My name is Seher Yaprak, and I am honoured to serve as the new Chair of the EBMT Turkish Nurses Group. I have been working in the Haematology Department of Kocaeli University Hospital for eighteen years — first as one of the initial haematology staff nurse and supervisor, and later as the founding nurse of the Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit, serving as the BMT Nurse Manager and Coordinator. Kocaeli University Hospital is a well-established academic medical centre affiliated with a faculty of medicine, where both resident and specialist physicians are trained.
In 2014, together with our esteemed Professors, we initiated the establishment of Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit. After completing the necessary training and preparations, the unit was officially opened in 2016. Since then, I have been actively involved in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation nursing in Kocaeli University Hospital. During my 6-month stay at Erciyes University Bone Marrow Transplantation Hospital in 2014, I had the opportunity to speak at training programmes related to JACIE certification. In 2017, I spent three months assisting in the establishment of the newly opened haematology and bone marrow transplantation units at King Hamad Hospital in Bahrain. Additionally, I have been an activemember of the EBMT Turkish Nurses Group since its establishment. Since 2020, I have been serving as an educator in the courses and training programmes organised by the EBMT Turkish Nursing Education Group.
Founded in 2015, the EBMT Turkish Nurses Group is dedicated to promoting excellence in transplantation nursing by fostering professional development, collaboration, and research. Our group brings together committed nurses from across Türkiye who are passionate about improving patient care and sharing best practices.
Our mission is to enhance and advance hematopoietic stem cell transplantation nursing, raise individual and public awareness about stem cell transplantation, and improve the quality of patient care. In recent years, we have organised courses and local educational webinars, contributed to national congresses and consensus meetings, and strengthened communication within our network.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of the nurses and healthcare professionals within our network. Our success is truly a reflection of the collective effort, passion, and commitment of our entire community. We are united by a shared goal — to provide the best possible care to our patients and to continue advancing the field of stem cell transplantation.
Looking ahead, we plan to organise educational workshops and develop handbooks, make more active use of informatics in nursing, and launch a mentoring program for early-career nurses. We also aim to increase our participation in EBMT activities through expanded research collaborations and international knowledge exchange.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all the members of the EBMT community for their continuous support and collaboration. Together, we can achieve great things for the future of stem cell transplantation and patient care.
We look forward to contributing actively and sharing our experiences with the wider EBMT community.
Inspired by the words of our esteemed founder and leader, Atatürk:
“The truest guide for everything in the world — for civilization, for life, for success — is science.”
