EdilLorial

New roles- with old goals

What does it mean-this news that AORN and AORT have accepted a proposal to strengthen joint efforts?

To you as an OR nurse it means the OR technician who works with you today and tomorrow will be as competent as quality- controlled educational training programs can make him.

It means the school that trained him was or will be approved and that he has been certified by examination as a safe practi- tioner of operating room technology.

It means you, the nurse and he, the technician will be a team-a working unit with defined roles of function. Part of your function will be to develop your leadership skills; and you will exercise that ability with wisdom and professional objectivity.

It means the competitive spirit of two in- dividuals will still exist but that spirit will be constructive for better patient care.

To you, as an AORN member, it may mean that you help your local chapter strengthen the AORT advisory board and

make i t the giving group it was designed to be.

At the 1971 AORT Conference in Ana- heim it was apparent that a successful AORN-AORT relationship was directly de- pendent upon the function of the AORT advisory board and the local-level working relationship between the two groups.

Delegates who spoke with positive con- viction in favor of the proposal, spoke also of loyality and respect for the AORN members who had given so much support to them as a group.

Delegates who opposed the proposal seemed to have experienced a different situation.

Obviously-and fortunately-they were in the minority.

AORN and AORT are to be congratulated in the positive approach and forward out- look they have taken to improve this team relationship.

These two groups are not unique in activity which extends common work day

September 19’7 1 11

situations into meaningful and productive

organizational associations.

The American College of Obstetrics and

Gynecology has a close organizational tie

with the Association of Obstetrical and

Gynecological Nurses. This group also in-

cludes licensed practical nurses as associate

members.

The newest association to include a meld-

ing of physicians and nurses is the American

College of Emergency Physicians and

Nurses. This group is fast emerging as a

strong force on the health care scene.

The Association of Clinical Pathologists

and the Association of Medical Technologists

have been closely aligned since 1928. Some

of the problems experienced by this alliance

are admittedly the result of an historic

system of monopolistic control. This system

is changing and is one which AORN and

AORT have expressly agreed by board

action will not be a part d their behavior.

Recent court action between the patho-

logists and medical technologists has ruled

that the alignment of the two groups shall

continue and that educational responsi-

bility shall be clearly delineated as that of

the clinical pathologists.

The acceptance of the AORN proposal

by both AORN and AORT is important to

you as an operating room nurse. It promises

to have a positive impact on the total OR team, the hospital and the entire health

care industry.

It means that in Houston F e b 2, 1972, as you tour the Congress exhibit hall,

operating room technicians will walk along

those aisles with you just as they walk

down that OR hallway with you each day

at work.

But more importantly, it means that your

cooperative walking down those collective

hallways will have an ultimate effect on

both Associations' goals-better patient

care. n -Betty Thomas, RN

editor

AAOS fo presenf ER info

All phases of medical care rendered in the emergency department wi l / be covered in a five-day

course for hospital emergency room nurses in Dallas Nov 9-13.

The series of lectures and audio-visual demonstrations w i l l be sponsored by the American

Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons' Committee on Injuries.

Topics for the education session w i l l include cardiopulmonary resuscitation, technics of in-

travenous fluids m d blood administration, narcotics and LSD intoxication. treatment of the un-

conscious patient, handling of psychiatric disturbances and the legal and religious aspects of

emergency care.

For further information and registrotion forms. contact the course chairman, George N. Aldredge, Jr , MD. 1224 Medical Arts Building, Dallas, 75201.

1.2 AORN Journal