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Spring 2008 AAMC, Anne Arundel Community College Teach Nurses of Tomorrow Pausing in the OR classroom are Anne Arundel Medical Center nursing staff and Anne Arundel Community College nursing students participating in the course ?Introduction to Perioperative Nursing at AAMC.? From left: AAMC?s Chief Nurse Executive Sherry B. Perkins, AAMC nurse Denise Schmitt, students Stephanie Phillips, Jennifer Haehl, and Alexis Sorensen, and AAMC nurses Margaret Saul and Katie Boston. According to projections made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be more than one million vacant registered nursing positions by the year 2010, with specialty areas critically in need of attention. AAMC and Anne Arundel Community College are working together to offer nursing students education and clinical experience to help combat the region’s growing nursing shortage with a special course designed to encompass classroom instruction, laboratory, and clinical components for students who have completed their first year of nursing education. This particular course focuses on perioperative nursing, which encompasses pre-operative care, care in the operating room, and recovery care. “AAMC is looking to bridge the gap between nursing education and practice,” said Sherry B. Perkins PH.D., R.N., vice president, Patient Care Services and chief nurse executive. “We view working with local nursing schools as one of our primary missions as these schools provide our workforce. With this new program, AAMC has the opportunity to provide clinical exposure in our facility that nursing schools may not be able to provide on-site.” For more information on AAMC and nursing opportunities throughout the Anne Arundel Health System, visit www.aahs.org or call 443-481?1000. AAMC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Dialogue With Our Patients AAMC employees and American Sign Language graduates Lisa Mecca and Deborah Gunnell learned sign language to help AAMC patients. Seven AAMC employees, crossing all disciplines, met for dinner recently and didn’t say a word. At least, not with their voices. These graduates of the American Sign Language (ASL) course, offered to AAMC employees and taught by Anne Arundel Community College instructor Charles Pennington, concluded their two-semester course with a public excursion to a busy restaurant that tested their knowledge in a noisy, hearing-oriented setting. Lisa Mecca, a customer information assistant at the front desk, and a volunteer in the AAMC Joint Replacement Center, took the ASL classes “to better myself so that I can assist ALL of our patients, family members and visitors, too. I have worked with several deaf patients in the Joint Center and, although there has been an interpreter with them, it has been nice to be able to ‘get my feet wet’ and try out my signing. This makes patients feel a little more comfortable knowing that their health care provider cares and is trying to open all doors of communication with their patients. Plus, it is really an amazingly interesting and fun language to learn.” AAMC Again Earns Joint Commission Accreditation Many organizations like to boast about being first, and AAMC is just that. The Joint Commission surveyors arrived on campus in January for their first survey of 2008. The results were excellent: AAMC received high praise from the accrediting body. Surveyors spent four days at AAMC as part of their comprehensive accreditation process, which evaluates an organization’s compliance with quality and patient safety standards. Nationwide, The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs, and is the predominant accrediting body in health care. Visits are unannounced and take place every three years. |
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