Chris Price, MSN, RN, CPAN, CAPA
ASPAN President 2011-2012
At the inaugural International Conference for PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ICPAN) in Toronto, Canada, Keynote Speaker Jan Odom-Forren, PhD, RN, CPAN, FAAN, reminded us to view life and career changes as they relate to society and work. She presented challenges, changes and tools, and showed us that our choices can make or break a positive impact for both. I thought about her presentation, and those presented by our international colleagues from a variety of countries, and realized the importance that “perspective” plays in our work and relationships, whether local, regional, national, or even international. While at ICPAN, I sat with International Conference Planning Committee colleagues in a debriefing and discussion to review the conference results - knowing that all perspectives from our nursing colleagues were similar to our own – with optimizing perianesthesia patient care and promoting research, clinical practice, and education a priority.
Sharing Viewpoints
Perspective is defined as, “The relationships of subjects to each other and a whole; subjective evaluation of relative significance; point of view.”1 The real value of perspective is that it can be enhanced in our mutual effort and commitment to understand the view points and contributions of others. I witnessed this first hand at the recent ASPAN Standard and Guidelines Strategic Work Team meeting, where engagement and participation in a review and debate of best practice was the business at hand. I saw interaction, critical thinking, conceptualizing, pushing and prodding, animated and passionate point-counterpoint, and even some heated discussion. I also saw commitment and accountability from each member at that table during those long hours of review. Those present shared perspectives and experiences from a variety of practice settings: rural, urban, community-based hospitals and large academic medical centers. The result was to produce practice recommendations, guidelines and standards that are credible and meaningful to all perianesthesia nurses.
The impact of perianesthesia perspectives occurred again during the 2011 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Conference in Chicago. ASPAN Vice President/President-Elect Sue Carter, BSN, RN, CPAN, CAPA, and Immediate Past President Kim Kraft, BSN, RN, CPAN, and I attended. Our presence assures that ASPAN remains recognized with a ‘place at the table’ to give voice to collaboration on clinical practices, patient safety, outcome measures, and perianesthesia nursing initiatives. As our Liaison to the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (ASPF), Kim is building on the relationship that former liaison Sue Fossum, BSN, RN, CPAN, (ASPAN President 2007-2008) forged. Kim attended the APSF Workshop, “Current Anesthesia Safety Issues: Help Set the Priorities for Short-term Resolution.” This contained brief presentations on a variety of topics, e.g., checklists, cerebral perfusion, medication safety in the OR, fire safety in the OR, residual neuromuscular blockade and postoperative visual loss. The audience, charged to develop safety priorities, was asked, “Do we have evidence/agreement for the etiology of the problem? Do we have evidence/agreement for the solution of the problem? Does anesthesia have control/influence over introducing the solution to the problem? Do we have a way to measure the incidence for baseline and post-intervention data?” Data collection will provide the APSF with information needed to move forward with patient safety issues.2 As an inducted ASPF Board member, Kim will serve on its Newsletter Editorial Board and Committee on Education and Training.
Perianesthesia Outlook
Sue Carter and I attended the Surgical Anesthesia Committee meeting as ASPAN representatives. This committee brings disciplines together to discuss care and safety issues that are relevant to both nursing and anesthesia. Membership includes anesthesiologists and nursing representation from ASPAN and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN). Committee members engaged in dialogue with a vested interest in quality, safety, and care experiences involving perioperative, perianesthesia and periprocedural patients. The committee also reviews, discusses, and presents educational topics for the ASA Annual Conference via a discussion panel, workshops, and/or didactic podium presentations. ASPAN’s ASA Liaison, Dr. Scott Groudine, remains a staunch supporter of perianesthesia practice, and he engaged ASA support of ICPAN through sponsorship of attendee conference bags.
Dr. Groudine, AORN President Ann Marie Herlehy, DNP, RN, CNOR, and I held a 90-minute panel discussion, “Satisfaction at Work: What the OR Team Can Do to Help Each Other.” We each shared our perspectives related to the patient health information needed to provide optimal patient care. With a perianesthesia perspective, I presented the information deemed vital during the hand-off exercise between levels of care, as well as what communication perianesthesia nurses find most helpful regarding care delivered during both the elective surgery schedule and off hours. Anesthesia providers were clearly interested, interactive, and shared questions and perspectives about perianesthesia nursing practice recommendations and positions statements on safe staffing. A lively question and answer session followed with the exchange of what we most value when working collaboratively in caring for our patients. It was evident that, as critical team members, the perianesthesia perspective is a valued commodity by our physician colleagues. I discovered that we clinicians share a passion about our perspectives, thus encouraging us to broaden our views to become more global and inclusive.
Realize and value the perspective that you bring to your unit and your daily practice. Relish in the sharing of ideas and initiatives that improve patient outcomes. Focus on the future of our practice: consider what you bring to our specialty as a clinician, educator, journalist, editor, researcher and colleague. Know the impact that you can make. Take a moment to visit ASPAN’s Web site, fill out the Willingness to Participate form, and consider that next step in sharing your own unique perspective. We need you!
REFERENCES
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: New College Edition. Boston:Houghton Mifflin; 1985, 926.
- Kim Kraft. E-mail communication. October 2011.
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