my concerns are the same as yours . . . and we must work together. We must be willing to make mistakes to make progress.” Davis acknowledges that her job and AORN involvement take hard work, sacrifice, and very
often more than the standard eight-hour day, adding that she could not do it alone. Her employers and her colleague, Augie Hyatt, together with support from her husband and their four daughters, encourage Davis to keep striving for the best-for herself, her patients, and for AORN. The smile on her face shows pride in her accomplishments-in her family, her career, and in the Association. And when she accepts the gavel of the AORN presidency on April 10, her smile will be seen by her constituency, espeaally if, as she impishly suggests, someone “lowers the podium." PATN ~ N EPALMER, R RN, MS E D ~ R
AORN Publications for Sale at Bookstore
Competent to Care: The World Over-$12 Designfor ContinuingEducation Activities44 Guidelinesfor AORN Chapter Sponsored CE Activities48 OR Management Anthology-$22 Special0 Nursing Courses: O R 4 5 Subject Guide to AORN Journal Columns (1982-1984)-$3 Surgical Experience: A Modelfor Professional Nursing Practice in the O R 4 6 Research AORN Operating Room Staffing Study-$15 AORN Operating Room Staffing S d y : Operating Room Cost Survey-$8 Purchasing Influence of OR Nurses in Hospital Senings and Freestanding Ambulatory Surgical Centers-$12 Modular Independent Learning Systenrs (MILS’“) Care of the Ophthalmology Patientdl5 Nursing Audit: Challenge to the OR Nurse-$7 Nursing Process Series435 ($7 each) Positioning the Surgical Patient-$l5 Reporting and Documenting Patient Care O R 4 7 StaflDevelopment Series I and I . OR-$7 each The Physiological Response of the Surgical Patient-415 The Bookstore will accept payment in cash, travelers’ checks, or personal checks for the amount of purchase. VISA and MasterCard will be accepted for purchases at Congress only.
The advantage of buying AORN publications at Congress is that you can look at them first. Otherwise, they can be purchased anytime from the AORN Accounting Department. The AORN publications will be sold at the Bookstore in room 305 in the Georgia World Congress Center. The Bookstore will be open: Saturday-10 AM to 5 PM Sunday-9 AM to 5 PM Monday-9 AM to 4 PM Tuesday-10 AM to 4 PM Wednesday-10 AM to 4 PM, and Thursday-10 AM to 4 PM. In addition to the following items, a limited number of delegate packets will be available at a cost of $5, and AORN jewelry will be sold. Orders will also be taken for the computerassisted instruction modules and OR credentialing computer software. BookdHandbooks A Commitmentto Caring-$12 Ambulatoy Surgery Anthologv-$22 AORN Standards and Recommended Practices for Perioperative Nursing412 Bibliography AORN Journal Q & A and Legal C~lUmns(1971-1981)-$3 Competency Statements in Perioperative Nursing-$5
233