In 1997, the Executive and Board of Directors of the Ontario PeriAnesthesia Nurses Association (OPANA) listened to their members who desperately wanted to have the advantage of Certification like so many of their nursing colleagues in other specialty areas of nursing.

 

In order to be eligible to have a Certification Examination with the Canadian Nursing Association (CNA) and to become recognized as a specialty area in nursing, the specialty must first become nationalized, and then publish a set of Standards of Practice relevant to the area of their specialty.  The first step, OPANA knew, was to survey the interests of Canadian PeriAnesthesia Registered Nurses across the country and ascertain their desire to form a national association as this was the first in the list of events towards eligibility for Certification in the specialty of PeriAnesthesia Nursing.

 

At a combined PeriAnesthesia/Perioperative Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1998, the OPANA Executive chaired a meeting to discuss nationalization of all of the provinces' PeriAnesthesia nurses. At the end of this meeting, they presented their positive findings to a room overflowing with perianesthesia nurses, and then established a Steering Committee by nomination and by volunteers coming forward to work towards establishing this new emerging association.

 

In light of the perseverance and tenacity in the work required to establish this association, the current Executive and Board of Directors of the current NAPANc would like to thank the founding members for their insight, passion and fortitude in establishing the National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada, finally incorporated in 2002.

 

The originating Founding Members were:

 

Laura Van Loon          SK          Joyce Maksymez           MB      Victoria Millis                    AB

Diane Buckley            ON          Jackie Pineda-Silva         AB      Faye Smith                      AB

Denise Brind              AB          Gloria Dow                    MB      Debbie Leek                    SK

Carol MacEachern       NS          Kevin White                 NWT   Ruth Wadman                 AB

Marie McMurphy         AB          Shelley Jeske                AB      Carey Redekopp-Kroeger   SK

Shirley Emms             ON         Nova Gardner               AB      Linda Fontaine                 AB      

Lorna McDonough      ON        Linda Fritz                    AB      Edna Koloff                     AB

Ruth Sutton              AB         Mary Reinhart               AB      Terri Kitowski                  ON

Margaret Higgins        AB         Lynn Murkowski             AB      Joan Toms                     MB  

 

Medical Advisor  Dr. Norman Buckley, Anesthesiologist, ON                                                        

 

The following became the Steering Committee members responsible for incorporating the Association, and then became the first Executive of the National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada once the association was incorporated in 2002:

 

 

The National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada formed as a corporation officially in 2002 with the inclusion of 4 provinces and one territory at its inception.  

 

Laura Van Loon became the association's first President, commencing her term officially as President in 2002, and handing the gavel on to Diane Buckley from Ontario in 2003.

Past Presidents include:

 

Laura Van Loon, Chair of Steering Committee, Saskatoon, SK, 2001

Laura Van Loon                         Saskatoon, SK                   2002-2003

Diane Buckley                           Hamilton, ON                      2003-2005

Joan Toms                                 Winnipeg, MB                     2005-2007

Laura Van Loon                         Saskatoon , SK                   2007-2009

Paula Ferguson                         Toronto, ON                        2009-2014

Laura McNulty                            New Brandon, NB              2015-2020

Leigh-Anne Marshall                  Middle Sackville, NS          2020-2024

 

Other members of the NAPANc Executive and Board of Directors have worked very hard in establishing the association and ensuring it's recognition and growth, and must all be credited with the vision and creativity that is now the National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses of Canada.

 

To get involved, please review the section, "Getting Involved"  in the menu under "About NAPANc" and continue to peruse this website for further information.