Webinar - The new ACORN Standards: Processes and outcomes from the Roadmap Project

Webinar - The new ACORN Standards: Processes and outcomes from the Roadmap Project.

Date: Monday 26 July 2021
Time:  6.00pm AEST
5.30pm SA   |   6.00pm QLD   |   5.30pm NT   |   4.00pm WA

Register for the webinar

Since Oct 2019 a National Leadership Group (NLG) of six external experts, the ACORN CEO and Chair of the ACORN board have overseen the activities and outcomes of the RMP. Four workstream teams (WSTs) – Business, Clinical, Professional and Research, each comprising four expert members or stakeholders – have made numerous recommendations to the NLG. In doing so they and the NLG have contributed what we believe will be a much-improved set of standards.

The new ACORN Standards will include specific benchmarks to support safe, consistent and reliable care to patients; to protect patients and staff from harm and to maximise the quality of perioperative care and conditions. To learn more about the ACORN's strategic intent, the RMP and the new ACORN standards we invite you to an interactive webinar where the ACORN CEO, NLG Chair and ACORN Standards Manager outline the RMP's achievements to date and share with ACORN members the benefits it will deliver to Australia's surgical patients and the perioperative nursing workforce.

Learning objectives:

This interactive session will:

• provide an update of how the RMP and new ACORN Standards contribute to and align with ACORN's strategic intent 

• consider how the RMP has created opportunities to promote perioperative nursing and develop the next generation of perioperative nursing leaders

• demonstrate  how the new Professional Practice Standards for Perioperative Nurses (PPSPNs) outline the level of performance expected from nurses within the perioperative environment to support the provision of high-quality nursing care now and into the immediate future.

• highlight  how the new Standards for Safe and Quality Care in the Perioperative Environment (SSQCPE) support safe, consistent and reliable care for patients, protect patients and staff from harm and maximise the quality of perioperative care and conditions

• introduce the topics covered in the SSQCPE

• detail the processes ACORN is using to comprehensively review, restructure and underpin each new ACORN standard with the relevant evidence base and public policy

• provide attendees with an opportunity to have the panel respond to submitted questions about the RMP, ACORN and the new ACORN standards.

Our speakers:

ACORN CEO Rebecca East

M(Periop), M(NP), BN, RN, FACORN

A respected national perioperative leader, Rebecca East assumed her appointment as ACORN’s Chief Executive Officer in late 2019. Having served six consecutive years as an  ACORN board member, initially as Victorian Representative, then Victorian Director and finally as President Rebecca brings unique perspectives and deep knowledge of the Australian perioperative community. ACORN awarded Rebecca ACORN Fellowship in 2018 concurrent with her completion of a Master of Nursing Practice (Perioperative) and Master of Nursing Practice (Nurse Practitioner) from Deakin University. Rebecca’s clinical practice is diverse. For the past 9 years Rebecca has worked in private practice, She gained endorsement as a nurse practitioner in 2014 and is now a proud director of her own private orthopaedic and sports injury practice in Central Victoria. Rebecca is responsible for overall management of the team’s orthopaedic and sports injury patients, and continues to practice at the coal face assuming a weekly surgical assisting role with her business partner who is an orthopaedic surgeon. Bec well understands, supports and represents the broader Australian perioperative nursing community. ACORN Board, members and staff are grateful for Bec’s leadership and look future to ACORN’s bright future under her strategic direction.

NLG Chair Adjunct Professor Debra Thoms FACN (DLF) FACHSM (Hon)

MNA, BA, Grad Cert Bioethics, Adv Dip Arts, RN, RM

Debra Thoms is the immediate past Chief Nurse and Midwife with the Commonwealth Department of Health and in 2020 was Acting Head, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health | Queensland University of Technology. Debra’s career in health care spans over 40 years and encompasses a wealth of experience in both nursing and health care leadership and management. Debra has worked in a range of settings across several states and territories during her career as well as undertaking postgraduate education to support her practice. Her contribution has been recognised with University of Technology Sydney awarding her an Outstanding Alumni Award, Australian College of Nursing awarding a Distinguished Life Fellowship and ACHSM awarding an Honorary Fellowship. In this next phase of her life Debra looks forward to engaging in areas of interest and is very pleased to be working with ACORN on this important project.

ACORN Standards Manager & RMP Project Manager Dr Cath Murphy

PhD, MPH, BAppSci (Nurs), BPhotog, Grad Cert Man, DipAppSci (Nurs), RN, CIC, F-APIC.

Cath Murphy is ACORN's Standards Manager and also project manager of the Roadmap Project.

Cath is driven every day by a desire to improve the safety and quality of health care. Cath's career has always involved senior mentors who have provided her with much needed  guidance, counsel, support and inspiration. Cath's first role as a newly registered nurse in 1984 was a perioperative nurse. In 1989 she began a thirty year period working in the field of infection prevention and control where as a recognised international expert she worked at the USA Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and as a consultant to the World Health Organization across SE Asia in 2003. Cath remains the only non-North American elected as a Board member and subsequently President of APIC, the world's largest professional organisation with over 15,000 members. She is a Life Member of ACIPC and a Fellow of APIC.

In 2019 ACORN appointed Cath to lead their standards portfolio. She is delighted that this late stage of her career brings her back to perioperative nursing. Other than being part of a small, highly dedicated team of ACORN staff, Cath considers the best part of working for ACORN is the generous and often voluntary commitment perioperative nurses give to ACORN day after day to improve Australian perioperative care.  Professionally Cath subscribes to the motto 'do what you love and love what you do'.