AORN Guidelines Workshops: Your Local Fast-Track to Smarter, Safer Perioperative Nursing
CE Credits, New Skills, and Networking Are Coming Your Way
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Learn Directly from the Guideline Authors in These Hands-On Workshops
Earn CE credits, build real-world skills, and network face-to-face. It’s all in a day's work in one of the most efficient nursing workshops in perioperative care.
Guidelines aren’t meant to be stuffy words in a textbook. They're your lifeline in the OR. These interactive one-day workshops cut through the noise and bring you face-to-face with the experts who wrote the AORN Guidelines.
If you're looking for high-impact continuing education for nurses and the whole perioperative team, these workshops are for you.
We're planning the lineup of cities and topics for the 2026 workshops – sign up to be the first to get the details.
What to Expect at the AORN Guidelines Workshop
Think of this as a streamlined learning experience designed to keep your practice sharp and give you more confidence. Here’s how:
- Meet the Experts — Chat live with AORN Guideline Authors who wrote the book about what you encounter daily. Ask the questions that keep you up at night and walk away with insights that’ll make you more confident and ready to tackle the challenges ahead.
- Hands-On Demos — Get your hands on the latest tech solutions and best practices from industry professionals.
- Breakfast, Lunch, & Networking — Because learning is better with a hot meal and a refreshing drink.
Example Workshop Itinerary
- 7:00 AM - Registration & Breakfast
- 7:30 AM - Sessions Begin
- 12:00 PM - Lunch
- 4:00 PM - Wrap-Up (but the learning doesn’t stop there)
Who Should Attend?
- New nurses eager to level up their practice.
- Seasoned pros who want a no-nonsense update on the latest Guidelines.
- Nurses seeking affordable CE credits, without the travel headache.
Karen deKay, MSN, RN, CNOR, CIC
Senior Perioperative Practice Specialist
Karen has been a registered nurse for over 30 years, working primarily in the perioperative arena, education, and infection control. She is certified in perioperative nursing, as well as infection prevention and control, two credentials which allowed her to lead a system-wide Robust Process Improvement project to standardize and implement surgical and sterile processing best practices at a large healthcare system in Texas.
The AORN Guidelines for Perioperative Practice have always been the foundation of her practice, so in 2017 when the opportunity to work at AORN to help develop these guidelines came about, she made the move to Denver to be part of the AORN Nursing Practice team. She is a Senior Perioperative Practice Specialist and has been the lead revision author of the AORN Guideline for Environmental Cleaning, Preoperative Patient Skin Antisepsis and Hand Hygiene She is currently working on revision of Surgical Attire.
Karen serves as the AORN representative for the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), has authored several “Clinical Issues” columns in the AORN Journal, and has provided presentations for the Colorado APIC chapter on infection prevention in the perioperative environment. She has also collaborated with SHEA on the 2022 Update to Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-associated Infections through Hand Hygiene and with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Healthcare Standards Institute (HSI) to develop performance standards for germicidal light whole-room surface disinfection in the operating room which will provide perioperative RNs and managers with a standardized evaluation tool to assist in provision of safe patient care.
In her spare time, she enjoys bike riding and hiking in the great Colorado outdoors, visiting wineries, spoiling her two grandchildren and shopping for bargains.
