The Founding Members of OPANA, 1985:

Betty Kay Howard:  Nurse Manager, "Recovery Room", Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, Ontario 

Shirley King:  Nurse Manager, "Recovery Room", St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

Jane (Langtree) White:  Nurse Manager, "Recovery Room", Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

Jo Roa-Yu:  Nurse Manager, "Recovery Room", Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

Pat Sbrocchi: St. Joseph's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

Douglas Moore:  Nurse Manager, "Recovery Room", Mississauga General Hospital, Mississauga

Medical Advisor:  Dr. Michael Campbell, Chief of Anesthesia, Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

The Board of Directors and Executive of the Ontario PeriAnesthesia Nurses Association would like to recognize and thank the Founding Members of OPANA for their inspiration and foresight in creating OPANA for the benefit of all of Ontario's PeriAnesthesia nurses in 1985, now and for the future. 

OPANA's PAST PRESIDENTS:

1985-87:   Doug Moore

1987   :    Betty Kay Howard

1987-89:   Pat Sbrocchi

1989-90:   Joan Garrison

1990-91:   Jean Cole 

1991-92:   Barbara Andrew

1992-93:   Rhodora Maligalig

1993-95:   Diane Brock (Buckley)

1995-97:   Elaine Turton

1997-99:    Linda Holland (Keogh)

1999-2001: Betty LaRoche

2001-3:     Lynn Ostrovsky

2003-5:     Terri Kitowski

2005-7:     Virginia Casey

2007-9:     Paula Ferguson

President Elect (2009-11):  Marianne Kampf

SIGNIFICANT DATES:

1983, -84, -85:  First, Second, Third Annual Seminars for Recovery Room Nurses:  Spring, Toronto

1985:  The "Ontario Post-Anaesthetic Nurses Association" is established.  Membership: $15.00, 100 members

1986:  OPANA First Annual Conference, May, Toronto

1987:  OPANA Second Annual Conference, moved to September, Toronto

1987:  The name, "Ontario Post Anaesthetic Nurses Association" becomes registered in the Province of Ontario

1987:  OPANA logo is designed by:  Dorith Campbell from Mississauga Hospital

1987:  Constitution and By-laws written adopted and submitted

1988:  OPANA Standards of Practice, written but not published

1989:  Day Surgery nurses invited to join OPANA

1990:  OPANA becomes an interest group of the RNAO

1991:  Regional Directorships established across the province

1991:  "Post-Anaesthetic Nurses Day" is determined:  initially in September

1991:  Discussions begin to determine feasibility of having a National organization

1992:  OPANA Constitution and Bylaws updated in terminology

1992:  Discussions begin in regard to specialization and certification

1992:  Discussions regarding the use of the name "Recovery Room" and the change to "Post Anesthetic Care Unit (PACU)"

1992:  Conference moves out of Toronto to Port Stanton:  7th Annual OPANA conference

1994:  Post-Anaesthetic Nurses Day moves to June

1994:  OPANA's First Edition of the Post Anaesthetic Standards of Nursing Practice are finalized and published

1995:  OPANA Newsletter gets a name!  the "OPANA Monitor" was submitted by Maripaz (Maria)  Sc.Soriano of Mississauga

1996:  Ontario Post-Anaesthetic Nurses Association has a name change:  "Ontario PeriAnesthesia Nurses Association"

1997:  OPANA Conference moves to October

2001:  The National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada is formed

2002:  PeriAnesthesia Nurses' Week moves to the first full week of February, with the special day on the Wednesday of that week

2007:  22nd Annual Conference has a record breaking attendance of 380 PeriAnesthesia Nurses

2007:  New Director role developed:  Provincial Pediatric Representative

2008:  OPANA develops a new website with 60 sections of information for members to be better connected and informed

2008:  OPANA Conference gets a name!  the "OPANA Inspirations" (Conference) was submitted by Helen Wong from Toronto 

The History of OPANA: 

The nursing association of OPANA was officially founded in 1985 by a small group of interested Recovery Room (postanesthetic) practitioners in the city of Toronto in Southern Ontario. 

