Archived President's Messages Maureen McLaughlin Summer 2006 - Fall 2005
Summer 2006 Mayflower Volume 17 Issue 3
MASPAN Component of the Year!
Maureen McLaughlin, BSN, RN, CPAN
Excellence Yields Prestigious Award
The American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses annually awards the Gold Leaf Award to the component that best symbolizes
excellence in component leadership, member development, communication, education services, and community relations.
MASPAN received this prestigious award this year, reflecting our accomplishments for 2005. I accepted this award on behalf
of MASPAN at National Conference in Orlando.
Grueling Application Process
The application for the Gold Leaf requires teamwork on the part of the Board of Directors and I wish to thank the MASPAN
Board for their patience in discussing the Gold Leaf at every board meeting, every e-mail, and every conversation. Without
their vision and support, we would never have achieved this milestone.
The Gold Leaf Award application is a 32-question form that seeks evidence on the component’s structure, its dedication to its
members, and its support of ASPAN. I have submitted this application form for each of the last three years and finally we are
successful.
Thanks To the Membership
The Gold Leaf Award is a reflection of the work of the entire component, not just one person or the board of directors. All
members of the component are responsible for our achievement. Thus, I wish to thank all of our MASPAN members for their
continued membership, as well as our new members who joined in 2005.
And Special Thanks Go To . . .
Certified Nurses
I also wish to thank those members who are certified. Nearly 50% of the members of MASPAN are certified and this allowed
us to achieve the maximum numbers of points possible for this particular criteria. Additional thanks go out to those members
who possess dual certification. This was also a category on the application.
Director of Membership / Scholarship
I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Ellen Sullivan, our membership chair, for her efforts in recruiting new members
and managing our scholarship program. We were able state that we awarded 100% of available funds to scholarship
recipients. In addition, the Gold Leaf Award application requires that the component indicate a membership growth.
MASPAN was able to declare a 6% growth in membership for 2005.
Director of Research
I also wish to heartily thank Kathleen DeLeskey, who had led us in the research department. Her research allowed us to meet
all the necessary elements in the section. In addition, her articles on research, evidenced-based practice, and journal review
met another criterion.
Director of Publications
I wish to send an enormous thanks to Kathy Menard, our newsletter editor and web page mistress. Without her efforts and
dedication to her task, we would never have been successful in our application this year.
And the Published
Another element of the application is publications. MASPAN has several authors and the work of Ellen Sullivan, Meg
Beturne, and Kathy Menard on their JoPAN articles aced that section for us.
The Work That Came Before
On the Gold Leaf Award application, MASPAN was able to provide documentation of a strategic plan, a policy and
procedure manual, orientation manual for new board members, and by-laws. I wish to thank my predecessors for all of their
efforts in those elements. Meg Beturne led MASPAN in its development of a strategic plan and I simply needed to send the
copy with the application.
Katrina Bickerstaff created the orientation manual during her presidency, and I was able to send that in with our application.
Many present and former members of the Board contributed to our Policy and Procedure Manual and, again, I just needed to
make and submit a copy.
Endless “Thank You” List
The thank you list could go on for many more pages but I will end here. MASPAN could not have won this award without the
efforts of so many people. As the President of the 2005 Component of the Year,
I thank you!
Maureen
Spring 2006 Mayflower Volume 17 Issue 2
Gold Leaf Fever!
Maureen McLaughlin, BSN, RN, CPAN
Application Deadline Looms
The application deadline for the Gold Lead award is February 1st. As I prepare the application for MASPAN, I am again
reminded of how impressive a component we truly are.
Component of the Year Award
The Gold Leaf Award is an award that is presented annually at National Conference. This prestigious award is given to the
component who best meets the criteria of component of the year. The Membership and Marketing Committee of ASPAN
coordinates this award by annually reviewing and rewriting the application form and then assigning some of its members the
task of reviewing the applications in the spring and selecting the winner. The winner of this award is chosen based on the
total number of points accumulated throughout the thirty-three question application form. The questions throughout the
application are varied and address what the component has done for its members, what the component has done for ASPAN
and any extraordinary accomplishments of the component from January to December.
Reflection of the Accomplishments of the Members
The reason that I am always so impressed by our component is that this award is truly a reflection of the accomplishments of
the members, not just the Board of Directors of MASPAN. Some of the questions are very cut and dry: do you have a policy
and procedure manual? Yes, we do and I submit it. I am always grateful to the MASPAN leaders who preceded me who
created this lengthy document. Do you have a strategic plan? Again, yes we do and thanks to all of the work by Meg Beturne
years ago, we have had one for years and revise it annually.
Other questions are simply numbers and it is this area is where I am the most amazed by our MASPAN members. How many
of your members are certified and how many are dual certified? I am proud to announce that nearly half of the members of
MASPAN are certified and there are a steadily increasing number of those who are dual certified. There are also questions
related to how MASPAN promotes certification and one way we meet these criteria is by having special certification test sites.
However, the success of this project is solely due to the dedication of our members in sitting for the exam and the flexibility of
one MASPAN member last fall who graciously changed her test site to our special site to allow the test to proceed.
