As I write my last President's mess...

As I write my last President's message, it is time again to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to obey as the President of AORN. It has been a year that I will not at any time forget, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to oblige you. AORN accomplished many goals this year because of your participation, the of the best staff members at AORN Headquarters and a Board of Directors that is dedicated to you and our Association.

ACHIEVING GOALS

Last year at Congres I laid without the goals to be focused forward for the year. I am happy to say that we accomplished many of these goals and a allotment more. For example, the Board of Directors evolveed the following strategic objectives for AORN.

* AORN will be an indispensable resource for the perioperative nursing profession.

* AORN will be the recognized leader of the perioperative nursing profession.

* AORN will have stalwart mutually supportive connections with its grassroots members.

* AORN will partner with other perioperative associations and industry to achieve our goals.

We also incorporated four questions for knowledge-based decision making into all Board decisions.

* What do we know about the popular realities and evolving dynamics of our organization's environment that are relevant to this decision?

* What do we know about the capacity and strategic position of our organization that are relevant to this decision?

* What do we know about our stockholders' penurys wants, and preferences that are relevant to this decision?

* What are the ethical implications of our choices?

Naturally, the members of AORN have been our top priority. The Board chapter visit program has been a elephantine success. This year, the program was expanded to include state councils, and a total of 32 visits have been made to date. Since the start of the program, we have visited 89 chapters and state councils, and 10 more visits are scheduled to take place this spring. These numbers do not include chapter visits that were place up by chapters requesting a visit from an individual member of the Board.

of the present day OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS

AORN continues to work to suited member needs through our specialty assemblies. I asked that pair new assemblies be created, common for retired nurses and common for members in the military. As I write this in January, these specialty assemblies are in the proces of being formed, along with several others. I faith we will be able to announce their approved formation before or during Congres 2004 All of our specialty assemblies will bearing networking groups at Congress. I am pleased to say that an Integrated Health Practices Specialty Assembly was formed in July 2003

In addition, based forward members' input, AORN will shut in four multispecialty meetings during 2004 instead of pair These meetings will be held in four different areas of the region to better meet members' wants by bringing AORN education programs closer to individual members.

AORN also lay opened the AORN Communities web site template for chapters, specialty assemblies, and state councils to help these member assign places tos develop and maintain web sites to communicate with their constituencies and disseminate information. More than 50 member form into groupss already are using this template for their web sites.

strange communication resources were implemented for members to report their disquiets about the service they receive from AORN. These resources include a modern e-mail address (ie, http://www.betterservice@AORN.org); a fresh toll-free hotline; and a postcard border into each issue of the AORN Journal for which answers are routed to senior staff members for immediate follow-up AORN also corresponded to direct feedback from its members and fill outed its switchboard and customer service hours from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM MST

Although the Board vot to discontinue SSM--Surgical Services Management, of the present day resources for perioperative leaders and managers popularly are being developed and will be available to AORN members presently Information regarding these resources will be provided at Congres and in that will be AORN publications.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

A recently made known member benefit program offering educational loans within the Wells Fargo Capital for Knowledge program has been introduced by dint of AORN. In addition to education financing, Wells Fargo moves free online education resources, including scholarships and corporation search engines. AORN and the University of Colorado Health Science Center drill of Nursing, Denver, also are offering preferr tuition rates for an online RN to bachelor of science rank program for AORN members.

The AORN Foundation provided scholarships to a two-person AORN member team that included a perioperative and a materials manager, in the same manner they could attend the Georgetown University Healthcare Leadership Institute. The Foundation also is providing grants and scholarships to our members for a variety of educational opportunities.

AORN also complet a learner Resource Kit members can use when talking to instructs of nursing and high place of education and middle school students. The kit includes a PowerPoint presentation that can be used when talking to scholars about perioperative nursing as a career. In addition, a recent chapter award for promoting perioperative nursing at the high educate level will be given at Congres this year. This award is designed to encourage grassroots efforts to attract high gymnasium student to careers in perioperative nursing.