Earlier this month (March 30 - April 3, 2008), the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) held its 55th Annual Congress in Anaheim, California. Representatives of Cross Country Staffing joined over 12,000 periOperative nurses and industry experts in celebrating this year's theme, "Share Your Passion - Illuminate Our Profession." The conference provided a beneficial forum and open dialogue on many issues, but perhaps none more important than the increased need to properly educate new RNs.

While periOperative nurses continue to stand at the forefront of patient safety and care, the fact remains that while their demand in healthcare settings continues to rise, their actual workforce numbers are decreasing. No doubt, the message of this year's conference to "illuminate our profession" couldn't have been delivered at a more appropriate time.

Even while surgical care evolves, and the periOperative nurse's role continues to expand, the reality is - there are too few measures in place to ensure the steady growth and education of the periOperative nursing workforce. This is a trend well documented in the healthcare community, and one the AORN can trace all the way back to 2002 and key statements made in their annual Headquarters Report. Pointing to “a lack of surgical educational content and clinical experiences for nursing students,” the report sheds light on how the many factors leading to nursing shortages are unfortunately being felt most in the OR. Likewise, amid an already decreasing number of new periOperative nurses, the average age of currently working RNs is 55 years old. This presents the realization that a large portion of the periOperative workforce stands to retire in the next few years, thereby increasing the strain on adequate workforce numbers.

Further raising the critical nature of this circumstance is the ongoing legislative issues facing the nursing industry, namely the proposed $46 million cut to Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development and Education Programs in the fiscal year 2009. This cut could severely deplete financial resources set aside to educate new nurses - even while statistics continue to point towards nursing shortages across the board. This holds especially true for schooling where OR nurse training is now being left off the curriculum as a result of depleted financial resources.

Now, more than ever, all of us in the healthcare community are faced with the all-important task of educating and developing a qualified and dedicated nursing workforce without sacrificing patient safety and care. Once simply known as OR nurses, the periOperative RN has come to embody that title based on his or her increased need to adapt to a variety of specialized responsibilities in healthcare facilities. While caring for patients before, during and after surgery, periOperative RNs ensure patient safety and quality care across a wide variety of settings. In return, it's our duty to provide them with the proper knowledge and tools necessary to achieve that goal.

Given the increased importance to educate these nurses, hospitals are now faced with growing their own by sponsoring and funding their own programs to prepare and develop new nursing talent. In this sense, while the hospitals are most certainly working to foster a positive and safe working environment through their own educational measures, the move itself can be seen as a counter-measure, a reactionary step in the face of dwindling support from nursing schools in general.

How then will the periOperative nursing workforce maintain stability and continued patient care when their ranks continue to be depleted by a myriad of factors?

It would seem that the answer is as varied as those same factors that force us to pose the question. Nevertheless, we owe a large part of the solution to strengthening our focus when it comes to embracing collaborative learning efforts and continued education of the current class of new periOperative nurses. Today, the hospital-sponsored programs to educate and lend career enrichment to periOperative nurses is just one in a series of crucial steps towards solidifying the future of the specialty.

For the past 7 years, Cross Country Staffing has been proud to support the development of future periOperative nurses by working with the AORN. Cross Country Staffing, through its corporate university, has been providing scholarships to those nurses furthering their education and advancing their career. To this date, 6 well-deserving individuals have been awarded this educational opportunity.

Past Winners of the AORN Scholarship include:

• Joyce Colbert - 2001/2002
• Sean Woolridge - 2001/2002
• Darren Moffitt - 2002/2003
• Patricia Leuders - 2003/2004
• Rebecca Adele - 2004/2005
• Marcia Morgenthaler - 2006/2007

In addition to the positive strides set in motion by our joint Cross Country University/AORN Scholarship, we continue to seek out new and valuable processes to further strengthen and ensure the education and development of much-need periOperative nurses in today's workforce.

This has led us to pursue on-going efforts to create a brand new periOperative Fellowship with a major medical facility in the Northeast. We're confident this program will continue to take steps in the right direction while improving the educational landscape for all those periOperative nurses who wish to pursue their professional goals and aspirations. It's a common goal we must all share, and one that we must continue to work diligently towards against all odds.