Pacific Islands Operating Room Nursing Association (PIORNA)

The inaugural PIORNA Conference 2023 will be held in Apia, Samoa, 2–4 October 2023.

The Pacific Islands Operating Room Nursing Association (PIORNA) comprises operating room nurses from 14 Pacific Island Countries (PICs). The PICs include Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Discussions to form a professional group started in November 2015 during a technical working group of nine Pacific perioperative nurses who had met to review the first set of perioperative standards adapted for the Pacific Islands with the help of external consultants. During subsequent regional perioperative workshops in 2016 and 2017, the pacific nurses formed a working group to look into the requirements of a professional organisation. An interim executive committee was established in October 2018 and by January 2020 PIORNA confirmed its membership to the International Federation of Perioperative (IFPN). On 10 April 2019 PIORNA was registered in Apia, Samoa. This was followed by the creation of a PIORNA bank account with an initial deposit of 500 WST, money collected as membership subscriptions of ten Samoan hard-working operating room nurses. 

The development of perioperative nursing in the Pacific is largely supported through the Clinical Services Program (an Australian funded program) at the Pacific Community (SPC), with help from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Pacific Islands Program (RACS-PIP), Health Education and Learning Partnerships (HELP) Ltd, and the Australian College of Perioperative Nurses (ACORN).

Click here to download an application for membership form.