Terms of Use

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Sites, and any Services or Materials (defined below) we provide on the Sites, in our sole discretion and without notice. We will not be liable if, for any reason, all or any parts of the Sites are unavailable at any time or for any period. From time to time, in our sole discretion and without notice, we may restrict access to some parts of the Sites, or the entire Site, to users, including registered users.

You are responsible for both:

• Making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Sites.
• Ensuring that all persons who access the Sites through your internet connection are aware of these Terms and comply with them.

To access the Sites or certain of the resources it offers, you may be asked to provide certain registration details or other information. It is a condition of your use of the Sites that all the information you provide on the Sites is correct, current, and complete, and that you have the authority to provide such information to us.

If you choose, or are provided with, a username, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you and agree not to provide any other person with access to the Sites or portions of it using your username, password, or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your username or password or any other breach of security. You also agree to ensure that you sign out of or exit from your account at the end of each session. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information.

We have the right to disable any username, password, or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time in our sole discretion for any reason, including if, in our opinion, you have violated any provision of these Terms.

If you sign up to participate in our online community, to enter a promotion, or to use a special feature or password-protected area of our Services, you may be asked to agree to special terms (for example, when registering to participate in our ORNurselink forum, you must agree to the ORNurseLink Terms, which are incorporated herein, before you may participate in the forum). In most cases, you will be asked to expressly consent to the special terms by entering your information, checking a box, or taking another action, or in some cases, special terms applicable to downloaded purchases (such as e-books or other digital courses or materials) may be sent to you by email or otherwise. If any of the special terms are different than these Terms, the special terms will supplement or amend these Terms, but only with respect to the matters governed by the special terms.

If you have any questions about these Terms, please feel free to contact us by mail at: AORN, Attn: Customer Service, 2170 South Parker Rd, Suite 400, Denver, CO 80231, or email at [email protected].

These content standards apply to any and all User Content and use of Interactive Services. User Content must in their entirety comply with all applicable federal, state, local, and international laws and regulations. Without limiting the foregoing, User Content must not:

• Contain any material that is defamatory, obscene, indecent, abusive, offensive, harassing, violent, hateful, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable.
• Promote sexually explicit or pornographic material, violence, or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
• Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property or other rights of any other person.
• Violate the legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy) of others or contain any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
• Be likely to deceive any person.
• Promote any illegal activity, or advocate, promote, or assist any unlawful act.
• Cause annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety or be likely to upset, embarrass, alarm, or annoy any other person.
• Impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or organization.
• Involve commercial activities or sales, such as contests, sweepstakes, and other sales promotions, barter, or advertising.
• Give the impression that they emanate from or are endorsed by us or any other person or entity, if this is not the case.

Our Services feature a wide array of information, resources, webinars, education, tool kits, interactive features, User Content (as defined below), and other content (collectively "Content"). To the extent new Content or features are added to our Services in the future, the use thereof is subject to these Terms.

Your use of the Sites is at your own risk. The Materials have not been verified or authenticated in whole or in part by us, and they may include inaccuracies or typographical or other errors. We do not warrant the accuracy or timeliness in the Materials, whether provided by us, our licensors or suppliers or other users.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW AND EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED HEREIN OR ON THE SITES, OUR SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED ON OR THROUGH THE SITES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. ANY THIRD-PARTY GOODS OR SERVICES PROVIDED ARE SUPPLIED AS A CONVENIENCE TO YOU AND DO NOT CONSTITUTE SPONSORSHIP, AFFILIATION, PARTNERSHIP, OR ENDORSEMENT. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE DO NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SITES, THE MATERIALS, ANY CONTENT, OR OTHER POSTED MATERIALS ON THE SITES IN TERMS OF ITS CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE.

BY PROVIDING THE SERVICES ON THE SITES, WE DO NOT IN ANY WAY PROMISE THAT THE SERVICES WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE TO YOU. WE ARE ENTITLED TO TERMINATE ALL OR PART OF ANY OF THE SITES AT ANY TIME, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. 

The information presented on or through the Sites is made available for informational purposes only. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of information posted on our Services, whether by AORN, our employees, users of our Services, or third parties. Reliance on any Content posted on our Services or available through our Services is solely at your own risk and AORN assumes no liability with regard to any such Content. Any User Content posted by an individual or other Content provided by a third party, including all articles, opinions, and responses to questions, are solely the opinions and responsibility of the person or entity submitting them and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of AORN. You expressly agree to hold AORN harmless for any claims of damage arising from any Content, product or service provided by any third party. AORN does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, products, services, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Services.

