2018 DELEGATE NARRATIVES

This week has gone by so fast. I knew I would be this happy, before and after. But it always amazes me when I come back home and I feel even more passionate about perioperative nursing and AORN. I’m obsessed with making nursing as good as it can possibly be, making myself my best in the process.

As your representative Forty Under 40, the AORN CEO offered us upgraded admission to the Executive Leadership Summit. I was very excited and honored to be offered this opportunity. I had hovered over the button for 20 minutes when I registered a couple weeks earlier- could I afford the upgrade? Something so hugely valuable to my practice, career, and goals was surely worth the price. 

I couldn’t make myself. But somehow Linda Groah (AORN CEO) and AORN knew what I needed before I asked, and they handed me the hemostat, not the tonsil. They continuously prove how willing they are to listen to all members; how dedicated they are to the future and those they perceive to have the impact on the future.

If I could tell you one thing for which I benefit from attending the Summit, Expo, or Congress, it’s not the education or the motivation (though I am immensely grateful for those as well). The AORN International Surgical Conference and Expo is about connections. 

It’s one thing to complain with nurses in the break room who are in the trenches with you. It’s another to meet with local nurses and hear that your facility isn’t much different. It’s an entirely new thing to meet someone from Australia and learn, yet again, that you are not alone. We have so many friends and cohorts. We take the time, effort, and money to come to Expo because we value education and are committed to ensuring evidenced-based practice in our ORs and we are not alone.

But the value of social connections means so much more. We value humanity much more than education, practice, or ourselves.

We are human. We trust humans. We love humans. We just want to empathize as nurses. But it is so much more rewarding to empathize with positivity and grateful joy than with negativity and disappointment. 

The AORN Expo is all about high spirits, grateful joy, and constant networking. Ironically, those are the concepts that allowed me to flourish and provided the desire to pursue my greatest potential. It is through positivity, gratitude, and connections that I am able to achieve and strive for more every day. 

You never know whom you’ll see and who will be the reason you find joy.

That is why I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend Expo and develop a relationship with those who enact major change in the field of perioperative nursing on behalf of the Dallas AORN Chapter.

One can say that the excitement of attending your first AORN convention can be intimidating as well as overwhelming, however, I, like many other nurses, came out the other end with a renewed excitement for the field of surgical nursing.

I was one of about sixteen hundred first-time attendees, and the energy in the air was stimulating to say the least. I was able to spend quality time with, Terri Goodman, who I quickly came to consider a mentor for life. Touring the vendor mark with her for two day gave me a new insight of how important these vendors’ roles are to the field of nursing as a whole. I got to see this aspect of the convention through her eyes, someone with a long history in the field of nursing. Instead of just going through the vendor mart with a mission of getting as many trinkets as one could possible carry, I was able to  absorb quality information that each vendor shared with a wonderful depth of knowledge.

I was asked to write about a seminar that I attended that would be shared with our members. I felt as a new member of the Board of Directors for this wonderful chapter, it was important that I attend “Key to Chapter Success” hosted on the first morning of the convention.

This session explained that a successful chapter must set and define expectations for themselves by:

• Holding the Board of Directors accountable

• Add a task force or sub-committee as needed

• Engage members and ask their opinion

• Listen to your Board

• Define your yearly activities calendar and share this information

• Communicate

• Ask for an AORB Board Chapter visit

Some topics that chapters are taking on are:

• Smoke evacuation in the operating room

• RNFA reimbursement

• CST CE reimbursement

• Central supply certification requirements and reimbursement

I came to find that this organization is just not about the nurse, it is about the success of the Perioperative surrounding that makes each patient outcome successful. The TEAM atmosphere we all hear of so much, but fail in following through.

Each Chapter should have advocacy programs that include:

• Legislative updates

• Amplify action alerts

• Invite a legislative member to meetings

• Organize a capital tour

AORN action center has information on each state.

An idea that I thought would be good for our chapter is a bi-monthly newsletter that could give information such as:

• Government affairs

• National AORN updates

• Local updates

• Person of the month (member)

• Dates of importance

• Presidents corner

AORN has templates available at no cost. This could be a sub-committee task.

Use our resources:

• Chapter officer definitions on chapter leader group on ORNL

• Webinars on leadership coming June 2018. Chapter leader link (OR Nurse Link)

• Summer 2018: updated chapter forms and information

• Upload new officers

• AORN chapter leader group: make sure to get on this. Chapter leader communication on OR Nurse Link-check box to get this

• Chapters can get $125 for two years for engagement events from AORN for events such as wine tasting, painting events, social event, etc. Only requirement is to send pictures to AORN.

This being my first session gave me a lot of insight to how other chapters are succeeding and how we can learn from them to become an even more successful chapter.

I would like to first thank you for allowing me to serve as a delegate for our chapter! Our group, although small, was fun and cohesive! We met even outside of the required delegate functions and were able to share information and perceptions that resulted in our recommendations to you 1) re: candidates to support and 2) discussion and voting on issues addressed at the House of Delegates.

One of the most interesting presentations I heard was titled HIPEC: Be Prepared for Everything. As we are performing HIPEC procedures at Baylor, I wanted to glean or others experiences as well as compare how we handle the procedure and process with the methods another facility uses. HIPEC = Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy. This procedure is utilized for patients with peritoneal cancers but is not indicated for every patient with that diagnosis. This specific treatment includes resection of all visible tumors in the abdomen followed by heated chemotherapy being directly infused into the abdomen, bathing all the abdominal contents for a period of time and then flushing all the chemotherapy possible out of the abdomen and closing. The outcome for the patient is a longer life with no increase in complications or treatment-related death. Patients with ovarian cancers treated with surgery and HIPEC have lived an average of twelve months longer than patients who did not get HIPEC. Some patients have been cured of their cancer. Patients with colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, pseudomyxoma, mesothelioma, pancreatic cancer, and peritoneal cancer of an unknown origin may all benefit from this treatment. 

