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April 2001
Volume 65 |
Number 4
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ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE
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April
in Paris February
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James E. Cottrell, M.D., First Vice-President
Where you are it is April, but where I am it is February because
it takes a month to get the ASA NEWSLETTER published and mailed.
One month is a commendable turnaround time, but this time it leaves
me in the predicament of having to guess which way President Bush
will go on the nurse anesthetist supervision issue. That, or write
about a subject not uppermost on the readers’ minds. My remedy
was to write two articles, one based on the assumption that the
decision will go in our patients favor and the other on the assumption
that the decision will go against our patients safety.
While writing the second article and worrying that neither decision
would be made before the NEWSLETTER deadline, I realized that
the core message of both articles is the same: As long as there
are 27,000 nurse anesthetists who live for the day when they will
be able to play doctor without a license, we cannot spend more
than a few minutes celebrating a successful defense or bemoaning
a temporary setback. Whether events allow us to move our defense
line forward or force us to retrench, whether the battles are
nationwide or state by state, we need to chant a modified version
of the realtor's mantra. Instead of Location! Location! Location!,
for us it is Organize! Organize! Organize!
That means participating in the organization to which you already
belong. At the very least, it means contacting government officials
when you are asked to do so. Quoting from a recent ASA Urgent
Communication e-mail:
"To contact your members of Congress, call (202) 255-3121
and, if your legislator is not available, ask to speak with
the legislator's health aide. Or write to your Senators at the
United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510; and your Representative
at the United States House of Representatives, Washington, DC
20515. You can also reach your members of Congress at thomas.loc.gov."
Beyond that, organizing means using ASA resources (
www.asahq.org is a good place to start) to help elicit a message
from non-ASA members, including first and foremost our patients,
but also our surgical colleagues, the rest of our physician colleagues
and even our potential patients: the public at large. In addition,
if you know any of your ASA district directors or alternate directors,
let them know that you want to help. Or go to a meeting and introduce
yourself. Remember, before the squeaky wheel gets the oil, it
has to get rolling fast enough to squeak.
The next step is becoming a Key Contact. As explained in a recent
letter from Roger W. Litwiller, M.D., Chair of the Committee on
Governmental Affairs:
"ASA Key Contacts provide the vital communications
link between our profession and those elected officials who
make the decisions affecting our practices. The Contacts educate
elected officials about our profession and encourage the legislators’
consideration of solutions to policy problems that are advantageous
to anesthesiologists. Most often, the Key Contacts are the bridge
between federal legislators and the ASA Office of Governmental
Affairs."
Two years ago, then President-Elect Neil Swissman, M.D., ventured
a guess in the NEWSLETTER that only 1 percent of us “carry the
other 99 percent of component society members at the state level.
I wish that I disagreed, but I do not. And even if it is 2 percent,
that is not enough to fulfill the moral obligation that follows
from our knowledge of who we are and what we do. Put bluntly:
Above all else, anesthesiologists are doctors who keep patients
alive while surgeons do things that would otherwise kill them.
People can understand that, but it is up to us to communicate
that understanding.
Squeakers make noise to prevent an adverse outcome. Squawkers
makes noise after the fact. Let's make a new ASA bylaw: Only squeakers
get to squawk.
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