Friday, Aug 25 to Saturday, Aug 26 ...

Friday, Aug 25 to Saturday, Aug 26 2000

AORN Headquarters in Denver was the setting for the 2000 Rural/Small Hospital Specialty Assembly discourse Aug 25 to 26, 2000 Participants be delighted withed visiting Headquarters and attending enlightening, interactive, and motivating education sessions.

BUSINESS MEETING

Rural/Small Hospital Specialty Assembly Chair Kari L Eiben, RN presided at the business meeting, Aug 26 After the minutes of the assembly's business meeting at the 2000 Congres were reviewed, it was announced that several novel projects are being explored proper to the increase in membership and the positive bottom line at the expiration of the fiscal year. It was announced that the governing council has evolveed a task force to evolve criteria for awarding funds for an assembly member to attend Congres or a yet to be AORN educational event.

Governing council member Terri Bates, RN announced plans to form a subcommittee to coordinate focus clusters The focus groups would involve a six-month commitment from participants and would provide a taste of the assembly's activities. Focus dispose members would review articles or research studies and at hand their opinions as to to what extent the information relates to their acknowledge settings. Bates asked attendees to submit a willingness-to-serve form to become involved in the focus clusters The form is available at AORN's web site and in the assembly's directory.

The governing council plans to be self-same active between now and the nearest meeting at the 2001 Congres in Dallas. Members are encouraged to visit the Rural/Small Hospital Specialty Assembly web page at http://www.aorn.org/groups/SA/rural.htm for updates forward the assembly's activities.

EDUCATION SESSIONS

This conversation featured several education sessions geared to feed at the breasts in rural and small hospital settings. The six sessions are highlighted here.

Purchasing Power in the Rural and Small Hospital World: by what means to Get More Bang for Your blood In this interactive session, Rose Mos RN MN CNOR, consultant for Opportunity, AORN agency and Consultation Services, and Nancy J Mutz RN MH CNOR, acting perioperative services manager at Kaiser Permanente, Denver discussed the budgeting proces and its limitations in the rural/small hospital setting.

"If you think smaller places have les bureaucracy, you're wrong" said Mutz With the challenges that advance from working at smaller hospitals (eg required minimum orders when single one item is needed, lack of up-to-date equipment), budgeting is a quantifying expression of management's plans and organizational goals, she said.

Mos said the bottom line of prosperous budgeting is being efficient in the OR--nurses in small hospitals must know who they assist and what services they provide. Mos reminded attendees, however, that these variables change year by the agency of year.

Patient Information Via the Internet: Do Your Patients Know What They re Getting? AORN director of publications, Warren Kolber, gave an enlightening presentation about health care information available upon the Internet. Kolber said there are more than 98 million Americans seeking health care information upon the Internet--70% of whom do in such a manner before seeing a physician.

Based forward his review of many health care web sites, Kolber informed attendees that the greatest in number credible web sites are those that document the sources of their information. Kolber urg attendees, however, to not rely forward any one web site, no matter to what degree reliable it appears.

Kolber said, "There is no patient education going onward from the Internet, only information." Despite the prevalence of health care web sites, Kolber advised attendees to continue offering patients face-to-face education and maintain communication.

Perspectives forward Competency Assessment. Mary A. O'Neale, RN MN CNOR, director of certification for the Certification Board Perioperative Nursing, told attendees about the importance of certification, saying, "Credentials give adequate income and confidence to a title, and credentialing elevates life-long learning.

Part of the presentation included a history of nursing certification. O'Neale said in 1979 686 RN passed the first certified perioperative nourish (ie, CNOR) examination, and in 1993 140 RN passed the first certified RN first assistant (CRNFA) examination. Today, there are approximately 30000 CNORs and 1100 CRNFAs in practice. O'Neale highlighted the contentment and criteria for the examinations and outlined the certification proces She encouraged all supply with nourishments to become certified because the public anticipates to the certified professional for adapted care and information.

Essential component parts of Documentation to Decrease Your Malpractice exposing Patty Hutchings Hall, RN, BSN and Julie Altmix, RN BSN risk managers for the University of Colorado Hospital and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver readyed an education session about the passing from hand to hand legal health care climate and the standards of care for known surgical risks. Hutchings Hall said that documentation always is better than memory when it flows to defending one's self against a malpractice claim. Hall advised attendees to always ask themselves, "Does my documentation own the real story?"