This session was presented by the Bylaws Committee to further educate the membership regarding Bylaws. Below are a few highlights of that presentation.
I would like to begin by highlighting a few milestones in nursing before there was AORN. [Credit to ‘AORN Emergence and Growth’]
In 1889 before the advent of specialization, the desired attributes of an OR nurse were “A level head and keen eyes, ever watchful for all that may be required, a mind not easily irritated or confused, combined with the facility of keeping out of the way [of the surgeon] and still being the greatest help.’ An 1888 graduate of the New York Hospital, Caroline Hampton was probably the first OR nurse. [Head nurse of the OR at John Hopkins.]
As early as 1916, Amy Armour Smith, the author of ‘The Operating Room, A Primer for Pupil Nurses’, recognized the need for OR nurses to come together as a group. This did not happen until 15 years later when a group of nurses in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area began to meet.
A group of OR supervisors in Dallas began to meet in May 1947. These nurses wanted to work out mutual problems, pool ideas and create a better understanding among them. The Dallas group appears to have been the first group with printed bylaws.