ACCP welcomes its newest Practice and Research Network (PRN), the Perioperative Care PRN, which received approval by the ACCP Board of Regents on October 10, 2014. The new PRN will strive to foster clinical skills and practice development for its members in the academic and professional spectrum and will give participants an opportunity to collaborate and discuss the management of patients in all subpopulations (from infancy through adulthood).

The Perioperative Care PRN will focus on the clinical, research, and regulatory aspects of the pre-, inter-, and postoperative phases of care in order to become a useful resource for pharmacists caring for surgical patients with a complexity of disease states and patient-specific variables. Founding Chair Stacey Bortlik Moultrie, Pharm.D., R.Ph., BSPharm, PRS, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and a pediatric clinical pharmacist at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, is excited that pharmacists and pharmacy students will have the opportunity to collaborate on perioperative topics and projects in all patient populations and at all risk levels and hopes that this network will set the standard of excellence for patient safety.

“I am excited that ACCP recognizes the need for this network and has provided clinical pharmacists of different professional backgrounds and training a chance to work together to improve the safety of surgical patients across the care continuum,” Moultrie said. She invites all ACCP members to consider joining this network to share professional experiences in order to improve practice standards and the patient experience. The Perioperative Care PRN is actively recruiting members. To learn more, visit http://www.accp.com/prns/entrance.aspx?prn=peri. The approval of the new PRN brings the total number of PRNs to 25.