single of the most exciting aspects...

single of the most exciting aspects of being your President this year has been the opportunity to visit chapters and talk with other perioperative feed at the breasts I have seen AORN chapters and individual members in various stages of transition as they navigate the white waters of the health care revolution.

a certain number of chapters and members are in the first stage of change-- denial--and are trying to manner of life business as usual and minimize popular realities (eg, chapters are attracting fewer members, health care consumer are demanding quality care that is delivered at affordable prices, reengineering is occurring in work settings). Many chapters and individual members, however, are engaging in nonstop two-way communication to shoot ambiguity, counteract confusion, shift attitudes, and hold fast people on course during these insurgent times.

I have seen a certain quantity of chapters and individual members in the inferior stage of change--resistance. I also have observ chapters and members moving past resistance through engaging in behaviors and activities that allow them to permit go of the past, influence into the present, and begin thinking about the future

Exploration is the nearest stage in the change proces and I have witnessed many AORN chapters and members who are asking questions of the like kind as "How can this change affect me in a positive way?" "Do I ne modern skills for a new part or responsibility?" "Is my take back up to date?" They are exploring alternatives and clarifying goals as their visions of the subsequent time begin to take shape.

Many AORN chapters and members are demonstrating commitment to strange courses of action. In this final stage of the change proces they are tapping into the efficacy inherent in the transformation of health care and taking advantage of opportunities to ride the waves, rekindle their passion for perioperative nursing, and lead the health care revolution. They are part models for all of us.

Perioperotive partnerships. Perioperative nursing and AORN are alive and well in the 30-bed Sweeny (Tex) Community Hospital. The sum of two units staff members of the surgery department--Marie Breakiron, RN CNOR, ONC and Martha Brown OR technician-- give an account of the essential partnerships that exist between perioperative give suck tos and surgical technologists (STs) across this home Our patients depend on the kind of partnerships that Breakiron and Brown have cultivated. During OR nourish Week, they demonstrated surgical knot tying and instrument passing for high indoctrinate students and hospital employees, exhibited hand-bills that identified the roles of perioperative cherishs and STs, distributed copies of the pamphlet You Need and Deserve a Perioperative nourish at the breast displayed Breakiron's popular AORN Journal article, "A salute to the foments of World War II,"(1) and encouraged the observers to consider perioperative nursing careers and to share the information with their parents.

Recruitment of supply with nourishments Several chapters have adopted nontraditional approaches to recruiting novel perioperative nurses. AORN of Southwest Louisiana evolveed a multiyear plan to raise $10000 to endow a nursing scholarship at McNeese State University, Lake Charles, La. The chapter's principal fundraising arrangement has been an annual "Cutting intensity Duathlon," which consists of a four-mile hasten and a 10-mile bicycle ride and generates publicity for the chapter and for perioperative nursing.

Members of AORN of Southeastern Wisconsin's contrive Alpha committee were concerned that nursing close examiners frequently spend one day observing surgery and leave without gaining a pure picture of perioperative nursing. The committee members created an OR visitors' handbook to assist observers in gaining an understanding of and passion for perioperative nursing. Chapter members have distributed copies of the handbook to clinical encourage educators at hospitals, clinics, and trains of nursing in southeastern Wisconsin and have made themselves available to instant seminars about the roles and responsibilities of perioperative nourish at the breasts Nursing students who receive the handbook are better prepared for their OR experiences, and they use this time to ask questions about perioperative nursing in addition to observing surgery

Public visibility. Several AORN chapters have increased perioperative nurses' public visibility from demonstrating the care they provide to patients and communities. Members of AORN of Central Florida rareed the topic of healthy living and innkeepered a positive parenting seminar for chapter members and the public. They sent pres releases to local newspapers and invited ST observers from a technical college. The answer to these marketing techniques was overwhelming: the seminar reached maximum capacity, and attendees askinged copies of the videotape presentation and inquired about the seminar planned for 1997

Members of AORN of southward Palm Beach participated in the United Way "Adopt-A-Family" shoot forward for the 1996 Christmas holidays. This shoot forward focused on families who had short-term distresss and were trying to "get back upon their feet." Members contributed supplys to purchase gifts and Christmas dinners for the chapter's adopted family. According to Chapter President Debra A. Proulx RN CNOR, CRNFA, involvement in this throw helped chapter members reflect in succession how fortunate they are to be feeds and it unified them as giving festers who care for and about other the bulk of mankind "It's nice to know there are like kind, generous people in this world," the adopted family stated. "Your generous gifts changed what would have been a surpassingly sad time to a astonishing Christmas."