As the festive season is upon us and 2023 is drawing to a close, it’s timely to pause for a moment and reflect on a year of incredible experiences and achievements. This has been a great year for the EBMT Nurses Group with successes including the release of the second edition of the EBMT Textbook for Nurses. Like the first edition, it is free to download and includes a new chapter on cell therapy. We enjoyed our first in person Annual Meeting programme since the COVID-19 pandemic, the 15th Educational Meeting in Madrid, September, the launch of EBMT NG – Next Generation project building a community for early career Transplant and Cell Therapy nurses and the introduction of Blood Matters – an EBMT podcast for Nurses.
This year we have focussed on inclusivity and the barriers that nurses experience in accessing valuable educational opportunities. To this end, we have offered more education grants than ever before (including to two Ukrainian nurses who joined us in Paris for the Annual Meeting, provided local language translation at our main meetings and in 2024, the EBMT Textbook for Nurses will be available in French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Shortages of nurses remain a challenge and we recognise that colleagues across Europe are experiencing enormous pressures. The vast skills, knowledge and expertise demonstrated by Transplant and Cell Therapy nurses take many years to acquire and through innovative practice sharing and networking, this knowledge can be disseminated and augmented. It has been wonderful to see so many nurses being supported with their continued professional development, attending educational events either as delegates, speakers, panel members or chairs.
This year, the EBMT Nurses Group is proud and grateful to have enjoyed global collaborations working across the European continent and beyond. One of our great achievements closer to home was our own EBMT NG educational meeting in collaboration with the Spanish Nurses Group, in Madrid. This, our first ever meeting with simultaneous English-Spanish translation, was very warmly received. The fully integrated research and education programme was well evaluated, and we very much look forward to the 16th Educational Meeting collaborating with GITMO nurses in Italy next year.
All these achievements and more, could not be possible without the dedication, enthusiasm and vision of the EBMT team, the Nurse’s Group board and committee members and Working Party nurses. Thank you for your incredible commitment, creativity and impressive teamwork. I would also like to thank all those members that have participated in our events this year either as speakers or attendees and especially our patient and advocacy speakers from who we learn so much. We hope you continue to share the work of the EBMT Nurses Group and EBMT Society enabling us to deliver our mission to improve the care of our patients through evidence-based practice and to enhance and value the nursing role worldwide by supporting and sharing knowledge through communication, advocacy, research, training and education.
Looking towards 2024, we celebrate 40 years of EBMT Nurses at the 50th Annual Meeting in Glasgow. With the abstract submission deadline aligned with the Physicians for the first time, the abstract review for 2024 has just opened. It is always exciting and a privilege to read the abstracts and with twice as many submissions compared to last year, this will be a very busy time for the reviewers. Aside from the abstract review, the Nurse programme for 2024 is completed and in response to feedback there are some interesting and exciting new additions including a joint nurse-physician session and an apheresis workshop.
Ultimately, EBMT Nurses Group aims to deliver education and support in the areas of greatest need. If you have any suggestions for areas or topics we could focus our education or direct our resources, do please get in touch.
Over the coming weeks, I wish that you all have some well-deserved rest, and have chance to spend time with family, friends and loved ones. I hope 2024 brings health and happiness with new opportunities and successes.
On behalf of the EBMT Nurses Group, I wish you all festive wishes, a merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Michelle Kenyon
EBMT Nurses Group President