This time we focus primarily on the area of safe surgery, with an editorial from Dr Atul Gawande at the Harvard School of Public Health, in which he outlines the process which was adopted to get the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist up and running. There is also a related piece about the Global Pulse Oximetry Project, as well as updates on other programme areas, such as developments related to the second edition multiprofessional Curriculum Guide.
The next edition of the newsletter will be published in June 2010.
Best wishes,
WHO Patient Safety Team
To download newsletter, click on the left side - same title !

Since its release, the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist has met with great enthusiasm from clinicians, hospital administrators, and policy-makers alike. Over the past year, dedicated surgical teams have started to use the Checklist, so we wanted to build a forum to share experiences, lessons learned, and programme highlights. Attached is the first Safe Surgery Saves Lives Newsletter.
This newsletter will be distributed on a quarterly basis and we look forward to hearing your feedback. Please let us know, also, should you prefer not to receive further editions of this newsletter!
Sincerely,
The Safe Surgery Saves Lives Team
WHO Patient Safety
Harvard School of Public Health

We had the honor to host the Autumn Meeting of EORNA which took place in Larnaca from the 22nd till 24th of October 2009.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the following countries: Ireland, France, Denmark, Cyprus, Chezk Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Slovenia, Portugal and Italy.

The meeting, which took place on Thursday 22nd October, began with a welcome reception which was then followed by a Gala Dinner at the Sunhall hotel.

On Friday the 23rd of October and before the business meeting had started, we had the pleasure to be present at the ceremony for the change of the Board President.

It was our honor to have the mayor of the city, Mr Andreas Moiseos, welcoming the board and wishing us all the best in our workshop.

By the end of the day, the Larnaca deputy mayor, Mr Alexis Michailidis , gave a tour to the guests of all the monuments in the city and later had a coffee with them by the sea side café. This social gathering then ended by a visit at Sophie’s Cambon monument where wreaths were placed in order to honor the Sister. Between 1871 and 1894, Sister Sophie Gampon, a truly unique figure, offered her services round the clock, relentlessly and unconditionally at the risk of her own life. Sophie, the “saintly nurse”, as the locals called her, nursed more than 30 patients every day, at a time when there was not even a permanent doctor at the St Joseph hospital.
The honoring of Sophie Gampon was then followed by a dinner at a traditional Cypriot tavern.

The business meeting was continued during the next day with the group sessions during the two days being very successful.

The president of CORNA expressed his gratitude to all the representatives who participated at the meeting and wished that they all had an enjoyable stay in Cyprus.


KORINA DEMOSTHENOUS
SECRETARY OF CORNA CYPRUS

IPNA - the Israeli Perioperative Nurse Association is the biggest one in Israel.
This year we are celebrating 20 years for IPNA. Our Board members decided to invite to our national conference the association established nurses, to honor and admire them for their courage, open minded and insistence that lead us to the place and position we are staying now.

Our national conference will take place at the 10th of Jun in the city of Haifa. The main subject this year is to Renew, Surprise and Succeed in the Perioperative filed. This year representatives of our association were members in the official nurse administration committee. The purpose was, advertising for the first time, roles for OR nurse duties in the perioperative era. The roles were published at the end of February 2009.

We are also counseling them for the surgical counting process. Our suggestion was to make review of the recommended practice for surgical counting, due to the results of our association research.
Over the year we had three educational meetings organized by OR's departments in 3 different hospitals all over the country. In the meetings we deal with clinical procedures and issues.

In the 4th of May we had election for the Chairman and deputies of IPNA. Yael Edry was elected as chairman for more 4 years. Ahuva Friedman and Edna Lavi elected as deputies.

With an eye-catching campaign EDANA draws the attention to the European Standard EN 13795 and the hygienic and numerous other benefits that nonwovens offer in the operating theatre. By using a refreshingly innovative comic book style in a European-wide poster campaign that is supported by informative flyers and an educational micro site, operating room nurses are profiled as heroes fighting an endless fight against possible infections for the better of patients and themselves. The benefits and backgrounders are explained in a fun and appealing way using bite-sized chunks of focused information. But what better way to learn more than to Join the Fight… Click here please

Brussels (Belgium), April 6, 2009 - Earlier today, Ansell Healthcare, the global leader in healthcare barrier protective solutions, has announced it has taken a further step in supporting the global healthcare professionals community in the area of continued education.

After receiving earlier confirmation of acceptance by its US counterpart (AORN), the AnsellCares® educational courses have now also received confirmation of acceptance by the European Operating Room Nurses Association. Focusing on infection control, allergy prevention, barrier protection and nursing procedures, the AnsellCares® courses perfectly link into the requirements of continued education for healthcare workers around the world. The Ansell educational courses are actually the first courses offered under the newly launched EORNA Accreditation Council for Education (ACE), and will be made accessible via a web-based portal under the EORNA Academy header.

