Membership Information:
Membership continued to number over 100. A proposal was made to have elections take place at the annual meeting instead of mail ballot. Motion passed 31 to 13 to have election of officers take place at the annual meeting.
Several activities were convened in an effort to increase nurse membership in ATS and to increase the visibility and impact within the broader nursing community. To this end, the Image of the Nurse Task Force and a Subcommittee on Awards were formed in an effort to recognize our outstanding Section members.
Jean Homrighausen RN, MSN was recipient of the Ethelene J Crockett Award.
Committee Activities
The Subcommittee on Nursing Standards completed the document on nursing standards for care of the COPD patient. A document describing the Role of the Pediatric Pulmonary Clinical Nurse Specialist was developed and published (ATS NEWS, Summer 1982). An ALA Position Paper on Home Health Care was developed in 1981, with Section members as chair and serving as members on the Subcommittee.
The issue of certification exam for the advanced pulmonary practitioner was discussed. “It was generally agreed that the cost of developing and administering such an exam would be prohibitive; ANA discontinued offering subspecialty exams because of financial considerations.” In 1988, it was estimated to cost $50,000 to develop an exam.
Special Interest Groups became an established offering. Groups included a range of interests: Home Care, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Education, Acute Care, Preventative and Public Health, Physiologic Research and Pediatrics.
A meeting of an Ad Hoc Committee on Future Directions of the Section first convened in 1984. The Ad Hoc Committee met to “review the goals and objectives of the Section and recommend future goals and activities appropriate to the changing needs of the organization.” A poll of the Section indicated that 80% of the members thought the goals were still relevant. In response to a survey, 12% of nurses in the Section have served on ATS committees, 7% on ALA committees, and 36% on Section Committees. This Committee completed its task in 1987. (In 1991, ATS made the Long Range Planning Committee a standing Committee in all Assemblies)
Program Activities
Meet the Professor luncheons were first introduced in ATS in 1981. The Section offered six concurrent sessions on various research topics. Subsequently, four to five topics were offered at the annual meeting. Between 19 and 29 abstracts were presented each year. Themes of the abstracts included: chest physical therapy, suctioning and oxygenation, nutrition, dyspnea, psychosocial responses to illness, patient education, and smoking. A poster session was offered each year on topics related to pulmonary rehabilitation, asthma and home mechanical ventilation and nutrition. Two to five symposia were offered annually on current topics. As many as five Sunrise Seminars were offered during this period on timely pediatric and adult topics. In 1985, a Scientific Forum entitled “Nursing Diagnosis: A Format for the Development of Nursing Standards” was offered. Also, a new format, Topics in Pulmonary Medicine was offered. The Section co-sponsored “Caring for Patients with Pulmonary Manifestations of HIV Infection” with the Scientific Assemblies on Microbiology, Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Infections. A session “Contemporary Questions in the Evaluation of the Critically Ill” was co-sponsored with the Section on Critical Care. The proceedings of the Symposium on Dyspnea offered at the 1985 Annual Meeting was published in the American Review of Respiratory Disease 1985: 132:1336-1337.
