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Providing the means for survival
Presidenf's message
Providing the means for survival Recently I have been working with a new born animal - rejected by her mother, an occurrence not uncommon in the animal kingdom.
This i s a situation which demands constant concern and awention. Perhaps it is not only a national problem but an international one as well.
The rest of the litter seems to be doing fine but this little one, the runt, does not seem to have the will to survive.
International participaqion with other o p erating room n u r m began this year in September. Betty Thomas, RN, AORN JOURNAL editor and past AORN president, was a speaker at a meeting of the Theutre-Sisters section of the Royal Victorian College of Nursing in Melbourne, Australia. She was also a special guest at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons meeting in that
While I have been trying to communicate with and feed this helpless creature I have compared it to nursing - to nursing in the operating room.
I have compared this abandoned piglet to children who have been battered and abused by adults; severely deformed babies who need corrective surgery so they will not have to struggle so haird to survive; the deaf children, so frightened, who become calm and content when we are alble to make them understand how much we want to help them.
city. The latter part of September found your President in far away South Africa. I was a program participant in the South African Theatre Nurses meeting in Cape Town. The topics on their program were similar to ours --orientation, sterilization, law and the nurse and the use and misuse of disposables.
I have compared the situation as a whole
As I left for this trip I wondered how our
to operating room nursing and our struggle
educational programs compared to theirs.
to keep OR content in student nurse curri-
Do South African nursing students have ex-
cula.
perience in operating rooms or are they also
October 1971
7
limited in that area? I wondered what methods they used; which ones might b e of help to us; and what suggestions I would be able to offer to help them.
Right now, the first part of October, many AORN members are taking part in the Madrid and Lisbon study tour. They are visiting hospitals, and nurses from Spain and Portugal. Later this month I will b e participating in the annual meeting of the National Association of Theatre Nurses in Bournemouth, England. I have studied with interest ths report from the Central Health Services Council in the United Kingdom. It seems they are concerned about duplication of effort, overtime, on-call staffing, training of personnel and structuring an operating room committee to assist with policy formation and implementation.
They have asked me to speak on the structure of our departments. Nurses all over the world are seeking better ways to care for the patients in the operating room. Attendance a t the AORN
management seminars and the pre and post op seminars, organized by our NCE committee and led b y Carol Alexander, AORN educational director, is one way o w nation's nurses are learning to expand their role. It is uncertain whether or not my little animal will survive but I will continue to try by feeding, giving medications and just plain caring.
I believe operating room nursing will survive because AORN will continue its efforts to help the operating room nurse to expand her role. W e will continue to communicate with other organizations; hopefully, we will help them understand that operating room nursing is nursing. Through our efforts of recruitment, membership drives and chapter organization meetings we will involve more and more nurses. Through meetings with other professional organizations we will seek better working relationship, we will not duplicate effort but offer and expect mutual support and cooperation.
0
-Ruth
Bramhall, RN
All nurses invifed Nurses from throughout the country are invited t o the American C o l l e g e of Surgeons 19th sect i o n a l meeting f o r nurses and doctors, scheduled f o r M a r c h 13-15, 1972, i n Philadelphia. N o registration f e e is charged nurses. The headquarters hotel i s the Bellevue Stratford. M i l d r e d L. Guzara, RN, operating room supervisor at A l b e r t Einstein M e d i c a l Center, Philadelphia, heads t h e committee planning t h e nurses' session. She i s a member of the A O R N Philadelphia chapter.
C. Rollins Hanlon, MD, ACS director, w i l l open t h e meeting M a r c h 13, f o l l o w e d b y a panel discussion on emergency room care of t h e patient with m u l t i p l e trauma, and a "how-I-do-it" clinic on utilization of surgical beds. Afternoon sessions include a discussion on t o t a l hip arthoplasty. and
a special presentation on p a r e n t e d hyperalimentation.
The M a r c h 14 topics include a panel on patient safety and hospital infection: t h e r o l e o f the nurse epidemiologist; laminar f l o w rooms; electronics and explosives: coronary artery disease: respiratory insufficiency; and the hospital in health care t o d a y and tomorrow. M a r c h 15 sessions feature a symposium on body image w i t h respect t o reconstructive surgery, o n d a panel on organ transplantation. Some 40 industrial exhibits featuring new materials and equipment w i l l be on display. O f f i c i a l hotel forms and further information may b e obtoined my writing T. E. M c G i n n i C manager of exhibits and meeting arrangements, American C o l l e g e of Surgeons. 55 East Erie St., Chicago. 6061 1.
