A Time to Celebrate, Give Thanks, and Embrace the Future

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• Another November Celebration
• Ensuring the Future
• Copyright

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Happy Thanksgiving, colleagues! Yes, it is time again to pause and give thanks for our blessings. Thanksgiving brings families together for a feast that marks the traditional start of the “holiday season.” No matter your religious affiliation, this is a time for personal reflection and appreciation of the gifts of life and loved ones. Although the hustle and bustle of preparing for “Turkey Day” can sometimes overshadow the significance of the holiday, I encourage you to take the time to think about the gifts that bless you and your family before the excitement of the celebration begins.

Like many of you, I am most thankful for my family. Now that my husband and I are grandparents, we fully appreciate the wonder of life. I see my husband's eyes in my children's eyes. I see my features reflected on the face of my grandson. Although many of life's roads are not smooth, this makes it all worthwhile.

You and I are also blessed to be nurses, although this may not seem obvious at the end of a grueling, stressful day. Thanksgiving can help remind us to take time to celebrate our profession. Nursing is a complex career that allows the opportunity for diverse specialization. How many other careers could take you anywhere from an elementary school office to an OR, from a university to a nursing home, or from a nursery to an intensive care unit? We chose a noble profession, one of service and one of sacrifice. It is not always easy, but it is always meaningful, and for that I am grateful.

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Another November Celebration 

Perioperative Nurse Week, November 9 to 15, provides us with another chance to celebrate our profession as well as educate the public about our role in the provision of surgical and procedural interventions and the relationship of nursing care to patient safety. The Perioperative Nurse Week theme for this year, “Perioperative Nurses: Influencing the Future of Safe Patient Care,” was chosen by our members as the theme that best identifies the achievements and supports the future of perioperative nursing.

I believe the future of health care depends on having enough nurses to fill the gaps left by an overburdened medical community. How can we be certain there will be nurses to care for our families in the future? One way to both celebrate our profession and ensure our future is by giving to the AORN Foundation.

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Ensuring the Future 

Before you donate to any cause, you need to understand why your support is needed and be comfortable with the knowledge of how your money will help. A recent survey revealed that many of you are unaware of the Foundation's work or do not understand the relationship of the Foundation to AORN, Inc. One survey respondent questioned how the donated money is used and whether it is disbursed fairly. Another believed that AORN membership dues should cover the expense of scholarships.

Colleagues, our dues do not cover the expense of the services AORN provides to members, and this means AORN must seek other revenue streams. The annual Congress, the AORN Journal, Periop 101™, and the Perioperative Standards and Recommended Practices book are sources of revenue we need in order to keep costs to members as low as possible.

The AORN Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, was created in 1991 as a charitable subsidiary of AORN, Inc, with a separate staff, budget, and Board of Trustees. The mission of the Foundation is to secure resources and administer assets that provide support for meeting AORN's strategic goals in education, research and innovations, and partnerships in perioperative care.

The management and governance of the Foundation is tightly controlled and monitored. The staff is very small, and the Board of Trustees serves voluntarily, so the cost is minimal in relation to the work that is done. Please access the September issue of AORN Connections at http://www.aorn.org/News/September2008News/Dollar/ to read about the Foundation's finances as presented by AORN's Chief Financial Officer James Cousin II, MBA, CPA.

Mitigating the nursing shortage is a Foundation commitment. Scholarships granted by the Foundation continue to be a significant means to help our members return to school and to provide financial support to current nursing students. Because a nurse's need for education never stops, the Foundation also awards education grants to chapters and members to maintain competency and ensure safe, high-quality patient care.

The Foundation also is committed to patient safety. In 2008, the Foundation announced a $10 million, five-year endowment campaign to ensure its work continues in perpetuity. The campaign is titled “Join OuR Heroes: Support the nurses who make surgery safe.”

What can you do to help? During Perioperative Nurse Week, send the Foundation a gift in recognition of a colleague you believe demonstrates the professionalism for which we strive. Honor a mentor. Celebrate the life of someone meaningful to you who has passed away. It need not be much; it is the spirit of the act that is meaningful. Detailed information on the many ways to give can be found at http://www.aorn.org/AORNFoundation. Our gifts will help mitigate the nursing shortage. They are a way to truly “Embrace the Future.”