Our background- We are a special interest group dealing with Recovery Room nursing. The purpose of PANA is to promote excellence in Post Anesthesia nursing by providing an opportunity for Post Anesthesia nurses to expand and update their nursing knowledge through educational sessions, and to bring together nurses committed to this specialty.
This weekend some of us from PANA-NAC had the
pleasure of attending the first official meeting of
the National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of
Canada. There will be loads of information coming in the weeks ahead about the national group but in the meantime, here are some pictures of the meeting and the conference
hosted by PANA-SAC in Calgary, June 1 & 2, 2002.

This is a picture of the charter members as we passed the constitution
for the national group.

This is our National President Laura Vanloon as she gives her address.

Here are all of us who attended the meeting. As you can see, we are a
happy and very excited group!

To welcome us, the Calgary folk hosted a wine and cheese party on Friday night. Keeping with the cowboy
tradition, they taught us how to line dance, YEE HAA!!

This is the 1st day of the conference- Challenges in PeriAnesthesia Nursing.
127 people attended from all across Canada. There were representatives
from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
Alberta, and British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories.

Beautiful items were auctioned off to raise money for the
hosting group and the national group. The items were graciously
donated by individual and local PACU's. Fantastic doesn't
begin to describe the work this Calgary group did.

A wonderful lunch was put on for us during the noon break
on Saturday! Unfortunately, I think many of us were
ready for a nap after that!

From left to right- Ruth Sutton, Dee Dancy, Lynn Markowski and Janie-Rae Crowley

Next year on May 30th, the next national meeting will be held in Vancouver,
British Columbia. There will also be a conference but I don't have all of the details yet. Keep a lookout for those seat sales!

We hold general meetings every other month and hold inservices for all who are interested.
The meeting at Joey Tomato's was loads of fun and very tasty!! We, the executive, hope everyone has a safe and fun summer. Stay tuned for a summer newsletter and watch the web site for September activities.
A quarterly newsletter named PANANAC-YAK will be issued in 2002. All submissions are welcome.

Who can be a member?
     Active members- Those nurses with active AARN registration, who
                                are currently working in the field of Post
                                Anesthesia nursing.
     Associate members- Those individuals having interest in Post
                                Anesthesia nursing/or practicing in a related
                                discipline.
     Our membership year is from January 1st to December 31st.
     Membership dues are yearly.

The new executive has been elected. The above PANA executive have retained their seats after a tough round of nominating and voting :-) Thanks to everyone for joining the ranks!
2002 Executive:
President- Margaret Higgins
Vice-President- Judy Simpson
Treasurer- Lynn Markowski
Secretary- Ruth Sutton
Education Committee- Janet Chaney, LouAnn Beaton, Susan Fields, and Karen Matthews.
 
 

We are hoping to offer the following education sessions this year pending availability of speakers and facility booking. If you have ideas on what you would like to see offered, please drop us a line.
Pain Management
PET Scanner
Tour of the Stollery Health Facility at the U of A site
Body Mechanics
Simulator at RAH

Last September a bunch of PANA members went to the Black Cat Ranch for some R & R following the summer crunch with decreased staffing levels.  We had a great time!  The weather was beautiful, food was plenty, a wonderful spa, and the company was FANTASTIC! These are a few pictures, enjoy!

Now, don't those look like happy feet!