Tracing the History of Operating Room Nurses
Two nursing professors win prestigious award for book that chronicles a half-century of changes in OR nursing.
By Kathy Quirk
UWM College of Nursing Professors Ellen Murphy and Laurie K. Glass have written an award-winning book on the history of operating room nurses. AORN: Emergence and Growth won the prestigious Lavinia L. Dock Award for "exemplary historical research and writing" from the American Association for the History of Nursing.
AORN is the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (formerly the Association of Operating Room Nurses), one of the first specialty groups established for the nursing profession. Lavinia Lloyd Dock was a pioneering nurse, suffragette, political activist, and prolific author on nursing history.
Glass and Murphy spent nearly four years researching, writing and editing the book.
"We started with little historical data," says Glass, who directs UWM's Center for Nursing History. "The organization had moved a number of times, and its historical records had suffered." The authors were able to find copies of many documents, letters, and publications through contacts with former members and leaders of the organization, and through other nursing organizations, adds Murphy.
While earlier professional organizations, such as the American Nurses Association, had been established to represent the nursing profession as a whole, AORN was founded to address issues of particular interest to the increasing number of nurses working in the hospital operating rooms.
The organization was founded shortly after World War II, says Glass, as operating room nurses saw the need to come together to share ideas, establish practice standards, and address issues that were specific to nurses working with surgical patients.
The book looks at AORN's ongoing role in addressing issues and focusing on continuing education. However, while the organization's role has remained basically the same over the years, the educational topics have changed.
"Laser surgery, new technology, and the growth in outpatient surgery have brought changes in techniques and professional practice," says Murphy
Operating room nurses also have played an interesting and significant part in the development of new medical and surgical supplies, notes Glass. Their practical operating room experience gave them insights and ideas on what worked best. A number of nurses hold patents on original inventions.
"They had the expertise to suggest products that manufacturers could develop to help provide the best patient care," Glass says.
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