Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505020007
SECTION: NURSES PAGE: N-5 EDITION: METRO BY STEWART
SOURCE: STEWART MACINNIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
For Becky Vaughan, in-coming chapter president, the growth of the organization has been rewarding. An orthopaedic nurse at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, she is a founder of the chapter and was its first president in 1992.
"This came about because when you settle on a specialty and you're enthused about it, and you want to do the best you can, and you want your unit to be good, it's natural you want to do what you can to promote it," she says.
A group of five nurses gathered together one April day three years ago in the chapter's organizational meeting. Now 50 nurses are members of the group. Their common purpose is to promote education in the discipline.
"Enjoyment of orthopaedic nursing came first," Vaughan says. "Then as we began to think about forming the group, we became aware of the national association and thought we were big enough in Roanoke to support a chapter."
Before the group was organized, though, Vaughan says she discovered a similar effort was underway at Lynchburg General Hospital. The efforts of the two groups were joined, resulting in the creation of the Blue Ridge chapter.
The chapter meets six or seven times a year, with about half the meetings in Roanoke and half in Lynchburg. The partnership with nurses from the Lynchburg area has been rewarding.
"We've developed a great working relationship with them," Vaughan says. "We've benefitted by sharing ideas with the Lynchburg members, and the extended network that we've been able to establish. We've benefitted from the friendships, we've benefitted professionally through increasing educational opportunities, and by promoting awareness."
In addition to exchanging ideas among nurses, the chapter also sponsors instruction by physicians, which helps build stronger nurse-doctor relations.
It's given us a nice opportunity to work professionally with doctors outside the hustle and bustle of the hospital," she says. "They teach us a lot when they do programs for us."
Pat Crowder, who is completing a term as the chapter's treasurer, says the organization is an excellent means of promoting education among the members.
"We get together, talk, exchange information, get different ideas and bring them back," says Crowder, an orthopaedic nurse at Roanoke Memorial. "It's just a terrific learning situation."
The Blue Ridge group is the only chapter of the organization in the state west of Charlottesville.
"It was an idea whose time had come," says Vaughan. "It helps makes us stronger so we can serve the people who need us."
by CNB