The perioperative nursing workforce program in NSW: how a professional perioperative nursing association meets one of its mandates

The need to review and change the way nursing care is delivered in perioperative settings is predicated on nursing workforce shortages, the changing, increasingly technologised and risk-prone OR practice milieu, and increasing demand for surgery. In responding to members' concerns about these issues, the NSW Operating Theatre Association Inc. in conjunction with and with sponsorship from the NSW Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, initiated and oversaw the development of a program, called the 'Perioperative Nursing Workforce Program' (PNWP). The aims of this program are to make better use of human resources, to improve the way care is provided and thus improve patient outcomes; and to empower perioperative nurses so they are capable of independently improving their working environment. The program, which takes a practice development approach, program participants and some of their projects are presented in this paper.