Happy Nurses Week!
As you know the World Health Organization has declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.
I wanted to reach out and recognize how impressed our organizations are with the resilience all perianesthesia nurses have shown throughout the current pandemic. From caring for vented ICU patients and recovering COVID positive patients in OR’s to volunteering in Long Term Care homes and being redeployed to inpatient units and assessment centres, we have been asked to do many things outside of our regular practice.
I hope you are able to take a moment to reflect this week on the important role perianesthesia nurses play in their everyday worklife, and celebrate how our speciality knowledge can be used in so many ways during a crisis.
We have postponed our National Conference in Winnipeg until next Spring, and have cancelled our Spring Symposium here in Ontario in accordance with emergency measures that have been instituted across the country.
Please stay safe, look after yourselves and each other while we continue to battle COVID-19.
Happy Nurses Week!
Warm Regards,
Candy Epworth, OPANA President