The 56th AORN Congress took place in Chicago last week. The weather was unpredictable to say the least. Temperatures ranged from a mild 70 degrees to a very chilly 29. Never the less the city turned on its St Patrick’s Day charm for most of the week and we were made to feel very welcome.
Less than 6000 Perioperative nurses made the trip to Chicago this year which is definitely a sign of the economic tribulations we are all experiencing. As is usual there were an equal number of exhibitors which took the total for the week to just under 11000 attendees. As a delegate with commitments to the Candidates Forum and two official Forums in the house as well as two House of Delegate sessions which received no CE hours this year it left little time for official education sessions. Fortunately many of the exhibitors had CE hours available on the floor to make up for the lack of educational contact hours missed through official obligations. This was raised at the House of Delegates by one member and received rousing applause from the floor.
For me one of the most interesting sessions was on TIGER – an acronym that stands for Technology Informatics Guiding Education reform. The speaker Diane Skiba PhD did an excellent job of discussing the impact of advances in informatics on the practice of nursing and the impact that informatics has on our increasingly digital health care delivery system.
The most memorable session however was the General Session on Sunday where our speaker Mike Rayburn presented a thoroughly enjoyable session with a topic called What if and Why not? He is one of the most talented guitarists I have ever heard play and he was very funny as he encouraged us to ask ourselves when we are faced with a seemingly impossible challenge - what if?
It was fun to meet up with old friends and make new ones and very heartening to see eChapter make a presence as Victoria Steelman was elected to the Board of Directors and our Patrick Voigt accept the gavel as he starts his year as President of AORN.
The eChapter get together on Thursday night after Congress ended was a wonderful and relaxing evening although the attendance was disappointing as only 4 people showed up. Quite a few others had said they were going to come but no-showed at the last minute. Pity, they missed a wonderful dinner at Chicago’s La Cantina Restaurant (at The Italian Village) the service was outstanding and the food simply delicious.
Our poster was well received and I answered many questions on Monday at the “author’s” session. It seems many chapters are facing attendance problems and difficulties with increasing costs. The poster looked great and I heard many compliments on the content.
Next year congress is in Denver – the mile high city and AORN’s headquarters so I look forward to seeing y’all there.