Welcome to the 2011-2012 Chapter Year. Chapter meetings are held the 4th Thursday September, October, January, February, March, April, May and June. The November meeting is held the first Thursday in December. Please circle your calendars now and set aside these date for your professional growth and nurturing.

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
And autumn's best of cheer" - Author Unknown

My name is Lisa Finch and I am your current President of AORN of San Diego(Chapter 0511).
I work at Pomerado Hospital in the OR. I love my job and enjoy almost every aspect of being a perioperative nurse. (Call-not so much). I live in San Diego with my husband and two children. We are a military family, USMC, and very proud of that designation. I have been in at least 4 different chapters of AORN with this one being the largest (and possibly the oldest -yay 60 years!). I just wanted to introduce myself to you and say "Hi
y'all"! Did I mention I'm from the South? I am looking forward to an
exciting and fun year of AORN!

I would like to welcome you back from the summer break. I hope that
everyone had a safe and fun summer. We will be having our first meeting of the year on September 22 and I hope to see many of you there. Wouldn't it be great to see 20% of our membership at a meeting? It is common to see about 10% of chapter members at meetings, and as a chapter we see about that at each meeting. What would it take to reach 20%? Maybe when we come to a meeting....bring a co-worker. Maybe having a door prize at each meeting. Maybe have a quarterly meeting that is "out of the box"...like a weekend meeting, a working meeting, or an adventure meeting. I would love to hear your ideas.

My goal for the year is to reach a 20% attendance and participate in 3 or
more community service activities. While working towards these goals I hope that I get to know each of the members. I would like to see more
participation from our members in the different committees that we have,
it's no fun being a "committee of one". There will be a sign-up sheet at
September's meeting for committee members and volunteer
opportunities...don't be shy, sign up at the meeting.

See you real soon,
Lisa Finch

Can’t believe its September and time to get back into AORN shape. I am looking forward to a fun and innovative chapter year.  Many of our committees need members, as Lisa, chapter president said it’s no fun being a committee of one. So if you are looking for a way to start your involvement committee participation is a great place to begin.  Check out the committee page on this website for opportunities then get in touch with Lisa or myself, its easy. Also if you are a new CNOR/CRNFA check the Scholarship page for the criteria and application for reimbursement of ½ the certification fee.  Look forward to seeing many of you  at the general meeting.  Thanks, Vicki Pierce, PE

Our new 2011-2012 year will begin on September 22nd with a timely program entitled "Fire Safety for the OR Nurse" presented by our very own Lisa Finch and Michelle Fennell. Plan on attending our General Meeting and find out what new President Lisa Finch has in store for all of us. Download the informational flyer and share with friends and colleagues.

Visit our Meeting Schedules Page for times and location.

Respectfully Submitted
Anne Hones, Treasurer

Welcome back from the few months we had off this summer.  This report will be somewhat abbreviated as I have had a huge computer malfunction this past few days/weeks.  ALL my current AORN saved files have disappeared/wiped out—by me I think when we had our computer updated!!!  Fortunately or unfortunately they were the ONLY files I lost.  So this month’s report will only be on my ANA current legislative information. 

Periop Insider had several interesting items in the latest few (lost) issues. So I will rely instead on ANA Smart Brief which also had new Legislative Policy and Regulatory News in the last few issues. Today it is from  federal Health & Human Services which is proposing several partnership models that will allow states to receive federal support on establishing health insurance exchanges without a potential government takeover.  Another current one is a California bill awaiting the governors signature about requiring women with dense breast tissue be told about this because they need to know that annual mammography may be less likely to detect tumors in these women.  Several other top stories in the Brief are about the new nurse-led disaster response model for care being proposed by the American Red Cross.  This change is intended to remove scope-of-practice obstacles that will align the Red Cross with the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report.  Another very interesting topic is about a survey taken by the American Urogynecologic Society’s at their annual scientific meeting.  This survey of 1273 women found that one in ten of the respondents thought the uterus is NOT needed for pregnancy! 

For more information on these issues please log on to the ANA Smart Brief. This is a benefit to all AORN members which is easily accessed on line at the AORN website.  If you need help doing this contact me.

I will report on these issues and hopefully more from Periop Insider at a later date.      
  
Submitted by Virginia L. Ogren RN, BSN, CNOR           

On behalf of the new board members of the AORN of San Diego local chapter, we hope you had a wonderful summer break. We wanted to remind you that we start back up with monthly meeting on September 22nd. Visit the meeting schedule page for more detailed information.

We also wanted to share exciting news. We're trying new and innovative ways for our members to receive and share information. We've started our very own Facebook page! Can you take a moment to "Like Us"? We're currently at 18 "likes". I wonder if we can hit 100 before our meeting this month.

Go to www.facebook.com and like us! Ask your colleagues to like us. Ask your kids to like us. Ask everyone to like us!

Thanks for your support.

Jeff Belcher
Chair of the Social Media Committee