Constance Fleming, RN, and Patricia Ide, RN
were recently awarded First Prize in the Management category by the American Operating Room Nurses Association (AORN) for their article entitled “A Successful Tract of Model for the Operating Room.” The award was presented at the association’s annual AORN national meeting, which was held in New Orleans this year. The article was published in the AORN’s journal in November 1999.
“Years ago, a structure for getting the work of nursing in the OR done effectively was put into place,” said Fleming, who co-wrote the article with Ide. “Although it didn’t maintain itself in the hospital, it made the OR extremely efficient. Pat wanted to share our success with our colleagues. The other motivating factor for her was she asked our peers to be more open and willing to share some of our quality data, which can be difficult to get.”
“The article was Pat’s idea,” Fleming continued. “She brought the concept to me and said, ‘Can we work on this together?’ There’s a part of the article that describes what counsels do and what their work is and how they interact with one another—that was the part I wrote. Pat, because she had been the chairperson of the OR Quality Counsel, worked on the data. Together, we wrote the article, edited it and submitted it.”
The AORN is a professional organization of perioperative RNs whose work to promote quality patient care through education, standards, services and representation.