And of the MASPAN Board of Directors
Other Gold Leaf application criteria reflect the accomplishments of our impressive MASPAN Board. Several of the Board
members write regularly for both the Breathline and the Journal and without their hard work, we would not achieve this
element in the application process. Committee work is also acknowledged and again, credit to all the MASPAN members who
are active on an ASPAN committee. For the first time this year, the Gold Leaf form allows me to list all the committees that
our members are on, not just a yes or no if they are on an ASPAN committee. This truly reflects the hard work of the
MASPAN Board, as many of us are several ASPAN committees.
MASPAN Serves ASPAN
And lastly, there is a question on the application that asks how many members are on the Board of Directors for ASPAN?
How honored am I that one of our members is the ASPAN President, another is Director of Education, and another was on
the Nominating Committee this year.
MASPAN was first runner up in 2004, missing by just one point. I am hoping that this year MASPAN will be called to the
stage to receive this award. For those who are attending National Conference, keep your fingers crossed and your ears open
Monday morning at the opening session!
Maureen
Winter 2006 Mayflower Volume 17 Issue 1
Nursing Presence
Maureen McLaughlin, BSN, RN, CPAN
Nursing Presence
I recently wrote a term paper on the subject of nursing presence. Nursing presence can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but
I prefer to think of it as intuitive knowing or sensing another’s need for help. As I typed my analysis, I was struck again of
the awesome role the perianesthesia nurse plays in the care of both the preoperative and postoperative patient. In the very
short time that we spend with our patients, we are “present” with them in ways few could comprehend.
Presence Throughout the PeriAnesthesia Experience
During the preoperative visit, we quickly determine the needs of the patient, from the fall-risk assessment to the learning
needs they have in relation to their approaching surgery. We are present with them as they discuss their fears and concerns
and we are still present as we initiate discharge teaching.
In Phase I, the concept of presence is truly evident. We receive report from anesthesia and in a matter of minutes, we have
medicated the patient for pain, even if they are unable to quantify their pain due to the lingering effects of the anesthesia. We
intuitively know by their facial expression, restless movements, or by their moaning that they need comfort. We intuitively
know when the patient is nauseated, even when they can’t tell us. They exhibit the tell-tale signs that we are familiar with;
they swallow, they perspire, and they are restless. We instinctively know that the restless elderly man who keeps attempting to
get off the stretcher feels the needs to urinate, even though he has a catheter. We repeatedly assure him that he cannot wet the
bed, even though he can’t tell us what is wrong. We offer comfort to patients who will never even remember that we were
there.
In Phase II, we have such brief contact with patients whom we discharge to home, yet we know so much about them. We know
the family support system, their pain needs, some of their fears and some of their strengths. We are present briefly in their
lives before they return home, usually never to be seen again.
A Unique Specialty
Perianesthesia nursing is a unique and amazing specialty. We briefly touch the lives of patients and families in remarkable
ways. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be present in so many patients’ lives, even for a short period of time.
Maureen
Fall 2005 Mayflower Volume 16 Issue 4
When Disaster Strikes!
Maureen McLaughlin, BSN, RN, CPAN
Change in Topic
The luxury of being the author of the President’s message for this newsletter is the permission to change your topic midstream.
My original lead article concerned willingness to serve and that will come later in this newsletter. This article concerns our
colleagues in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and other areas devastated from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At the time that I write this, I have been catching up on the news and Hurricane Katrina has certainly dominated the news
today. Most of our readers have been transfixed with the news as well. All our prayers are with our colleagues and fellow
Americans in the Southeastern United States, suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm that
struck the Gulf Coast earlier this week, (at the time of this writing). I urge ALL of our MASPAN members to remember our
nursing colleagues, their patients, their families, and their neighbors in our prayers.
Evaluate and Prepare
I urge you all as well to return to your place of employment and carefully examine your hospital’s disaster plan and your role
in it. As we hear in the news today, many of the hospitals in New Orleans are now losing generator power and are actually
hand-bagging their ventilated patients and are unable to obtain any essential vital signs or laboratory results that we consider
normal practice in a critical care arena. While the Northeast may not encounter the devastation from hurricane floodwater
that we now see in the daily news, we are nonetheless at risk for other natural, or un-natural disasters. Few of us are properly
trained in disaster management and many of us look at disaster drills as more of an annoyance than a learning opportunity.
The message this week is that there is no place in the United States that is safe from disaster and anyone in health care must
be prepared both personally and professionally for disaster. My husband and I discussed today our own plan of potential
evacuation. While I may not be able to evacuate due to my professional responsibilities, my husband would be responsible for
transporting our family and our pets to an area of safety, and we discussed how we would try to communicate with each other.
If the recommendation was to evacuate, then we would heed the advice. Much of the anxiety that we see on the news from the
survivors is their inability to obtain information about their families, and we discussed how we would deal with that element
if we were apart.
I discussed today with a colleague how our PACU would function without ANY electricity, and how we would manage. We
probably have all experienced life with a back-up generator. How about no electricity at all? My unit is fully equipped with
automated blood pressure cuff devices. I will now ensure that every slot has the old fashioned sphygmomanometers at each
slot and is fully equipped with sufficient flashlights as well. I urge you all as well to re-examine your work environment and
be both professionally and personally prepared for disaster should it strike.
All of our communications from ASPAN have brought assurance to us that most of our perianesthesia colleagues are safe.
But many of the residents are not. I urge all to remember the victims of Hurricane Katrina in your prayers, provide assistance
if possible, and prepare your unit for an unexpected event that may exceed anything that you ever imagined.
Maureen