LA President reports 2022
December 2022
President's reportAs we say farewell to 2022, it is also time for my term as president to come to an end. I first joined the association in early January 1995 when it was known as the Perioperative Nurses Association of Queensland, PNAQ. I had returned to my home state after working in Western Australia. I was no stranger to operating room nursing local associations as prior to returning to Queensland I was a member of the Operating Room Nurses Association of Western Australia (ORNAWA). It was here that I held my first executive role as secretary and regularly attended local conferences and study days. Fast forward to early 2005 and I was approached by Ruth Melville to join the PNAQ Management Committee. Since that time, I have held various roles on the committee including treasurer, ACORN Qld representative, ACORN director, president elect and, most recently, president. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as president and similarly all the other roles I have held since 2005 on the committee. It has been tremendous and professionally rewarding to serve on the committee and witness the growth, achievments and challenges of the association over this time, not to mention seeing a stronger focus on patient safety and improvements in perioperative clinical governance, multidisciplinary communication, mentorship and leadership. I would like to say thank you to the committee members I have met and shared with over the years. Similarly, I am also appreciative of the many work colleagues who have supported me throughout this time. Finally, I want to thank my wonderful husband and family for their resilience. I will continue to serve the perioperative nursing community as an ACORN Fellow and Life Member of ACORN Qld. Like many of my fellow members and committee members it has also been a tremendous privilege to be part of the association’s 50th anniversary celebrations held on 15th October 2022. I have thoroughly enjoyed supporting and assisting with the historical research of the association and in 2023 I will continue to work with our historian and editor, Carollyn Williams to bring a commemorative journal showcasing the work of members throughout Queensland. On 8th November 2022, following the Annual General Meeting on 15th October, the first meeting of the new Management Committee was held. At this meeting the following members were nominated for roles on the committee for the term 2022 to 2024. Please join me in congratulating the incoming committee. President – Simone Ohlin Vice president – Angela Hand Secretary – Kathy Herrick Treasurer – Ann- Maree Layton Past president – Joy Jensen Committee members – Julianne Eather, Maritza Harvey ACORN Qld director – Justine Vost In mid-January the committee will meet to plan the strategic direction of ACORN Qld Inc. and communicate the direction to members soon after. Best wishes for the upcoming festive season. I hope you enjoy spending time with family and friends. Warmest wishes Joy Jensen President ACORN Queensland |
GPO Box 2518 |
Joy
President's reportWhile adhering to COVID-safe principles VPNG have welcomed back our most in-demand education opportunity – the two-day Introduction to Perioperative Nursing Course, hosted by Bendigo Health. A huge thank you to the Education subcommittee who volunteer their time and work tireless to bring this event to life. As VPNG is committed to providing Victorian perioperative nurses with educational opportunities, it is a timely reminder that VPNG offer a number of scholarships and grants for postgraduate education and continuing professional development. Applications are now open. Make sure you apply before 30th September. Looking forward, we are excited to start planning the VPNG State Conference to be held on Friday 18th August and Saturday 19th August 2023 at the Pullman Albert Park. Keep an eye out for the call for abstracts to be made available soon. I would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas and a safe and happy new year. I hope you all manage to find some time to recharge your batteries over the festive period. Please take care and stay safe. Elyse Coffey
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PO Box 593 |
November 2022
President's reportAs we enter the end of 2022 with its array of challenges, I am pleased to report we celebrated our 50th anniversary as planned with the association’s Jubilee celebration and Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 15th October at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital Auditorium. Approximately 60 people gathered to celebrate the association’s journey from Queensland Operating Room Nurses (QORN) and Perioperative Nurses Association of Queensland (PNAQ) to ACORN Queensland (ACORN QLD). Those present at the event included the ACORN QLD Management Committee, current and past members and past presidents of the association, as well as 12 trade company sponsors and representatives. We also extended a warm welcome to Rebecca East (ACORN CEO), Angela Coleman (New South Wales Operating Theatre Association (NSW OTA) President) and Elyse Coffey (Victorian Perioperative Nurses Group (VPNG) President), after the welcome to country was concluded. |
GPO Box 2518 |
The opening morning se
ssion provided the audience with a variety of medical and nursing speakers who, together, provided a rich insight into the historical perspective – the operating rooms of yesterday – including the challenges over the years from a technical, procedural, team and technological perspective. The contributors to this session included Dr Cliff Pollard, Dr Priscilla Martin, Dr David McGiffin, Dr Emily Olive and Vicki Livett (PNAQ past president).
At morning tea, the current ACORN QLD president and many of the association’s past presidents gathered to cut the 50th anniversary cake.
The sessions for the remainder of the day were introduced and moderated by Prof. Jed Duff (ACORN QLD member and ACORN past president and Fellow). Leading this session was a presentation from Carollyn Williams, the historian and writer invited by the ACORN QLD Management Committee to draw together the association’s history. Carollyn provided her work to date which focused mainly on the early years of the association. A special commemorative journal will be finalised and made available in mid-2023.
