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PROFESSIONAL MEETING PAPER

Professional Meeting Paper

Makenzie Ludwig, SN

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

Mrs. Hence, MSN, RNC - OB

November 24th, 2019

“I, pledge.”
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PROFESSIONAL MEETING PAPER

Professional meetings in healthcare seem as though they would be hard to come by.

However, this is not the case, there are nursing, quality improvement, case manager, ethics and

many other committees spread out all across the Richmond area. The meeting attended was a

monthly meeting dedicated to a chapter called AORN (Association of perioperative registered

nurses). It was held on Monday, November 18, 2019, at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in the

Williamsburg room. The motto for this committee is based on bringing safety into the surgical

setting at all times, which involves proper education, development, research, and solutions

related to perioperative nurses (Nurses, 2019). During the meeting, each subcommittee presented

new dates, education opportunities, expenses, memberships, and volunteer opportunities. These

included: treasurer, membership, marketing, legislative, education, research, nominating,

delegative, and business committees. The AORN meeting related to the values represented in

this course by incorporating leadership, business of healthcare, advocacy, quality and safety into

their monthly gathering.

Leadership

Leadership had an impact on this entire meeting as well as continuously playing a key

role in the AORN chapter and association. Leaders organize a group by setting goals and

outcomes for that group. However, there was not one single leader, there were multiple leaders

that encompassed this meeting. Each leader came from a specific subcommittee with the same

common goal; to improve the safety of patients before, during and after surgery. The

transformational style of leadership seemed to fit this chapter the best. They encourage and

support one another as well as motivate each person to continuously attend meetings to help

work towards a common goal, patient safety ("Transformational Leadership in Nursing: Nursing
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Reference Center", 2019). It is important for leaders to encourage others to take initiative and

grow, which is what was seen throughout this chapters meeting.

Leadership is the ANA standard of professional performance that best fits AORN’s

transformational style (Marquis & Huston, 2017). Leadership plays a role in every aspect of this

paper as well as every aspect of healthcare. Nurses as leaders can positively impact patient

outcomes, by being up to date on new innovations, interventions and mechanisms that fall in

their specific facilities guidelines ("Nursing Leadership and Patient Outcomes", 2019). The

perioperative nursing leader should also look beyond their own facility and analyze the

effectiveness of new techniques performed at other hospitals. This AORN chapter effectively

chose their leader and it is shown through the organization of the meeting and the quantity and

quality of their members and their impact on other Richmond area perioperative nurses.

Business of Healthcare

There were two subcommittee’s dedicated to the business aspect of AORN; the market

manager and treasurer. They provided financial and operational dashboards that included

expenses for the month, active members, volunteer opportunities, sponsorships, and donation

events. This allowed the chapter to maintain and set goals regarding expenses for future months

to come. Raising money to support an association helps to support the foundation and give them

opportunity to support research groups, sponsor summits, and simultaneously give back to the

community.

The ANA standards of professional performance category, communication, is the key to

business roles in healthcare (Marquis & Huston, 2017). As discussed in this module

communication is key to be an effective leader. Communication helps to create connections

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which can lead to education, collaboration, advocacy, and involvement. This can allow

exchanges to occur which can lead to formation of important associations such as AORN.

Advocacy

During the meeting this chapter discussed how they are sponsoring a legislative summit.

This would help explain how important nurses are as advocates for themselves as well as

influencing laws for their individual state and/or country. The nurse is the most important patient

advocate in the healthcare system. This is due to nurses working to positively influence their

quality, outcome, safety, and comfort during patient’s stay. Nurse’s also work to make the

hospital more efficient by communicating, which includes expressing safety concerns that

include: nurse to patient ratios, medication administration effectiveness and timeliness, as well as

quality improvement opportunities. This directly relates to what was discussed in the advocacy

module of this course.