8
AORN Journal
Providing the means for survival Recently I have been working with a new born animal - rejected by her mother, an occurrence not uncommon in the animal kingdom.
This i s a situation which demands constant concern and awention. Perhaps it is not only a national problem but an international one as well.
The rest of the litter seems to be doing fine but this little one, the runt, does not seem to have the will to survive.
International participaqion with other o p erating room n u r m began this year in September. Betty Thomas, RN, AORN JOURNAL editor and past AORN president, was a speaker at a meeting of the Theutre-Sisters section of the Royal Victorian College of Nursing in Melbourne, Australia. She was also a special guest at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons meeting in that
While I have been trying to communicate with and feed this helpless creature I have compared it to nursing - to nursing in the operating room.
I have compared this abandoned piglet to children who have been battered and abused by adults; severely deformed babies who need corrective surgery so they will not have to struggle so haird to survive; the deaf children, so frightened, who become calm and content when we are alble to make them understand how much we want to help them.
city. The latter part of September found your President in far away South Africa. I was a program participant in the South African Theatre Nurses meeting in Cape Town. The topics on their program were similar to ours --orientation, sterilization, law and the nurse and the use and misuse of disposables.
I have compared the situation as a whole
As I left for this trip I wondered how our
to operating room nursing and our struggle
educational programs compared to theirs.
to keep OR content in student nurse curri-
Do South African nursing students have ex-
cula.
perience in operating rooms or are they also
October 1971
7
limited in that area? I wondered what methods they used; which ones might b e of help to us; and what suggestions I would be able to offer to help them.
Right now, the first part of October, many AORN members are taking part in the Madrid and Lisbon study tour. They are visiting hospitals, and nurses from Spain and Portugal. Later this month I will b e participating in the annual meeting of the National Association of Theatre Nurses in Bournemouth, England. I have studied with interest ths report from the Central Health Services Council in the United Kingdom. It seems they are concerned about duplication of effort, overtime, on-call staffing, training of personnel and structuring an operating room committee to assist with policy formation and implementation.
They have asked me to speak on the structure of our departments. Nurses all over the world are seeking better ways to care for the patients in the operating room. Attendance a t the AORN
management seminars and the pre and post op seminars, organized by our NCE committee and led b y Carol Alexander, AORN educational director, is one way o w nation's nurses are learning to expand their role. It is uncertain whether or not my little animal will survive but I will continue to try by feeding, giving medications and just plain caring.
I believe operating room nursing will survive because AORN will continue its efforts to help the operating room nurse to expand her role. W e will continue to communicate with other organizations; hopefully, we will help them understand that operating room nursing is nursing. Through our efforts of recruitment, membership drives and chapter organization meetings we will involve more and more nurses. Through meetings with other professional organizations we will seek better working relationship, we will not duplicate effort but offer and expect mutual support and cooperation.
0
-Ruth
Bramhall, RN
All nurses invifed Nurses from throughout the country are invited t o the American C o l l e g e of Surgeons 19th sect i o n a l meeting f o r nurses and doctors, scheduled f o r M a r c h 13-15, 1972, i n Philadelphia. N o registration f e e is charged nurses. The headquarters hotel i s the Bellevue Stratford. M i l d r e d L. Guzara, RN, operating room supervisor at A l b e r t Einstein M e d i c a l Center, Philadelphia, heads t h e committee planning t h e nurses' session. She i s a member of the A O R N Philadelphia chapter.
C. Rollins Hanlon, MD, ACS director, w i l l open t h e meeting M a r c h 13, f o l l o w e d b y a panel discussion on emergency room care of t h e patient with m u l t i p l e trauma, and a "how-I-do-it" clinic on utilization of surgical beds. Afternoon sessions include a discussion on t o t a l hip arthoplasty. and
a special presentation on p a r e n t e d hyperalimentation.
The M a r c h 14 topics include a panel on patient safety and hospital infection: t h e r o l e o f the nurse epidemiologist; laminar f l o w rooms; electronics and explosives: coronary artery disease: respiratory insufficiency; and the hospital in health care t o d a y and tomorrow. M a r c h 15 sessions feature a symposium on body image w i t h respect t o reconstructive surgery, o n d a panel on organ transplantation. Some 40 industrial exhibits featuring new materials and equipment w i l l be on display. O f f i c i a l hotel forms and further information may b e obtoined my writing T. E. M c G i n n i C manager of exhibits and meeting arrangements, American C o l l e g e of Surgeons. 55 East Erie St., Chicago. 6061 1.
8
AORN Journal