Following this, Ruth Melville (ACORN QLD past president and ACORN past president and Fellow) provided a presentation aligning today’s perioperative nursing practices, roles and responsibilities with the aspects of ‘personalised patient care’ that were presented in 1973 at the inaugural Queensland Theatre Nurses Section Conference by Miss LR Giglotti. After this presentation a panel discussion with former members of state executive committees, branch members and industry partners provided stories and reflections from 50 years of involvement with the association.
After lunch, the 2022 AGM was conducted with approximately 40 members in attendance. Notable apologies were ACORN Director (QLD) Justine Vost, who was travelling overseas at this time) and ACORN QLD Management Committee Member Danielle Torrisi who was unable to attend from Townsville. At the closing of the AGM, the president thanked the committee members: Kathy Herrick, Caitlin Knell, Simone Ohlin, Belinda McEvoy and Danielle Torrisi. Outgoing committee members are Caitlin Knell (ACORN QLD Treasurer from 2019 to 2022) and Danielle Torrisi (Committee Member 2019 to 2022). Best wishes to Danielle as she is soon to become a first-time mother. Those nominated for incoming committee roles include Angela Hand, Julie Eather, Elaine Loots, Ann-Maree Layton and Marina Harvey. Appointments to committee positions, including president and treasurer, will be formally made at the next Management Committee meeting, to be held in the next four to six weeks. The outcome of this will be communicated to members via email and posted on the ACORN QLD website
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The afternoon session provided an opportunity for those present to be included in an interesting panel discussion focusing on the future of professional associations. The panel members included novice and experienced perioperative nurses, educators, managers and ACORN’s CEO. A myriad of ideas, suggestions and recommendations were proposed, providing a snapshot and potential platform for future association members and committees.
The celebrations concluded with an awards ceremony. Congratulations to Sharon Edwards and Helen Ashby who were each presented with an ACORN QLD Award for Individual Excellence. Sharon is perioperative nurse educator with Southwest Hospital and Health Service and Helen is perioperative clinical facilitator at Varsity Lakes Day Hospital. Both Sharon and Helen have demonstrated excellence in perioperative nursing over many years in various settings throughout Queensland. Life memberships of ACORN QLD were also awarded to Rae Guyder and Dorothy Tyrell.
Many thanks to all who were present, some travelling from elsewhere in Queensland and beyond, to celebrate this important milestone in the association’s history. Thanks to the small but agile and very active ACORN QLD Management Committee for their assistance with bringing together the celebration. And a very special thank you to Ruth Melville for her help organising and coordinating the program and supporting Carollyn Williams with collating the history of our association.
Don’t forget, ACORN QLD members have free access to the ACORN Virtual Conference Series, the final day of which is on Saturday 26th November. Look out for the link that will be sent to all members prior to this event.
And lastly, please join me in congratulating Toni Haines and Catherine Smith, two ACORN QLD members who were recently awarded ACORN Fellowship at a virtual ceremony held during Perioperative Nurses Week.
Warmest regards
Joy Jensen
MEd, BN, PGDipEd, RN, Periop Cert, Honorary Life Member ACORN QLD Inc, FACORN
President ACORN Queensland
October 2022
President's reportThe Victorian Perioperative Nurses Group (VPNG) has been very busy since my last update. The annual general meeting (AGM) was held virtually on 13th August followed by a thought-provoking presentation from Paula Foran discussing fatigue on night duty and strategies to reduce this. During the AGM, VPNG welcomed three new executive members, Helen Parr (Treasurer), Amy Pearce (Secretary) and Tarryn Armour (ACORN Director). I look forward to working with the new executive in the coming months. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Janet Kolotelo for her time as secretary and Rebecca Donald for her time as treasurer. Both Janet and Rebecca have worked tirelessly as volunteers to support VPNG and me, personally, in my role as president. Thank you both. The Virtual Professional Development Day was held on Saturday 27th August and was a great success with more than 150 delegates in attendance. The day began with our plenary speaker, Nikki Langman. Nikki is a professional speaker, an author and a business consultant and facilitator, specialising in the areas of emotional intelligence, leadership development and nonverbal communication. She is passionate about self-mastery and strengthening emotional intelligence to enhance leadership and communication effectiveness. Nikki gave us some strategies for looking after ourselves so we can continue our important work, plus my new favourite word ‘badassery’. After Nikki’s presentation participants separated into breakout rooms with concurrent sessions offering a diverse range of topics. Well done and thank you to all our concurrent session speakers. It is inspiring to hear about the exciting and innovative work happening in the perioperative space. Then we heard from the ACORN board in a Q&A session, where the delegates got to know more about the workings of ACORN and the exciting things ahead. Our final speaker of the day was Dr Phoebe-Anne Mainland, an anaesthesiologist, who currently works in both public and private practice in Melbourne. In addition to clinical work, Phoebe is consulted to provide an expert opinion for anaesthesia-related cases. Phoebe encourages learning from