Prolink representatives recently attended the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) 2022 Global Surgical Conference & Expo, which was held March 19-23 in New Orleans, to meet with clinical leaders from across the country.
AORN is a professional organization for clinicians who work in surgical services, with a focus on advocacy for excellence in clinical practice and healthcare. The AORN conference is an annual event, and this was their first in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Prolink team members met with representatives from leading hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, and other non-clinical organizations that are focused on getting veterans back into the workforce in the field of surgical services.
Presenters included leaders from Memorial Hermann in Houston, Atrium Health in North Carolina, and Stanford Hospital. Many of the topics focused on issues related to the experiences of healthcare providers during the Covid-19 pandemic, including:
- Practices to help drive resiliency and reduce burnout in the workforce;
- Improvements to the onboarding and orientation process for nurses, surgical techs, and sterile process techs; and
- Strategies to maintain surgical services during future Covid-19 surges or periods of other major crisis since elective procedures are critical to the financial health and well-being of hospitals.
Attendees who spoke with the Prolink team said they loved being back with their “people” and reported a renewed commitment to the improvement of surgical services. Another common theme was the serious need for staffing help, including nurses to care for patients, certified surgical technologists to assist in the operating room, and sterile processing techs to clean the equipment.
As an industry leader, Prolink partners with healthcare organizations to provide world-class staffing services to their clients and talent, which allows facilities to deliver excellent patient care. Mary Hamilton, Prolink’s VP of Clinical Solutions, was in attendance at AORN and shared, “Prolink takes every opportunity to connect with our healthcare partners at industry events and conferences. Those in-person conversations help us understand their challenges and needs from a first-person perspective, and we use that knowledge to improve our service to everyone we impact.”
