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OFFICERS
FOR 2001-2002
President
Mike Chamberlain
President
Elect Roanne Rogerson
Secretary
-- Ruth Sedgwick
Treasurer
-- Lorraine Heslop
BOARD
of DIRECTORS:
Eva
Daniels
Monte
Wasileski
Joyce
Hurd
NOMINATING
COMMITTEE:
Marianne
Thines
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This month's spotlight focuses on Lorraine Heslop, our
chapter's treasurer and the
webmaster of our Chapter 3001's
website, www.aornnh.com.
Lorraine told me, when she was in
high school, the choices for
a woman's career were limited and
that becoming a teacher,
secretary or nurse were the most
common choices. Ah...but
Lorraine had other plans, she wanted
to be an airline
stewardess! One of the prerequisites was some
nursing experience and that's
how she got hooked on a nursing
career. She graduated in
1961, from Decatur Macon County
Hospital in Decatur, Illinois
with a Diploma in Nursing. She
took a post-graduate course
in obstetrical nursing at Boston
Lying-in and eventually
became charge nurse on the 3-11 shift.
In 1965, she married and
moved to Concord,N.H.
She
worked at Concord Hospital first on a surgical floor,
while waiting for a position
in OB. But, an opening came up in
the operating room and she's
been there for thirty-seven years.
For the last 15 years, her
specialty has been eye surgery.
Lorraine has a passion for
improving systems, trouble shooting
and trying to improve things.
Lucky for us, she does, because
without her, you would not be
able to visit our web site. She
has spent countless hours
bringing this technology to us and we
are forever grateful. Thanks,
Lorraine!
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Saturday, March 23, 2002
Topic: Your Herbal Pharmacy
Speaker: Happy Griffiths, Herbalist for
Enfield Shaker Museum
for the past 15 years.
Also:Kathleen Chaimberg M.D. will speak on
Ginko Biloba and You- Anesthetic Implications of
Herbal Remedies. She is assistant Professor of
Anesthesiology at DHMC in Lebanon, N.H.
There is a $10 fee.
Registration 8:30 9:00
Program 9:00 to 12:30
Business Meeting to follow.
3.0 Contact Hours
Location: Auditorium
G
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
Lebanon, NH
May 5, 2002.
NH Walk for Nurses
Sponsored by
NHNA to raise public awareness about nurses and nursing.
Our web site has a section called Nurses Notes, where
we have just started a new offering.
We thought it would be helpful to share ideas and
information that will help us in performing our jobs.
As the
need for nurses grows, we are seeing an increase in
preceptorship in the O.R. Its
a difficult time for everyone, the new nurse intern as well
as the seasoned nurse who has now become the teacher.
Some of the topics
we want to write about may seem obvious to many of you who
have been in perioperative nursing for years, but maybe for
others these tid-bits may shed some light on the mysteries
of how we do what we do.
Please
bear with us as we try out this new venture and give us
feedback.
This months topic is
Empathy--the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes
The Nursing Shortage--Are you Part of the Problem?
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When I started
to write about this topic, I was going to list statistics about the
dwindling number of nurses, the rising age of nurses, the salaries and the
hours, etc., but I know you've heard that before. The second line in the
heading "Are you part of the Problem?" really hit home! I
couldn't ignore it. I've always thought I was a good nurse. I used my
experience and knowledge to provide quality patient care. I plan, assess,
I implement, I follow the nursing process to the letter. The patients say
thank you and sometimes a Doc says thank you, but how often do I hear it
from a colleague? Hopefully, many of you don't identify with me. This
piece should really be called "Confessions of an O.R. Nurse"!
When I do what I do, I have this non-verbalized expectation that the nurse
working with me is on my wave-length, that she is thinking the same things
I am and will perform accordingly. The fact that I have only worked with
her once before, on a totally different type of procedure, at 4 in the
morning, on a holiday weekend, probably has nothing to do with the fact
that she is now ignoring me and doing things her way! You may be thinking,
what does this have to do with the nursing shortage...Well I'll try to put
it in perspective for you. I don't know if you've ever done this. But,
sometimes after I've worked in this type of situation, I have opened my
famous mouth and complained to any sympathetic nurse that is willing to
hear me (or is having a bad day too!) and O.R. nurses are great at
complaining. The problem is, we are complaining in the presence of
possible future nurses; orderlies, nursing assistants, secretaries, and
when you do it at home, your relatives wonder why would anyone want to be
a nurse? I recently changed positions and now work in Endoscopy/Minor
Surgery. This has been a great eye opener for me, because now I was thrust
into the position of being the new kid on the block at the age of 52. I
had to be dependent on other nurses to teach me. I was slow, I fumbled, I
made mistakes, but slowly, I evolved. The biggest lesson I learned was
that I came away with more information, when it was offered kindly,
patiently and with empathy. If you take anything away from reading this
piece, I hope it will be to speak kindly to and about your peers, you
never know who is listening! Ruth Sedgwick CNOR
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