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….About us….

The formation of ACORN

The year 1977 proved to be a milestone for Australian Theatre nurses with the first Australasian

National Conference for Operating Room Nurses (ACORN) with NSW Coordinator, Judith Cornell, as Chairperson for the conference.

At this conference it was decided to form the Australian Confederation of Operating Room nurses (ACORN) and in 1978 the inaugural meeting of ACORN was held with each of the six Australian states as member bodies of this national body.

Two representatives from each state make up the National Council with an Executive being elected from the host state for the Triennial National Conference. Narelle Hines from NSW held the presidency of ACORN from 1995-1998

The purpose of this national body is to look into all aspects of nursing practice in the operating room and to organise and conduct a National Conference every second year to bring operating room nurses together on a national level to discuss operating room nursing issues.

Resolutions presented at the first ACORN Conference provided a framework for each of the states to develop the ACORN Standards, Guidelines and Policy Statements presented at the conference in 1980. These (now known as the ACORN Standards) are reviewed regularly and new editions presented at each national conference.

Membership of your state perioperative group gives automatic membership of ACORN.

In the year 2000 ACORN became a college and elected it's inaugural president, Phyllis Davis (NSW). This was also the year ACORN established a Secretariat based in Adelaide in order to improve contact for members.

In more recent times ACORN has developed Competency Standards for operating room nurses.

For more information regarding ACORN visit their website on www.acorn.org.au

NSW OTA objectives

The objects of this Association shall be to endeavour by all lawful means to:

· Encourage members to undertake and/or continue their professional development in the field of

perioperative nursing.

· Keep members informed of the latest trends and developments in perioperative nursing and to

advance the theory and practice of perioperative nursing.

· Assist in establishing standards of care for perioperative nursing in NSW.

· Facilitate research into perioperative nursing with the aim to support and develop evidence based practice within the operating suite.

· Provide expert advice to government and nursing bodies and professionally related groups

pertaining to perioperative nursing.

· Promote the professional aims of all nurses working in the perioperative environment.

· Promote perioperative nursing as a preferred career choice and promote perioperative nursing as a core activity in the nursing curriculum

The History of NSW OTA

During 1957 three theatre supervisors, with the help of the registered nurse representative of Johnson and Johnson Pty. Ltd. realized the urgent need for operating theatre supervisors to meet and share ideas, to allow for progress in this area of nursing.

These three registered nurses were Miss Spence from Royal North Shore Hospital, Miss Sturtridge from Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, and Sister Mary Gabriel from St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.

It was because of these nurses' insight and inspiration that the "Theatre Supervisors' Group of New South Wales" was inaugurated in July 1957, with Sister Mary Gabriel as the first President. Contact with other metropolitan Sydney hospitals' Theatre Supervisors brought new members into the Group, which was highly successful at supplying answers to the many problems that were discussed.

Saturday afternoon lectures were organised at St. Vincent's Hospital and were conducted by Dr. Radcliffe.

The venue for the meetings at this stage was different metropolitan hospitals and this contributed considerably toward the successful beginning by introducing members to different hospitals and their operating suites.

Before long it was decided that it was too restricting to limit the theatre Supervisors' Group of New South Wales to supervisors only and so the name of the Group was altered to the New South Wales Operating Theatre Association in 1962. This allowed all registered nurses employed in operating suites to join and share their experiences.

As the association has grown it has been strengthened and enriched by the formation of seven Zones outside the metropolitan area of Sydney and which allow all our members to participate in sharing

operating room nursing.

Benefits of

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