About OPANA

OPANA (Ontario PeriAnesthesia Nurses Association) is a non-profit, professional nursing association dedicated to the promotion of PeriAnesthesia Nursing Practice in all relevant health care environments. These areas include, but are not limited to:

• Pre-Admission Clinics
• Ambulatory Clinics
• Post Anesthetic Care Units (PACU)
• Day Surgery Units
• Free Standing Dental and Plastic Surgery Clinics
• Endoscopy Units
• Cystoscopy Units
• Labour and Delivery Units
• Any other area of health care where local, general or regional anesthetics or sedation are given to patients undergoing a wide variety of treatments or surgery

We are the Ontario provincial chapter of NAPANc (National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada). Our purpose is to lead the province's perianesthesia nurses through nursing education, practice standards and research. We do this through networking, knowledge sharing, evidence-based research activities and offering position statements at the political level.

Through OPANA's visionary and progressive actions, the Perianesthesia Nurses of Ontario will be envisioned as expert clinical practitioners by other members of the Health Care Team and as leaders in health care.

OPANA is working towards developing a certification exam in collaboration with associated professional groups (CNA, NAPANc, etc.). In 2010, we came one giant step closer to achieving this goal as perianesthesia has been officially recognized by the CNA as the 20th nursing specialty/area of nursing practice in Canada.

Our Goals

• To be the resource for perianethesia education throughout the province of Ontario and beyond
• To influence patient safety, practice standards and public policy
• To utilize relevant evidence-based practice and research to conduct educational sessions for our membership and associated interested parties

Mission Statement

We promote:

• quality care for our patients and their families in the PeriAnesthesia environment
• education, research and Standards of PeriAnesthesia nursing practice

We accomplish this by:

• developing Standards of PeriAnesthesia nursing practice to improve care and promote safety for practitioners and patients
• establishing and promoting educational and research programs which will contribute to improving care
• promoting interest, professional growth & development and specialization of PeriAnesthesia practitioners
• providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of all matters relating to the practice of PeriAnesthetic nursing
• establishing cooperation and liaison with all groups, associations, institutions or bodies in matters affecting the objectives of the association
• furthering the public's awareness of the role of the PeriAnesthesia practitioner as a vital member of the Health Care community