The Irish Association of Sterile Services Managers was established in 1989. Its aim is to ensure its members are up to date with developments in sterile services and to network this information to hospital sterile service departments throughout Ireland. It continues to fullfil this aim by spearheading a revolution in sterilization thought the organizing of conferences, study days, and the dissemination of information in decontamination and sterilization. Currently, it has representation on the board of the European Forum for Hospital Sterile Supply (EFHSS) and the World Federation and was the founder member of the EFHSS (www.efhss.com) of which there are 23 countries.
The IASSM has been acknowledged nationally and internationally as a leading organization associated with decontamination and sterilization. Nationally, the IASSM continues to promote education in decontamination and sterilization thought it's involvement with the Institute of Technology, Tallaght course set up in 2000. Internationally, in 2002 the IASSM was given the honor of hosting the EFHSS Conference 2002 which was attended by over 300 delegates world wide, and proved to be a great success. Many local and international speakers are now world experts in decontamination and sterilization.
With the advent of new medical device technology and increasing demands from sterile service departments, it is becoming more important that the IASSM continues to grow nationally and internationally to meet the ever increasing challenges.
Ireland is in Western Europe, occupying five-sixths of the island of Ireland in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain. With a total of 360 km land boundaries and 1,448 km coastline, Ireland shares a border with United Kingdom 360km.
Statistics
Area: 70,280km² (land: 68,890 km² water: 1,390 km²)
Population: 3,969,558 (July 2004)
Capital: Dublin
Language: English is the language generally used, Irish (Gaelic) spoken mainly in areas located along the western seaboard
Religion: Roman Catholic 91.6%, Church of Ireland 2.5%, other 5.9% (1998)
Climate: Temperate maritime; modified by North Atlantic Current; mild winters, cool summers; consistently humid; overcast about half the time
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