the principles and details of medicolegal cases to enhance best practice and safe patient care. This was a very interesting topic and well received by our delegates. To close a long day behind the screens, Alison Duffin lead us in a short mindfulness exercise to get everyone ready for the rest of the weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the delegates who attended and express my gratitude to Tarryn Armour, Events Chair, and Ryan Hopper, Deputy Chair, as well as Raechel Richards, VPNG Administration Officer, and the rest of the Education Sub-committee for all their hard work in putting this event together and ensuring that the day ran smoothly. The events didn’t stop there – the Education Sub-committee also ran an Introduction to perioperative nursing course on 9th and 10th September at Epworth Richmond. This was the final course for the year and was a great success. Thank you to the Education sub-committee for your effort and time in making this such a successful offering. VPNG are excited to announce the release of our very own podcast called ‘The VPNG podcast’. Our hosts, Ryan and Kate, have worked hard to get this ready for release during Perioperative Nurses Week (PNW). I was lucky enough to be interviewed as their first guest. The podcast can be found on all podcast streaming platforms. Please look out for the first episode. Finally, Perioperative Nurses Week 2022 is from 2nd to 8th October. To celebrate, VPNG have released a ‘Safe care around the clock’ celebration pack that you can download. Updates for all things PNW will be sent out via emails, posted on our social media and available on our website. Elyse Coffey
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PO Box 593 |
August 2022
President's reportIn May, after many COVID related delays, VPNG were finally able to host our highly sought after course, Introduction to Perioperative Nursing. Thank you to Bendigo Health for hosting this two-day event. I would like to congratulate the VPNG Events subcommittee for working tirelessly to ensure this event’s success. The VPNG has had a busy few months planning our Virtual Professional Development Day which is being held on Saturday 27th August. Hosting an online event is something VPNG has become accustomed to and we are excited to bring this event to you from wherever you choose to be. Virtual events remove accessibility issues and provide the opportunity for continuing professional development from the comfort of your own home. They also allow registrants to attend sessions which they are most interested in.
VPNG will be holding their Annual General Meeting virtually on 13th August 2022. And our next Introductory to Perioperative Nursing course is planned for September. Updates will be sent out via emails, posted to our social media and available on our website. Please take care Elyse Coffey
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PO Box 593 |
The keynote speaker, Nikki Langman, is an award-winning thought leader in the areas of resilience and mental health and an expert media commentator who has gained global recognition as a keynote presenter and facilitator. She empowers and inspires audiences with her engaging core message that, no matter what your starting point is or what you believe your obstacles are, you can become your most powerful self and a highly influential and effective leader with the right amount of daily ‘badassery’. Following Nikki’s presentation, you can look forward to a wonderful and diverse program covering many topics related to perioperative nursing.July 2022
President's reportHello ACORN QLD Members The preparations for the association’s 50th anniversary celebrations on the 15th October are well underway. We hope you have saved this date in your calendars and are looking at accommodation on the Sunshine Coast. We have engaged a graphic designer to assist us with developing a special 50th Anniversary logo and we will be launching this in the next month. The event will include:
Our association’s history The librarians at the Queensland State Library have been assisting us, the committee and Carollyn, our editor, to find documents and records containing information about the organisation’s beginnings. They located numerous documents in the Royal Australian Nursing Federation (Qld Branch) reviews and Annual Reports. Very few of these records from the 60s and 70s are available electronically; therefore, it required one of us to go to the library and find the information. In the past few weeks, I have visited the library and spent many hours searching for documentation of the association’s origins, and in recent weeks two logos have been identified – the Queensland Theatre Nurses Section (of the RANF), or ‘factOR’, logo and the Final count logo.
At this time, we know the Final count logo was used on a conference brochure in August 1974 and the ‘factOR’ logo for a newsletter and letterheads in the 80s. Our historian, Carollyn is keen to hear from anyone with more information about the meaning behind the ‘factOR’ logo. Please contact me with any information you may have about the background of these logos. We have also been in touch with previous association presidents, councillors and executive members to assist with providing historical knowledge and reflections on their time serving the association. All ACORN QLD members have FREE access to the virtual/online education sessions being hosted by ACORN. To sign up for the remaining sessions please contact ACORN to request access. Approximately 100 ACORN QLD members logged in on 21st May for Day 3 of ACORN’s Virtual Conference Series about quality and safety. Please ensure you plan for and take advantage of the next sessions:
As always, any queries or questions please contact me at President@acornqld.org.au Warmest regards Joy Jensen President ACORN Queensland |
GPO Box 2518 |