Prior to this, a small group of like-minded and motivated nurses joined together because they recognized the gap in educational opportunities for this particular specialty.  Similar nursing associations existed, but none that focused specifically on the particular needs of the Recovery Room (aka PACU) practitioner.  So in the years 1983-5, this small group organized single day seminars in Toronto, inviting fellow Recovery Room nurses from Toronto and surrounding regions, to join them.

This same group that organized these seminars was soon joined by others who also realized that in order for post anesthetic nursing to be recognized as the highly functioning specialty that it was, it would be necessary to identify this group as an entity unto itself and to organize and offer specialized training and ongoing professional development opportunities.  The first meeting of these nurses to discuss the future of post anesthetic nursing was held at the Sunnybrook Hospital and chaired by Betty Kay Howard.

In 1985, these interested nurses named their new association the Ontario Post Anaesthetic Nurses Association (OPANA) and registered with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario as an interest group.  The Executive and Board of Directors of OPANA began to provide the Recovery Room (PACU) nurses with a means to network with their colleagues across the province regarding their practice, education and research through newsletters and annual conferences. The first Annual Conference was held in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre on Saturday, May 31, 1986.

With the introduction of day surgery and patients discharged from hospital following minor surgery, and with the opening of many Day Surgery Units in the late 1980's, OPANA expanded it's membership in 1989 to include nurses working in these units.  Other areas of health care began to administer many types of anesthetics for patient comfort and safety, including endoscopy, cystoscopy, dental and plastic surgery suites.  These units also discharged patients home the day of their therapeutic treatments.  OPANA reached out to nurses working in these associated areas for inclusion in their membership and broadened their educational opportunities to incorporate practice issues linked to these nurses. 

In the mid-1990's, PreAdmission Units opened in hospitals to better prepare patients prior to surgery and to avoid admission to hospital the night preceding surgery.  There was a gap in preparation which was filled by these units, and it was recognized that without a unit which assessed and managed these patients there resulted many adverse events including cancellation of the day surgery procedures and other more serious events.  Nurses were trained to specialize in preoperative preparation of patients but again there was no professional association linked to this unique area.  These nurses are now also members of OPANA bringing with them a wealth of knowledge to share with their postoperative colleagues.

Over the years, OPANA has expanded its membership to all areas of perianesthesia nursing both in hospitals and in community-based clinics and centers.  In 1997, OPANA introduced a website to offer its members a convenient venue to locate membership and conference information. 

In the late 1990's, OPANA worked with interested perianesthesia nurses in associations from other provinces across Canada to "nationalize", to form a national perianesthesia group. The National Association of PeriAnesthesia Association© was officially recognized by the Canadian Nurses Association in 2001. 

As Canada's largest and oldest perianesthesia nurses association, OPANA works to support and assist the national association and other provincial associations in their formation and development of practice standards and other educational opportunities.  OPANA leads the country in practice standards, newsletter distribution and annual educational opportunities (the Fall Conference) and has the largest membership of all provincial associations.

In 2007, the Executive and Board of Directors of OPANA recognized that there was a need to expand on its recognition and its availability to the membership it serves.  OPANA committed to the new goal of expansion through networking to a greater extent utilizing the technology at hand.  Web-based and electronic technology was the method to be used for communication, so that every member of OPANA could access relevant current practice ideas and resources.  Now, the OPANA website: www.opana.org will not only keep the membership informed about educational opportunities around the province and across Canada, but it will also become a consistent source of information with standards of practice and guidelines available as a reference guide.  OPANA intends to offer all perianesthesia practitioners across the province information that if incorporated into practice, will raise practice standards and elevate professional recognition.

What's in the Future for OPANA Members?

OPANA intends to continue in its quest to promote best practice patient care with current, evidence-based research as its guide.  For more information, please continue to peruse this website or contact the OPANA office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .