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CONGRESS 2006
« Thread Started on Mar 19, 2006, 12:46pm »
A big hello from Marie in Washington DC.

Congress opened this morning to thunderous applause as the presidents and other exectuive members walked down the red carpet waving little flags.

I've met up with quite a few familiar faces including our illustrious President Randy Moon, the ever industrious Terry Goodman and our Secretary Robyn Austin from Canada. Karen Hausteen is looking wonderful and so are JoyDon and Cynthia Spry. The delegates and AORN executive look very festive in their outfits adorned with red white and blue corsages!

Our opening session speaker was fantastic this morning as she talked about being "The Queen of Nurses" ..... more on this to come.

We have our eChapter booth set up with our scrub caps and are doing a steady trade.

I am off to find something for lunch.

Thanks to all who are still at home holding the fort! We miss you!

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Re: CONGRESS 2006
« Reply #1 on Mar 19, 2006, 2:33pm »
So far, Congress is fantastic as usual... I'm pooped already! So many things to do and people to hug!!!

Scrub cap sales are moving along --- we're gonna get started early on next year's caps so get your sewing machines cleaned and oiled!!!!!

Great week and it's just begun!!!!
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Re: CONGRESS 2006
« Reply #2 on Mar 20, 2006, 11:53am »
It's Monday morning and Terri and I were bright eyed and bushy tailed as we arrived at 5-30 for the ASP sponsored breakfast and session on infection control.
One of the speakers was Cynthia Spry who spoke on Preventing Surgical Site Infections. It was an excellent presentation. She discussed the 100,000 Lives initiative. Nationwide there is a push to save 100,000 patients from developing SSIs this year. The targeted focus initiatives included ...
  • Using prophylactic antibiots
  • Avoidance of shaving
  • Perioperative normothermia
  • Glucose control

these were in conjunction with the SCIP project which is utilizing public and private sector partnerships.... SCIPs goal was to reduce surgical complications by 25% by 2010

The major recommendations from this partnership are...
  • No shaving
  • Use clippers to remove hair
  • Aseptic technique for insertion of invasive lines and IV drug administration
  • Timely antibiotic adminstration and cessation
  • Treat infections appropriately
  • Cleanse the colon for elective colorectal surgeries - follow antibiotic protocol
  • High risk C-Section - administer antibiotic after cord clamp
  • Keep the patient warm

Another excellent recommendation was that these principles be discussed at employee orientation
Excellent presentation and kudos to Cynthia.

The First Forum was busy. There were 9 position statements that will be up for debate this afternoon.

After Forum I attended a session on Post Bariatric Surgery - Body Sculpting (plastic surgery) and was fascinated to see the developments in helping these patients to recover a normal body shape.
Of great concern is the vast numbers of the USA population that are now in the category of morbidly obese. The figure is approximately 25% of the adult population. :o

Well I am off to lunch and to see if I can get a soda for less that $2.75.

See ya later! ;D
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Re: CONGRESS 2006
« Reply #3 on Mar 21, 2006, 11:42am »
A quick trip back in time to Sunday opening session ....
The speaker Melodie Chenevert did the session presentation entitled Cinderella: Retold for AORN. She was resplendent in her queenly garb which consisted of a cast off Victoria's Secret velvet gown over an outfit embellished with rhinestones. Her crown was a dressed up tea cosy she told us she had bought in London some time ago. Under the glittering garb she wore a scullery maid's outfit and she informed us that if we thought that was funny then just where did we think they coined the terms "scrubs" from? "You can't always be the queen most of the time you just do the scut work and people who wear crowns have a lot of responsibility and accountability for their leadership."

Okay now to Monday!

The two sessions I attended today that significantly touched me and stood out as excellent were on...
Influenza 2006: Preparing for the Pandemic and the implications to the healthcare industry. This session was presented by Dr. David Henderson MD from Bethesda MDand he presented a very detailed and informative session on the types of influenza viruses and the mutation capabilities and cross infectiveness of the flu virus from fowls to humans.
  • The most effective thing we can do to prevent spread of infection is excellent hand hygeine.
  • The next most important line of defense is to get the flu vaccine every year as it helps stimulate any immunity to any flu virus that one has been in contact with in the past.
  • Thirdly one should always cover a cough or sneeze.


The next session I would like to mention was ...
Tsunami Relief Aboard the USNS Mercy
This session was presented by Jeffrey Bledsoe RN MSN CNOR LCDR USN (Dept Heat of Perioperative Services US Naval Hospital Oak Harbor WA) & Coby Croft RN BSN
Their presentation was on the rescue efforts in Indonesia after the tsunami last year. Operation Hope was a combined civillian and Military effort to bring healthcare to comminties that had been totally devestated by the tsunami.
The casualty figures were frightening and unimanigable in this one area.
The went to Banda Aceh Indonesia a couple of weeks after the tsunami hit. Their medical complement consisted of 61 Civillian mariners and 1215 medical personnel.
The Mercy had room for 800 patients if they had a full ship but they operated at around 400 for most of the time.
They had a reported 126,000 deaths after the tsunami and 100,000 injured. More than 700,000 persons were displaced when they lost their homes, their places of emplyment and their villages and cities.
The major medical concern was an outbreak of cholera and dysentery due to the contaminated water supplies and lack of sewerage.
Of the 100,000 injured, many were fractures that had not been set or treated with more than crude splints as there were no hospitals or medical clinics - they were gone too.
Injuries included
  • Broken bones - simple and comminuted
  • Open infected fractures that were infected with pseudemonas, staph, strep and MRSA
  • Spinal injuries
  • Soft tissue trauma and cuts and abrasions which were often infected.

As part of Project Hope the Mercy's combined civillian and military personnel helped to clean up the mess left by the tsunami, rebuild medical clinics and a hospital, they also carried out 466 surgical procedures in the months they were there which consisted of opthalmic surgeries, general surgeries and orthopedic and plastic surgeries.
They conducted 7824 primary care interventions
12,623 immunizations
> 12,000 optometric sessions where they treated eye disorders and provided glasses etc;
>4637 dental extractions and other orthodontic treatments
107,740 lab, X-Ray and other diagnostic interventions
>36, 000 prescriptions were filled.
The civillian staff were rotated in on a 30 day assignment and worked as an extremely cohesive unit with the military. Orientation consisted of a 3 day intese training abourd the USS Comfort and then the crews were shipped to Singapore and transferred to the Mercy.
Project Hope was founded in 1958 and during the tsunami relief efforts the military and civillian complement felt they truly achieved the ideals and purposes that were the objectives of this project.
If anyone wants to serve on this worthwhile humanitarian project contact Operation Hope and they will be glad to sign you up for a 30 day tour.

That's it for now - Marie signing out from the Convention Center. I'm off to the exhibits. ;D
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Re: CONGRESS 2006
« Reply #4 on Mar 27, 2006, 4:39pm »
Tuesday
Started the day with 2 general sessions one on Leadership in Healthcare where we were told that we were all leaders.
I missed the ribbon cutting ceremony as I was once trampled in the stampede to get to the B&D booth to pick up the coveted bags. Instead I hung out at the eChapter booth and sold caps.
Lionel was fantastic and a huge help as he filled in many of the gaps where no-one had signed up. We had loads of traffic past our booth and it increased exponentially after Stephanie suggested we collect the freebie phone cards (we were given at registration) and send them to the troops serving overseas.
Although we couldn't send them overseas because they were only for domestic calling we were able to divide up over 2000 phone cards :o with more than 20,000 minutes to the Walter Reed Army Hospital [image] and a batch of a few hundred to the Navy [image] and
Air Force [image] medical units.
Great idea and kudos to Stephanie for suggesting it.[image]
A number of people donated 60 minute MCI phone cards as well and those are going overseas.
I did not attend the Tuesday Evening festivities [image] but I did get invited to dinner by 3M at a wonderful a la carte restaurant and it was a very pleasant evening.
Wednesday
The Second Forum was busy with all of the amendments and proposition statements that we had to vote on on Thursday.
I commend the request that our new President Paula Grailing form a task force which will look at Aseptic Technique in Interventional (Invasive) Surgical Procedure areas outside of the operating room.
The Perioperative Quiz Bowl was a success for the Texas Contingent "The Eyes of Texas" who had sunglasses in the shape of the state and gorgeous Texas flag shirts. They left the competition in the dust. Way to go Texas!!! ;D
Newt Gingrich spoke on Homeland Security and challenges and strategies and he was a dynamic speaker right up until he started to bash the current government. IMHO I felt the political rhetoric was inappropriate and his talk was excellent without it. It certainly detracted from it rather than enhancing it. >:(
Wednesday is my day for taking my favorite Exhibitor to lunch – I have been doing it for a number of years – they often work an 8 hour day with barely a break for the bathroom so this is always a great time to sit down one-on-one in an informal setting and have a special time together away from the business pressures. Fortunately at this convention center there was a Chinese lunch cart so we had General Tsao’s Chicken for lunch.

