Infection Control Today - 03/2004: Perspectives

AORN Congress Offers Something for Everyone

By Betty J. Shultz, RN, CNOR

The upcoming Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) Congress, March 21-25, 2004 in San Diego, reflects a wide range of issues and topics of interest to perioperative registered nurses, central service/sterile processing professionals and infection control professionals. AORN has worked hard to put together a thought-provoking education program with something for everyone, including managers, those with a clinical focus, and students and faculty.

AORN’s education sessions:

• Present information related to current issues, trends, and future challenges affecting perioperative nursing practice
• Provide insight into major perioperative safety trends
• Explore leadership and management strategies to improve team collaboration and operations
• Identify best clinical practices to improve patient outcomes
• Present education techniques and strategies
• Explore strategies for increasing the voice of perioperative nurses in the legislative/health policy arena
• Enhance personal and professional balance

Additionally, education sessions of particular interest to infection control professionals, include:

• Environmental Surveillance in the Operating Room
• What Are The Facts in Musculosketal Allograft Tissue Safety, Infectious Disease Testing, and Regulation?
• AAMI Standards for Protective Barriers
• Operation Iraqi Freedom and Surgery in an Austere Field Setting
• What’s Next? Current Issues in Epidemiology
• Flash: What Do I Need to Know About Sterilization Process Monitoring
• Disaster Preparedness
• Road to Implementation: Translating SIP (Surgical Infection Prevention Project) Into Daily Practice
• Chemical and Infectious Agents: Are You Safe?

AORN’s “Patient Safety First Track” includes sessions that provide information and insight into perioperative safety trends, including:

• Human Factors Training – explore the critical importance of effective communication and teamwork in providing safety for providers and patients.
• Workplace Safety: Part One – explore the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in prioritizing the health and safety of workers. Part Two – leave this session with a better understanding of the global impact of fatigue on safety, fatigue as a healthcare and community issue, and studies that have been undertaken to document the impact of fatigue.
• Creating a Culture of Patient Safety and Efficiency – identify, plan, and implement systems and tools for patient safety initiatives. Areas of focus include JCAHO standards and ways to develop, implement and monitor different standards in perioperative services.
• Dietary Supplements: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Patients
• Perioperative Considerations When the Patient is a Diabetic
• A Nursing Team’s Emotional Response to a Widely Publicized Sentinel Event • Incident Reports: Can They Improve Patient Safety?
• Malignant Hyperthermia Simulation Improves Safety
• Against All Odds: Practical Approaches to Implement Best Practices in the OR
• Minimizing Risk and Ensuring Safety
• Patient Safety in the Ambulatory Setting
• High-Alert Medications: A Case-Based Approach to Understanding the Problems and Designing Solutions
• Don’t Be Left Out in the Cold – Emphasizing the importance of maintaining normothermia for the perioperative patient.
• Massive Transfusion – Managing Hemorrhage in the Trauma Patient
• Ambulatory Update: Another Look at HIPAA
• Managing the Unmanageable: Scheduling as the First Line of Defense in the Battle of Operational Efficiency
• Responding to the Unthinkable: Duke University Hospital’s Experience with a Transplant Sentinel Event

This year’s Congress theme, “Unity: Perioperative Partnerships,” reflects AORN’s diversity as an organization and how it gives us the opportunity to hear various opinions and suggestions from all segments of the membership and interdisciplinary team, including industry partners. A united front of diverse interests has more power than one voice. Although individuals can and do accomplish goals, greatness is accomplished by working together. No individual has knowledge of all facets of an issue, but by listening to each other and team members, we can fully understand and address the issues.

For more information or to register, visit AORN online at www.aorn.org or contact AORN Customer Service at (800) 755-2676, ext 1. Betty J. Shultz, RN, CNOR, is president of AORN.