This treatment has the goal of removing all cancer cells using a combination of surgical resection followed by heated chemotherapy into the abdominal cavity. There are several techniques in administration, open, semi-closed and closed. The speakers only briefly address the first two techniques which include leaving the abdomen open or partly open and creating a bowl shape with the peritoneum and then introducing heated chemotherapy into the bowl. This is followed by continuously removing some of the chemotherapy agents, rewarming the solution to 41C and reinfusing for a total of 30 to 90 minutes using a pump. The surgeon at the hospital offering the presentation considered the open cavity procedure as risky for exposure to the staff and physicians in the O.R. The closed procedure involved placing two catheters, one in-flow and one-outflow, into the abdomen and temporarily closing the abdomen for the 30 to 90 minute infusion process. The chemotherapy is then removed and the abdomen flushed with saline. The abdomen is opened and the catheters removed and the abdomen permanently closed.

Risks to the staff in the O.R include possible exposure to chemotherapy during the procedure, during disposal of the chemotherapy and/or cleaning of the room. Special disposal of items that have come into contact with chemotherapy is required to prevent inadvertent exposure downstream. I would like more information about this aspect of the procedureand have contacted the speaker and started a review of the literature.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to attend Evpo as a del

I want to first thank you all for allowing me the honor of representing the Dallas AORN chapter as a delegate at the AORN Global Surgical Conference and Expo 2018. I must say that I have attended many workshops sponsored by AORN in the past such as the Guidelines for Perioperative Practice and the Prep for CNOR but nothing prepared me for the unforgettable experience I had at the Global expo. The opportunity alone to collaborate with surgical nurses from all over the country/world was amazing and to learn the challenges in Texas exist is the Philippines. AORN provided so many angles for learning and development during this week that there was no way to digest all the knowledge in a week. The AORN Global Surgical Expo left me excited about the opportunity to attend the next one.

I was one of the privileged nurses to attend the Nurse Executive Leadership Seminar (NELS) which I must divulge took me by surprise. I went into the week-long session which started at 630 every morning anticipating to hear speakers spew how phenomenal AORN is and about its format as a leader in healthcare. This I must admit did occur in part but that is not what NELS was about. The seminar actually motivates and molds you to be a Nurse Leader and not just a leader but an incredible leader.  In my field of work I do not begin cases until 0830 at the earliest so being anywhere for class or work at 0630 is unheard of for me but from day one of NELS I was one of the first people present to soak up the knowledge. I am so thankful for the opportunity to attend the AORN Global Surgical Conference and Expo and to bring two of my staff along as well. I plan to take the energy I gained from the conference to excite other OR nurses about AORN and all that they offer. I now after the motivation, collaboration and socialization with perioperative nurses worldwide will try and be that nurse for my peers and “Rise Up & Lift Up” for Harmonized Care.

First, I want to thank you for sending me as a delegate to NOLA!  (By the way, I have to admit that I had to look that up- Google said it stood for New Orleans LA.) I really appreciate the chapter’s support and I truly learned a lot and came back remembering the reason I became a perioperative nurse!  I very much enjoyed getting to know the other delegates (JD, Andre’, Mary, and Karen) better!  We have truly amazing spirits in our chapter!

Second, I would like to mention the presentation that I enjoyed the most.  It was from a speaker named Amanda Gore.  Her presentation method was similar to a stand-up comic, but her message was phenomenal.  She compared a Bell curve to the staff in an Operating Room.  Below is a graph I made to help explain her presentation.    

Her challenges to us were to determine where we were and where we wanted to be.  For those in the yellow, we have much improvement to make.  For those in the red, we are easily influenced to dip downward and with effort have the ability to can rise up above as well.  Those in the blue are sometimes considered as over the top and not realistic.  Her encouragement was to find another person like you who could be your “joy buddy” to help maintain your performance. 

Other main points in her presentation were the following:   Embrace challenges, overcome obstacles, request constructive criticism, make the improvements you can, understand your effort is a path to mastery,  learn from the success of others, see that mindsets are choices so make them consciously, and finally perceive stress as a challenge that can be overcome and is positive.  

 For each one of these points she had a serious discussion that always ended in laughter and comradery!  By the end, we were all arm in arm singing and swaying.  Now that was a persuasive speaker! 

On another note, I wanted to mention that during the Second Forum I had a new appreciation for AORN on the national level.  They really care about perioperative nurses.  They are working to support us in so many ways.  Periop 202 is rolling out soon and the first module will be service specific for Orthopedics.  Through the journal, they have offered over 200+ CEs free to the membership.  They are very active in addressing hot topics like the pre-cleaning of instrumentation for decontamination and the surgical attire issues that we have been dealing with for years. 

In summary, I wanted to say that because of your support I had an amazing experience at Expo.  I enjoyed the sights, the smells, the tastes and especially the many learning experiences I had there.  I was able to find time to re-energize my spirit and remember why I became a perioperative nurse.  As an energy force/spirit,  I want to make a difference in my universe personally and hopefully globally.   What is it I need and want? How do I get there?  For me, this means to belong, to include others, to touch others, to be touched, to support and be supported, to do the most for as many people and create the best effect for as many as possible.  Yes, this may seem lofty.  But for me, it is very real- and my time in NOLA helped open my eyes to this.