November: A Time to Celebrate and Educate

OR NURSE DAY In 1979, during AORN's 26th annual Congress in St Louis, Missouri, the House of Delegates heard a report on proposed revisions to the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare regulations that would allow technicians to circulate in the OR.1 In discussion with officials from the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, AORN leaders had found that they did not believe that the circulator's perioperative role was currently standard practice.2 As part of the effort to maintain circulating as an exclusive nursing function, two chapters introduced a motion for AORN to "promote a day in the year 1979 committed to consumer education to enhance public knowledge regarding our perioperative role. Governor Busbee signed a proclamation establishing OR Nurse Day in Georgia with my mother, my grandmother, and other OR nurses present. Because of this initial success, the topic of OR Nurse Day came up again at the 1980 Congress in Atlanta, Georgia. [...]my first chapter committee appointment in 2001 was to co-chair the Perioperative Nurse Week Committee with my mom.