State Travel Wellness Exhibit Suggestions
for Your State Meetings

Suggestions for exhibiting:  

1. Involve AANA and State Association Leadership
2. Bring Wellness and Peer Assistance Educational Sessions to State Meeting Attendees
3. Include a Wellness and Peer Assistance Display at all Your State Association Meetings
4. Order fun Wellness products to use as prizes or incentives at your booth!
5. Recruit local nurse anesthesia students to help "staff" the booth - this is a great learning experience
6. Bring Wellness Activities to Your State Meeting
7. Blend Fundraising Opportunities with Your Wellness Display
8. Customize Your State Exhibit by Making a Simple 3-Panel Display
9. Take photos and email them to wellness@aana.com so we can post your success online to encourage other SPAs and state wellness committees!

Suggestion 1:  Involve AANA and State Association Leadership

Photo above taken at the State Travel Wellness Exhibit during NCANA Annual Fall Meeting, Asheville, N.C., October 2009
From left to right: James R. Walker, CRNA, DNP, AANA President; Janice J. Izlar, CRNA, DNAP, AANA Region 2 Director; Nancy Bruton-Maree, CRNA, MS, NCANA President; Linda Stone, CRNA, MSN, North Carolina State Peer Advisor; Linda M. Sangiuliano, CRNA, NCANA President Elect and Greg Stocks, CRNA, EJD, Peer Assistance Speaker 

Suggestion 2:  Bring Wellness and Peer Assistance Educational Sessions to State Meeting Attendees 

Show video segments from Wearing Masks.

Wellness and peer assistance topics were integrated with other educational sessions on the NCANA meeting agenda for all attendees at the Fall 2009 Annual Meeting: 

1. Request the State Travel Wellness Exhibit (see photos above and right).  Four displays are available for  state meetings at no cost to your state association.  Click here  to reserve one for your meeting (depending on availability). For more information see the informational brochure - All About Reserving the State Travel Wellness Exhibit for Your State Meeting  
2. Make a simple 3-panel display (suggestions below).

Handout materials for state meetings are also available by emailing the above link.  These include information on Wearing Masks, Peer Assistance contact cards, Peer Assistance for Substance Misuse and Chemical Dependency brochures, AANA Wellness Program flyers, flyer for ordering peer assistance and wellness materials through the AANA Bookstore, donation envelopes for the Jan Stewart Memorial Wellness Lecture Series, and a sampling of free health related government brochures available to order through the  Wellness Links  page, etc.

Focus on CRNA wellness, not just substance dependence. So have a basket of something healthy to hand out, like apples, or grapes, or little boxes of raisins, small bags of pretzels, breath mints - it sends a good message.  All of this makes a nice display. You'll draw attention to your committee and people will begin to equate peer assistance with striving to be whole, to be well, rather than just focusing on impairment.                                                             

Also, we assist on many levels with issues other than substance dependency like workplace violence, sexual harassment, physical disability, stress, etc., so that the focus is restoring the workplace and the CRNA to wellness.

Remember, the key is to inform and to be a resource and conduit of information; plant the seed that your committee is a presence at every state meeting and available as the need arises and they will remember.

Suggestion 4:   Order fun Wellness products  to use as prizes or incentives at your booth!  ( order form )

Suggestion 5:  Recruit local nurse anesthesia students to help "staff" the booth - this is a great learning experience

Suggestion 6:  Bring Wellness Activities to Your State Meeting

Recently Arkansas held an early morning walk/run, Washington state provided a yoga class, and Washington State Peer Advisor Frank Maziarski, CRNA, MS, reports that the September 2009 Northwest States Anesthesia Conference held both a T'ai Chai class and a group walk before dinner (photos below).  Send an email to wellness@aana.com and share your ideas and send photos too! 

Attendees participate in a yoga class during the WANA 2010 Spring Anesthesia Conference

Suggestion 7:  Blend Fundraising Opportunities with Your Wellness Display

Georgia State Peer Advisor, Barbara Waldron, CRNA, BS, traditionally holds a raffle at the GANA meetings (photo below).  At the September 2009 NEANA Conference in Portland, Ore., Maine State Peer Advisor Rae Lane, CRNA successfully held a raffle for a wellness basket and raised over $300 toward the Wellness Advocacy Fund. 

Left Panel Title: YOUR state committee name

1. Include photos and contact info
2. Items from your website, newsletter
3. Contact information on your state peer advisor (SPA) or well-being committee
4. Info on your state's alternative program
5. Info on state nurse support groups

Center Panel Title: "CRNA Wellness"

1. Information on the AANA Wellness Program  
2. Photo collage of CRNAs at work and play
   (show healthy activities like biking, hiking, sailing, meditation/relaxation techniques contrast with photos or accounts of CRNA stress/confrontation)
3. Information on EAP or wellness policies at area hospitals

Right Panel Title: AANA Peer Assistance Efforts

1. Printouts from the Peer Assistance pages on the website, position statement, model policies, Signs and Behaviors of Impaired Colleagues from the backside of the Peer Assistance for Substance Misuse and Chemical Dependency brochure.
2. Information sheet:

1. How to access our website - www.AANAPeerAssistance.com
2. Hotline numbers
3. Anesthetists in Recovery (AIR) info