The eChapter Annual Meeting followed this session and was pretty well attended. Pity more of the locals didn’t show up. The dinner after the meeting was held at The Chop House and we had The Vault (a real bank vault that has been converted into a private function room) to ourselves with a wonderful waiter all to ourselves who also served at the cash bar. [image] The food was great and there was plenty of it and we all had a chance to mingle and chat. It was a wonderful relaxing get together. Terri took a ton of photos [image] as usual and they will be up at the web site soon.

Thursday
Voting went off without a hitch in the morning and they had Starbucks coffee. I attended the session on SIPP and beyond and it was very informative. I spent the next 2 hours between the eChapter booth and the exhibits on the floor. I dropped in to see some of my long time faithful vendors who have been so loyal in the past.
The second House of Delegates at 1:30 was busy with lots of points of order and amendments to vote on. More than 12,000 nurses and exhibitors attended Congress this year. I would consider than a success. We finished up the HoD session by the announcement of our new office bearers for 2006-2007. Here are the results …..

AORN 53rd Congress 2006 • Washington, DC

Thursday • March 23, 2006
53rd Congress election results
The 2006–2007 AORN Board of Directors newly elected officers and Board members are indicated by an asterisk (*).
President—Paula R. Graling, RN, MSN, CNS, CNOR
*President-elect—Mary Jo W. Steiert, RN, BSN, CNOR
*Vice President—Charlotte L. Guglielmi, RN, BSN, CNOR
Treasurer—Kate A. O’Toole, RN, BS, BSN, CNOR
*Secretary—Jane Flowers, RN, MSN, CNOR
Board of Directors—
Susan K. Banschbach, RN, MSN, CNOR
Claire R. Everson, RN, CNOR, CCAP, LMT
*Anne Marie Herlehy, RN, MS, CNOR
Beverly A. Kirchner, RN, BSN, CNOR, CASC
Rosemarie T. Schroeder, RN, BSN, CNOR
*Deborah G. Spratt, RN, BSN, MPA, CNOR, CNAA
*Patrick E. Voight, RN, BSN, MSA, CNOR
Board members can be contacted by writing to them at AORN Headquarters, 2170 S Parker Rd, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80231. Correspondence is forwarded to them weekly. You also can leave a voice message for Board members by calling (800) 755-2676 x 311.
Members of the 2006–2007 Nominating Committee are
*Elizabeth Lynette (Lynn) Gentz, RN, BSN, CNOR
*Marion S. McCall, RN, BBA, CNOR
Darin Prescott, RN, CNOR, C, CASC
Rose Seavey, RN, MBA, CNOR, ACSP
*Linda J. Timmons, RN, BA, CNOR
Advisor—Sharon A. McNamara, RN, MS, CNOR

Please note the eChapter members serving in National Office .... (blue) [image]

I did not attend the closing festivities dinner but Randy, Linda, Terri and I went out to dinner at a "recommended eatery" and while the food was great the service was terrible. All in all it was a great Congress and lots of fun bordering on exhaustion.
See you in Orlando![image]
Make plans now for the 54th Congress in Orlando,
March 11 to 15, 2007. [image]
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