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Nurses Group Activity Overview
The New Year has just begun and the preparations for the EBMT Annual Meeting in Florence are well under way. It is important to inform you about the highlights in this year’s Nurses Programme, but first I would like to start with a short report from an international congress where the EBMT-NG was represented.
International Congress on Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 13th – 15th November 2007
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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, venue of the 2007 International Congress on Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation
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As President of the EBMT Nurses Group, I was invited to represent the Group at the International Congress on Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplantation in Riyadh in November 2007. It was a great honour to speak at this conference and to collaborate with our Middle-Eastern colleagues. Reggie Belkim and Amal Mohamad were the hosts and put together a very appealing programme in which experts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, New Zealand and America shared their diverse experiences.
It was impressive to hear the differences in care between the various countries in this geographic region.
A tour through the King Faisal Hospital showed that the care of patients is equal to that in any of our Western hospitals – sometimes I even had the impression that high technological developments in nursing were of a much higher standard than in your average Western transplant unit. Challenges that the Nurse Managers face (recruiting and especially retaining nurses for a longer period of time) were discussed and found to be quite similar to the problems ever apparent in European centres.
The foundation of the EMRO Group (Eastern Mediterranean Regional Organisation for BMT-Nurses Group) was agreed and this will enable a closer collaboration between the EBMT Nurses Group and centres that are located in these countries.
Besides the interesting discussions we had on the challenges in nursing in Arabic countries I really enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Saudi people – it was never a problem to ask them to accompany you on a trip to the desert, or to one of the Souks (markets). You can imagine how nice it was to enjoy the sun and the 27ºC heat during the day compared to the chilly -4ºC back in Switzerland at this time of year.
I realised that being in these countries it is often a walk on the thin lines between Western culture and Arabic tradition, wealth and poverty, health and disease, between Christians and Muslims, Arabic delicacy and Western-style food. I really enjoyed the experience of being in this wonderful country!
Preparations for EBMT Conference 2008
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Scientific Committee and EBMT NG Board Members (December 2007) From left to right: Mairead NiChonghaile (IRE), secretary EBMT NG; Joachim Blankart (D) treasurer EBMT NG, Letitzia Galgano (I); Simona Calza (I) local nurses both from Florence |
The NG Scientific Committee received 173 abstracts this year, which was the highest number of abstracts ever received. It was exceptionally difficult to choose between the high-quality content and decide which ones will be accepted as oral or poster presentations.
Based on the evaluation of previous year and recent publications which are important to follow-up we chose the following topics as educational sessions:
Complementary Therapies; New Directions with Stem Cells; Late Effects; Neuroblastoma; Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA) and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Haematuria (PNH); and issues surrounding Apheresis.
For the workshops we have invited speakers to share their knowledge on the following topics and to provide interesting material for further discussion in your own work settings: Psycho-social Issues; JACIE Accreditation; Translating research into practice; Humour in Care; Skin-care and the Management of Fatigue in Stem Cell Patients.
During the joint session the important question on “To isolate or not to isolate” will be addressed from different angles covering the: haematological, gnotobiological, pharmaco-economical and nursing side.
We accepted more than 100 abstracts for poster presentations – please take time during the conference and especially during the assigned times on Monday and Tuesday late afternoon to chat informally with the authors of the posters. The posters will be displayed from Monday morning until Wednesday lunchtime. More information on EBMT Nurses scientific programme can be found here.
1st Meeting of EBMT Paediatric Nurses
It is a pleasure to announce the organisation of the 1st paediatric conference for nurses in conjunction with the 6th meeting of the EBMT Paediatric Disease Working Party of the physicians, which will focus specifically on the care for the child undergoing stem cell transplantation. Together with Dr. Giorgio Dini (chair of the Paediatric Working Party) and Jacek Wachowiak from Poland and Agnieszka Gałecka, who is the local nurse for this event, Viviane van de Crommert (The Netherlands, member of the NG Scientific Committee) and Simona Calza (Italy, Local contact nurse for EBMT 2008) a very attractive programme has been put together. The following topics will be covered in the plenary sessions:
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Role of HLA in HSCT |
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Problems of Nutrition in Paediatric HSCT |
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Prevention of Infectious Complications in Paediatric HSCT |
Topics such as Early and Late Complications of HSCT in Children and Standards and Nursing in Paediatric HSCT Psychosocial Care will be discussed in joint nurses–physician– sessions. Please take time and look at the conference website. All nurses who work on paediatric stem cell transplantation units should be interested in attending this conference which will address questions of common interest and discuss evidence as well as the clinical experience of caring for a child and his/her family whilst undergoing SCT.
Good bye
This is my last contribution to the EBMT News in the role of president of the EBMT Nurses Group. Elections took place in November 2007 and I am happy to announce that Arno Mank (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was elected to the post of NG President-Elect and Michelle Davies (Manchester, United Kingdom) was elected into the post of NG Secretary. I am very confident that the new board under the lead of Erik Aerts (Zurich, Switzerland) and with the support of Joachim Blankart as NG Treasurer (Hamburg, Germany) will take on the many tasks that need to be fulfilled in order to advance the care for the patient undergoing stem cell transplantation. Let me take the chance to thank “my” board for all their support throughout the years I have been in office!
Monica Fliedner
President of the EBMT Nurses Group
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