By using the Sites and/or the Services, you consent to receiving electronic communications, including electronic notices, from us. These electronic communications may include notices about applicable fees and charges, transactional information and other information concerning or related to the Sites and/or Materials. These electronic communications are part of your relationship with us. You agree that any notices, agreements, disclosures or other communications that we send you electronically will satisfy any legal communication requirements, including that such communications be in writing.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless AORN  and our affiliates, employees, agents, representatives and third-party service providers, for any and all claims, demands, actions, liability, fines, penalties and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (i) your use of a Service in a manner not permitted by AORN, including without limitation your actual or alleged violation of these Terms, or infringement of a third party's intellectual property or other rights by you or someone else using your computer, mobile device or account; (ii) any Content you post to a Service; or (iii) any interaction you have with a third party through a Service.

Any User Content you post to the Sites will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. By providing any User Content on the Sites you grant AORN, our respective licensees, successors, and our related entities the right to copy, use,  display, modify, publish, distribute, perform, and prepare derivative works of such User Content. You represent and warrant that (i) you own or control all  rights in and to the User Content and have the right to grant the license granted above to us and our respective licensees, successors, and assigns, and (ii) all of your User Content does and will comply with these Terms.

You understand and acknowledge that you are responsible for any User Content you submit or contribute, and you, not AORN, have full responsibility for such content, including its legality, reliability, accuracy, and appropriateness.

We are not responsible or liable to any third party for the content or accuracy of any User Content posted by you or any other user of the Sites.

By attending Virtual AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo, and/or Virtual Leadership Summit, you automatically provide your approval for AORN and our affiliates to use your likeliness and/or quotes in any of our publications, on our Sites, and in our marketing/promotional materials.

WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THE SITES WILL BE AVAILABLE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT (100%) OF THE TIME BECAUSE PUBLIC NETWORKS, SUCH AS THE INTERNET, OCCASIONALLY EXPERIENCE DISRUPTIONS. ALTHOUGH WE STRIVE TO PROVIDE THE MOST RELIABLE WEBSITES REASONABLY POSSIBLE, INTERRUPTIONS AND DELAYS IN ACCESSING THE SITES ARE UNAVOIDABLE AND WE DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM SUCH PROBLEMS.

THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY THAT APPLIES TO ALL LOSSES AND DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF DATA, GOODWILL, REVENUE OR PROFITS. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, THE LIABILITY OF AORN AND ITS AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, REPRESENTATIVES AND THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS WITH RESPECT TO ANY AND ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE SITES, THE MATERIALS, AND ANY CONTENT OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE SITES, WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER BASIS, SHALL NOT EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100); EVEN IF AORN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 

You are hereby licensed to create hyperlinks to Content on the Services, provided that the hyperlink accurately describes the Content to which it links on the Services. In addition, individuals and non-commercial organizations are hereby granted a license to implement the RSS feeds offered by our Services. If you wish to inquire about use of the RSS feeds on a commercial website, please contact us at [email protected]. When you include links to our Services on your website (including RSS feeds) when the link is clicked, the applicable page within our Services must be displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising, or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within the Service, and without any interstitial pop-ups or web pages loading before the applicable target page is accessed. The page on which such feeds or links are featured must be accessible to the general public and not provided through a subscription service or for a fee, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing by AORN. Under no circumstances may you "frame" the Service or any of its Content or copy portions of the Service to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider's incidental caching of pages. AORN reserves the right to revoke these licenses generally, or your right to use specific links or RSS feeds, at any time, with or without cause.

Certain Content and features of our Services are accessible only to AORN members who are logged in to their account on our Services. Please do not make any such members-only Content or features accessible to anyone other than AORN members, and please do not distribute any Content in such areas to non-members unless otherwise described herein or as approved by AORN. We respect the confidentiality of our members, and you should treat any online postings by members or others with respect and not disclose or share such information outside the AORN community.

We do not allow persons under the age of eighteen (18) to use the Sites. By using the Sites, you represent and warrant that you are eighteen (18) years of age or older. 

• Governing Laws. AORN is located in Denver, Colorado. As such, the laws of Colorado and the United States will govern these Terms and any claims arising out of or relating to use of the Services, without giving effect to any choice of law rules. We make no representation that our Services are appropriate, legal or available for use outside of the United States. The state and federal courts located in Denver, Colorado will serve as the venue for any actions brought, or claims made, arising out of your use of our Services.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is determined by a court of law to be unlawful, void or unenforceable for any reason, the other provisions (and any partially-enforceable provision) shall not be affected thereby and shall remain valid and enforceable to the maximum possible extent, and the invalid provision will be modified as necessary to make it valid and enforceable while as closely as possible reflecting the original intentions of AORN. If the offending provision cannot be so modified, then the same shall be deemed stricken from these Terms in its entirety and the remainder of these Terms shall survive with the said offending provision eliminated.
• Headings. Provision and section headings are for convenience of reference only and shall not affect the interpretation of these Terms.
• Typographical Errors. Information on the Sites may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. We attempt to make the Sites’ postings as accurate as possible, but we do not warrant the content of the Sites are accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free. 

