Fellow PeriAnesthesia Nurses,
On behalf of NAPANc, I wish all PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada a Happy PeriAnesthesia Week 2024.
This year, PeriAnesthesia Week is from February 5 to February 11. During this week, we celebrate all the achievements and work of PeriAnesthesia nurses.
Throughout this past year, healthcare has focused on addressing and minimizing the surgical backlog. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our surgical wait-time lists have expanded to overwhelming, extensive and sometimes unattainable wait times. For the first few years of the pandemic, many PeriAnesthesia nurses were deployed to help the critical care units and any other units that would require our help. However, now that the focus has changed in healthcare, PeriAnesthesia nurses have been tasked to help reduce the surgical backlog. Hospitals have found unconventional ways to decrease the backlog: scheduling elective cases on weekends, creating high-intensity surgical models, increasing utilization of anesthesia assistants, etc. The reduction of surgical backlog would not be feasible without the expertise, knowledge, skills, and dedication of PeriAnesthesia nurses.
As I’m starting my term as President of NAPANc, I would like to say THANK YOU to all PeriAnesthesia Nurses for their dedication and resilience. Last spring, I witnessed the enthusiasm of everyone who attended the very successful National Conference in Ottawa. It was wonderful to be able to regroup as a specialty association and share our knowledge. This year, we will be hosting either a virtual late spring conference or an in-person conference in the fall—more details to follow.
Lastly, please do not hesitate to share suggestions or ask questions at info@napanc.ca
On behalf of NAPANc, thank you,
Tanya Lachapelle, RN, BScN, MEd, PANC(c)
President of NAPANc, 2023-2025