The AnsellCares® self-study courses will initially be made available via the EORNA website. EORNA members will be offered logging in to EORNA Academy section of the website, and make their choice on the "offering" page. AnsellCares course content can then be accessed and downloaded. Tests will taken online, delivering final results and accreditation points through a EORNA ACE certificate.

Read more

Brussels, 9 march 2009
EORNA – the European Operating Room Nurses Organisation – has launched its Accreditation Council for Education (ACE). With ACE, EORNA wants to improve and harmonize the quality of surgical care in Europe. The new ACE is the first European accreditation system for operating room nurses. ACE represents a unique initiative for the professional development of nursing and care in general.

The new ACE will improve the quality and accessibility of continuing education and professional development for nursing and healthcare professionals in Europe. EORNA ACE sets quality standards for distance learning courses and educational events as scientific meetings, conferences, workshops or symposia. Teaching institutes will be able to rely on the ACE quality label and integrate approved courses in their learning plans, thus guaranteeing the latest and accurate information. ACE will also be available to national nursing associations throughout Europe.

After receiving the stamp “EORNA ACE APPROVED”, educational courses or events will be able to advertise the label on all materials associated with the course or event. Participating nurses will be able to collect credits points and build their personal continued education program. The review process by the EORNA ACE Board will assure the quality standards of all courses or events.
The system also allows easy exchange of credits between European countries and comparable systems outside Europe, thus improving mobility in the healthcare sector.

EORNA’s new ACE will be implemented at its upcoming international Congress “Professional Development – Bridging Perioperative Care”, taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 17 – 19 April 2009.

“Educational and training programmes in the nursing sector need alignment and development on a European level. EORNA achieved 1997 to present a curriculum of a minimum of education in Operating room and anaesthetic nursing and care. ACE represents a major step towards achieving a harmonized high-level perioperative patient care in Europe,” confirms EORNA President Irini Antoniadou.

Next to evaluating Operating Theatre related initiatives, the ACE will also act as accreditation committee for other healthcare associations and associations representing expert areas including emergency, critical, paediatric, and neonatal care nursing.

The new ACE has been created with the support of Ansell Healthcare, infection prevention specialist and global leader in hand protection solutions for healthcare practitioner and patients.


More information about EORNA:
Irini Antoniadou : EORNA President
E-mail: president@eorna.eu

More information about the EORNA Congress : www.eornacongress.eu

In Portugal, the European Perioperative Nursing Day has been celebrate in the previous day, because it was Saturday and so most easy to do a exhibition. We have made a “street activity”, building an OR in a central square in Lisbon and Porto.
The objectives of these activities were divided in two categories: for children and for adults.

• For children’s, with an activity like a game, we expected to provide some tools to approach the OR and put away the fears related the surgical procedures.

• To adults we ask and inform about their rights to participate in all the surgical process, asking to mark the right site of the surgery and trying to empower people regarding OR care and self-security.

We distribute some flyers explaining the WHO concern with “SAFE SURGERY SAVES LIVES” and explaining the recommended practice about “wrong site”.
In Porto we had more or less 200 visitors and in Lisbon about 300 visitors.
We have a guest book with very positive comments about the initiative.
The Portuguese television has been there and reported the activities in the main journal at lunch and dinnertime. Several newspapers made a notice regarding the celebration and we have been present in a TV program. It was been a great commemoration with a lot of media impact.
For AESOP : M.J. Dias Pinheiro / M. Valente – Lisboa 2009

AICO have had his National Congress in Marina di Massa Carrara from March 15th to 17th and AICO celebrated its birthday. AICO is 20 years old!!!
The theme of the Congress was Nursing care in O.R.. The presentations were about communication, organization, management, EBN and clinic application. The participant’s evaluation of the congress confirmed high level of satisfaction.
The Annual General Meeting took place at the congress
The conference was well attended of about 1100 people and at this meeting AICO has promoted EORNA congress in Copenhagen : a lot of surgical nurses are interested to go to Denmark.
Our next National Congress will take place in the autumn 2010 in Turin.

Gennaro Salerno
AICO

This year has ISORNA organised two meetings. The first one was on the European preoperative day the main topic was “Hand hygiene in operation” and we also had a lecture about “How to enjoy your live” after the lectures we had an excellent dinner. It was a very good meeting, and well attended by ISORNA members.
The second meeting was our annual board meeting and annual conference. We have two new board members and we have elected new president in ISORNA board, her name is Svanhildur Jónsdóttir. The main topic on the conference was “Surgical site infection”. The conference was well attended or about 70 people. At these meetings we have promoted EORNA congress in Copenhagen, and there is a lot of surgical nurses that are interested to go to the conference.

Best regards
Helga and Áshildur