We have the right to:

• Remove or refuse to post any User Content for any or no reason in our sole discretion.
• Take any action with respect to any User Content that we deem necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion, including if we believe that such User Content violates the Terms, including the Content Standards, infringes any intellectual property right or other right of any person or entity, threatens the personal safety of users of the Sites or the public, or could create liability for us.
• Disclose your identity or other information about you to any third party who claims that material posted by you violates their rights, including their intellectual property rights or their right to privacy.
• Take appropriate legal action, including referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Sites.
• Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Sites for any reason, including any violation of these Terms.

Without limiting the foregoing, we have the right to cooperate fully with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or other information of anyone posting any materials on or through the Sites. YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS AORN AND ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING, OR TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF, INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

However, we cannot review all material before it is posted on the Sites and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section. 

In the event that you find Content posted on one of our Services which you believe is an infringement of the copyright ownership or other intellectual property rights of you or any third party, please immediately contact our Copyright Agent as described below. To report any alleged infringement, you may contact us in writing by providing a signed statement containing the following information:

1. your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, and if you are acting on behalf of the owner of the intellectual property, the name of the owner;
2. a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of the copyright or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner;
3. a detailed description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
4. if your claim is based on a registered work, the registration number, and the date of issuance of the registration;
5. a description of the infringing material and the URL where such material is located on the Services, or a description of where on our Services you found such material;
6. your written statement that you believe, in good faith, that the use of the work on our Services has not been authorized by the true owner of the work, its agent, or as a matter of law; and
7. a statement under penalty of perjury that all of the information you have provided is true.

Please send your notice of alleged infringement to: Legal Counsel, AORN, 2170 South Parker Rd, Suite 400, Denver, CO 80231, or you may send it by Fax: 800-750-3212, or email: [email protected]. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), it is the policy of AORN to terminate use of our Services by repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

All information contained within the Sites and the Services is the property of AORN. Reproduction, redistribution, or modification of this information for commercial or educational purposes is prohibited without the express written permission of AORN. Any use of Content on the Services, including without limitation reproduction for purposes other than those noted herein, modification, distribution, replication, any form of data extraction or data mining, or other commercial exploitation of any kind, without prior written permission of AORN, is strictly prohibited. To obtain permission to reproduce information from any Service or any other AORN publication, please contact us at [email protected]. For information about translations or foreign use, please view this document.

By accessing or using the Sites, you agree that:

• Your use of the Sites is subject to and governed by these Terms;
• You will only access or use the Sites and transact business with us if you are at least eighteen (18) years old;
• You will use the Sites solely for its Services offered in the normal course of business;
• You will always act in accordance with the law and custom, and in good faith;
• You will comply with and be bound by these Terms as they appear on the Sites each time you access and use the Sites;
• Each use of the Sites by you indicates and confirms your agreement to be bound by these Terms; and
• These Terms are a legally binding agreement between you and us that will be enforceable against you.

You further agree to not use the Sites in any way that:

• Changes or alters the Sites or Content or Services that may appear on the Sites;
• Impairs in any way the integrity or operation of the Sites;
• Interferes with or induces a breach of the contractual relationships between us and our employees;
• Is in any way unlawful or prohibited, or that is harmful or destructive to anyone or their property;
• Transmits any advertisements, solicitations, schemes, spam, flooding, or other unsolicited email and commercial communications;
• Transmits any harmful or disabling computer codes or viruses;
• Harvests email addresses from the Sites;
• Transmits unsolicited email to the Sites or to anyone whose email address includes the domain name of the Sites;
• Interferes with our network services;
• Attempts to gain unauthorized access to our network services;
• Suggests an express or implied affiliation or relationship with us without our express written permission;
• Impairs or limits our ability to operate the Sites or any other person’s ability to access and use the Sites;
• Unlawfully impersonates or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with any person or entity;
• Transmits or uploads violent, obscene, sexually explicit, discriminatory, hateful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, offensive, harassing, or otherwise objectionable content or images;
• Dilutes or depreciates our or any of our affiliates’ name and reputation;
• Transmits or uploads content or images that infringe upon any third party’s intellectual property rights or right to privacy; or
• Unlawfully transmits or uploads any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information.

This list of prohibited activities provides examples and is not complete or exclusive. We reserve the right to terminate access to your account and your ability to use the Sites (or the Materials) with or without cause and with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, or for any action that we determine is inappropriate or disruptive to the Sites or to any other user of the Sites and/or Materials. We may report to law enforcement authorities any actions that may be illegal, and any reports it receives of such conduct. When legally required or at our discretion, we will cooperate with law enforcement agencies in any investigation of alleged illegal activity on the Sites or on the Internet

Unless otherwise specified in these Terms, all information and screens appearing on the Sites are the sole property of AORN or our subsidiaries and affiliates, and other parties. We provide Content through the Sites that is copyrighted or contains protectable trademarks of AORN or our third-party licensors and suppliers (collectively, the “Materials”). Materials may include documents, services, software, site design, text, graphics, logos, video, images, icons, and other content, as well as the arrangement thereof.

