Page 4 - ANZCP Gazette April 2021

The world continues to spin and we in the antipodes have so far escaped the worst of the pandemic. We have been preparing for the worse, particularly with expectations for a substantial need for ECMO. Although the demand has not yet been seen, the impact on our departments has still been significant in other ways.
There is no doubt that COVID-19 will be a fork in the road that changes our course to a different future. Despite the hope of vaccinations, with the ever continuing circumstances that caused COVID-19 — bigger cities, environment destruction and massive movement of people — the future may be one of perpetually living with pandemics. This will be a world in which our profession needs to be constantly prepared for a sudden influx of extremely sick patients needing extracorporeal life support.
How we deal with that future is in part dependent on us being as adaptable as possible, keeping ourselves well trained and educated and, most importantly, believing in our unique role in caring for our patients.
Our Executive and the Board have been ceaselessly working on arming and bolstering our profession so that we can be better placed to fulfil our role. As their reports indicate, this has included strengthening and increasing our professional
standing by having an appropriate Master’s degree, facilitating the inclusion of all clinical perfusionists in Australasia into one professional body, and having a process to maintain re- certification to ensure standards of practice are upheld. All are necessary steps to raise our professional profile, guarantee the safety of our practice to the public, and ultimately gain national registration and accreditation.
Too much or too little? In this edition we see Hannah Lea’s paper concerned with the dangers of not enough glucose in the circuit prime — while Maddie Dobier article is concerned with the hazards of too much glucose in the cardioplegia. No doubt, trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ is one of life’s challenges!
Finally I would like to thank Carla Zazuluk for being a Co- Editor for over six years. She has stepped down to take up the onerous role of becoming our President elect. This gives me the opportunity to welcome Jane Ennor as her replacement. I know Jane personally to have distinctive networking skills; she will be perfectly positioned as a conduit between the various generations of perfusionists and their departments throughout Australia and New Zealand. Along with Jane Ottens, the addition of a younger, enthusiastic and professionally committed perfusionist will help create an excellent editorial team.
FROM THE EDITOR
Kieron C Potger CCP, FANZCP
The Executive
Rob Baker – President
Carla Zazulak – President Elect Jane Ottens – Secretary
Kirri Hogan – Treasurer
Manel San Pablo – Member Britney Westbrook – Registrar Mark Ambrose – Past President Andrea Hunt – Executive Officer
ANZCP
STRUCTURE
The Board
Jessica Cantrick – Chair Annette Mazzone – Secretary
Clarke Thuys – Member/Course Coordinator
Casey Edwards – Member/ Autotransfusion Course Coordinator
Alex Peterson – Member/University Course Liaison
Ghaz Jabur – Member
Sub-Committees
Alison Horton – Registration Committee; AHPA & NASRHP Representative
Jane Ottens – Simulation Committee Tim Wilcox – PIRS Editor
Kuljeet Farrar – 2021 ASM Coordinator
1 APRIL 2021 | www.anzcp.org