An ANA standard of professional performance that would best represent advocacy, in

relation to the meeting, would be collaboration (Marquis & Huston, 2017). The legislative

subcommittee works to promote the utilization of the government and its direct effect on laws

and policies. These laws and policies benefit the role of the perioperative nurse with the ultimate

goal of improving patient outcomes. This committee discussed briefly the impact of the recent

November election and how it will affect the healthcare world.

Quality and Safety

The AORN chapter discussed that they are hosting a guest speaker to educate the

attendees on aspects of certain transcatheter valve therapies. This chapter often hosts speakers to

help further educate their attendees on new evidenced based practice to improve the quality and

safety of their members as well as the patients they are treating. They have a subcommittee
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PROFESSIONAL MEETING PAPER

focused on education. This helps to keep their chapter up to date with the newest technologies

found nationally and locally.

Evidence based practice and research is the ANA standard of professional performance

that best fits the overall goal for the AORN association (Marquis & Huston, 2017). The national

AORN website has a separate link to multiple evidenced based practice regarding different ways

to achieve safe surgery. Some of these links included: “hand hygiene, hypothermia, design and

maintenance of the surgical suite, high level disinfection, team communication and many others

that are updated daily” (Nurses, 2019). This module and the basics of nursing is founded on

essentially learning from mistakes. Evidenced based practice helps to prove, simply, what works

and what does not work. Healthcare is constantly evolving based on new discoveries in

medications, interventions and techniques.

Reflection

Before attending this meeting, I didn’t think that it would impact me. I had worked for 12

hours before attending this meeting, so I was slightly dreading it. When I walked into the

meeting, I noticed other people in scrubs and looking tired as well, but they seemed excited to be

there. As I looked around at the attendees as the meeting progressed, I noticed that many of them

had specific roles to help run this chapter. The leadership of this chapter was divided among

specific members and those members were leaders of their particular subcommittee’s. I hadn’t

realized how important those subcommittees were until attending this meeting.

I have always known the importance of elections and their outcomes. However, this

meeting made me realize the crucial part of researching who you are voting on. Researching

every aspect of their campaign, beliefs and goals can help you solidify which candidate fits your
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views the best. I will be sure to research every candidate in the future to make sure they attribute

positively to my role as a nurse and a citizen of the United States.

This association focuses on safety and is heavily impacted on new advances in

technology and findings from those advances. Which emphasized the role of evidenced based

practice and change in the healthcare system. I feel that I will definitely join an organization

once I become a nurse to help better some aspect of healthcare. I hope to one day participate in

my own research project for quality improvement in the healthcare system to improve the

nursing role and patient outcomes.

Conclusion

The AORN meeting was conducted in a professional, meaningful, educational and

informative way that captured the attention of the audience. Each subcommittee helped to

identify certain goals and outcomes for that month’s meeting. The members that attended were

involved in multiple subcommittees and volunteer opportunities that this association hosted.

Which is why this AORN chapter related to the values represented in this course by

encompassing leadership, business of healthcare, advocacy, quality and safety into this monthly

meeting. This Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses chapter helped to represent what a

professional meeting is and how to cover a full month of material in as little as 30 minutes.
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Reference

1. Marquis, B., & Huston, C. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in

nursing (9th ed., p. xix). Wolters Kluwer.

2. Nurses, A. (2019). About AORN - Association of periOperative Registered Nurses.

Retrieved 21 November 2019, from https://www.aorn.org/about-aorn

3. Nursing Leadership and Patient Outcomes. (2019). Retrieved 22 November 2019, from

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/nup/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=4e700269-a2e4-434c-

9ba2-1e4db267a781%40pdc-v

sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9bnVwLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d

%3d#AN=T903552&db=nup

4. Transformational Leadership in Nursing: Nursing Reference Center. (2019). Retrieved 22

November 2019, from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/nup/detail/detail?

vid=4&sid=cfcc336b-fbce-4e22-

baf87f8d5614ec63%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9bnVwLWxpdmUmc2

NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=T903558&db=nup