Each month a staff member from AORN...

Each month a staff member from AORN's guidance Affairs Department writes this AORN Journal file about issues of importance to AORN members. This month's article highlights more activities that the conduct Affairs Department and the Center for Nursing Practice undertake in succession members' behalf.

NATIONAL REPRESENTATION

AORN Congres AORN members who have at no time attended the annual AORN Congres are missing a special incident Last year, more than 6000 members gathered in Chicago to learn, teach, and discuss topics of pertain to and interest to perioperative succors For several years, the booth for AORN's staff departments were located in different blemishs inside and outside the exhibitor's hall, with equal reason conference attendees sometimes had to walk a certain distance to Fred the staff members for whom they were looking. Last year, for the first time, the Association brought together its various departments into a convenient centralized location--the AORN Resource Center Attendees again will have the opportunity to visit the restraint Affairs Department booth in the resource center at the 2004 AORN Congres in San Diego.

Congres provides the best opportunity for dominion Affairs Department personnel to learn the question at issues that members are confronting upon the front lines and determine whether these question s are public policy issues that require the attention of the department. Attending AORN's Congres is a proper way for members to share their experiences first hand and to find without in more detail the issues AORN is tracking and promoting. Members are encouraged to visit the AORN Resource Center in San Diego and stop through the Government Affairs Department desk

This year, as in previous years, management Affairs staff members will near an education session at Congress: "Advocacy at AORN--Review and Preview." The objective of this session is to update members forward current state and federal legislation and regulations that relate to AORN's legislative priorities. During part of the session, presenter will discuss opportunities for perioperative nourish at the breasts to become involved in legislative activities and public policy.

National interview of State Legislatures. Every year, conduct Affairs Department staff members attend the National parley of State Legislatures annual meeting and exhibition as exhibitors. Attending this annual meeting affords AORN staff members the opportunity to interact with thousands of state legislators, as well as legislative and administrative staff members, at the largest meeting of its kind in the nation. At the exhibitor's booth guidance Affairs staff members share with legislators and their aides important background information about AORN as a professional membership Association for perioperative RN (Figure 1) Typically, when control Affairs Department representatives strike up a conversation with legislators or their aides, they have to define the name AORN through explaining what a perioperative cherish is. The brochures and displays at the booth are designed to describe, in layman's boundarys perioperative nurses' professional preparation, the professional association that supports them, their various parts and responsibilities, and the public policy issues that face the profession.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Work with other organizations. AORN staff members and offers represent AORN outside the Association in many other ways. Although these activities are not functions of the direction Affairs Department exclusively, they describe AORN's positions on improving patient safety, positive patient issues and file perioperative nursing profession. AOICN's Center for Nursing Practice specialists, for example, are involved intimately in supporting perioperative nursing within their interaction with other associations and organizations. The Center for Nursing Practice works closely with the sway Affairs Department to address member questions, examine legislation or regulations, and review satisfaction in government affairs publications.

about of the organizations that the Center for Nursing Practice prompts work with include file

* Joint Commission onward Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' Hospital Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (JCAHO's Hospital PTAC),

* JCAHO's Ambulatory PTAC,

* Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation,

* American Institute of Architects, Health Guidelines Committee

* American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, and

* Center for Disease command and Prevention Healthcare Infection dominion government Practices Advisory Committee.

Although plenteous of the work that the Center for Nursing Practice staff members perform does not fit neatly in subordination to the umbrella of government affairs, near of their work influences or intersects with public policy. For example, state boards of nursing and state boards of medicine are interested in JCAHO standards because the federal control holds the power to accredit health care organizations for participation in its Medicare programs. by the and of their work in the PTACs, AORN's nursing specialists advise the Joint Commission upon standards development and survey proceeding changes.