Subject to these Terms, we hereby grant to you a revocable, limited, personal, non-exclusive, and non-transferable license to use, view, print, display, and download the Materials for the sole purpose of viewing them on a stand-alone personal computer or mobile device and to use the Sites solely for your personal use. Except for the foregoing license and as otherwise required or limited by applicable law, you have no other rights in the Sites or any Materials and you may not modify, edit, copy, reproduce, create derivative works of, reverse engineer, alter, enhance, or in any way exploit any of the Sites or Materials in any manner or for any purpose that would constitute infringement of our, our licensors’, or the Sites’ other user’s intellectual property rights. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

If you breach any of these Terms, the above license will terminate automatically, and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed Materials.

Our Services include an online store through which you can purchase materials or webinars, register for conferences or other events, or make donations to the AORN Foundation. We also feature links to third-party stores, or third-party products or services you can purchase elsewhere. These transactions are governed by these Terms and any supplemental terms you may find in the course of performing the transaction (such as return or refund policies). Please be aware that some aspects of these transactions may be handled by third-party service providers. Any information collected in these transactions will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you have questions or concerns about purchases, donations, or other transactions you have made on our Services, please send an email to [email protected].

You may make a donation to the AORN Foundation on our Sites. In doing so, you acknowledge and agree that you are under no obligation to make a donation and that you will be solely responsible for any decision to make a donation. Unless otherwise stated, AORN and AORN Foundation does not warrant that funds will be used for any particular purpose. You agree that all donations are final. Unless otherwise stated, AORN makes no representation as to whether any or all of your donation, including any processing fees, are tax deductible. AORN has no liability for any claim by a federal, state, local or other tax authority with respect to the characterization on any applicable tax return of any donation by you. You should consult your tax advisor as to the amount of your donation that is tax deductible.

The Sites may include links to other websites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties. AORN is not responsible for any aspect of these third-party websites, including without limitation the accuracy of content on those services, any purchases made on those services or use of information you may provide to those services. You acknowledge and agree that third-party websites may have different privacy policies and terms and conditions and/or user guides and business practices, and you further acknowledge and agree that your use of such third-party websites is governed by the respective third-party website privacy policy and terms and conditions and/or user guides. Any links to other third-party websites are provided only for the purpose of convenience and do not constitute a referral or endorsement of any of these websites or the owners, services, products, or content on these services. Your use of third-party websites is at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.

We provide links to the third-party websites to you as a convenience, and we do not verify, make any representations, or take responsibility for such third-party websites, including the truthfulness, accuracy, quality or completeness of the content, services, links displayed and/or any other activities conducted on or through such third-party websites. YOU AGREE THAT WE WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, FOR ANY GOODS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, RESOURCES AND/OR CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH ANY THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES AND/OR THIRD-PARTY DEALINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS, OR FOR ANY HARM RELATED THERETO, OR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES CAUSED OR ALLEGED TO BE CAUSED BY OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OR RELIANCE ON THE CONTENT OR BUSINESS PRACTICES OF ANY THIRD PARTY. Any reference on the Sites to any product, service, publication, institution, or organization of any third-party entity or individual does not constitute or imply our endorsement or recommendation.

The Sites may contain message boards, chat rooms, personal web pages or profiles, forums, bulletin boards, and other interactive features (collectively, “Interactive Services”). Any Content uploaded, posted, submitted, or otherwise made available by individual users of our Services, including without limitation submissions by contributors, comments to articles, or other content which does not originate with AORN on or through the Sites ("User Content"), is the sole responsibility of the user who made such User Content available on the Services. Under no circumstances will AORN  be liable in any way for any User Content made available through any of our Services. All User Content must comply with the Content Standards set out in these Terms.

If you post any User Content to our Services, you agree to the ORNurseLink Terms Terms. We reserve the right (but have no obligation) in our sole discretion to pre-screen, edit, refuse, move or remove any User Content that is posted on our Services. You agree that our exercise of such discretion will not convert or transform User Content to Content owned or provided by AORN, and the user who made such User Content available on a Service will retain ownership thereof as described below.

By forwarding any content or communications to us through the Sites or by other electronic means, you thereby grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid-up, world-wide, irrevocable, non‑exclusive, freely transferable, and freely sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, redistribute, and display such content and communications in any form for the purposes of providing the Services and any purpose tangentially related to the Services. No compensation will be paid to you with respect to our or our sublicensees’ use of your communications. By providing or submitting content, you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your submitted content and communications as described in this section, including all the rights necessary for you to submit the content and communications and grant the license above.