EAUN19 Poster Sessions offer food for thought: How to transfer new information from session to daily practice

Hello colleagues,

I hope you enjoyed the Annual EAUN Congress as much as we did. The sessions were well attended, informative and gave much food for thought. Apart from the sessions, the posters were of a high standard and gave the adjudicators a headache trying to select the top two in each category. In total there were 44 poster and 3 video abstracts submitted with 25 selected for your review. The poster abstracts were then roughly split evenly into ‘practice development’ and ‘scientific’. The abstracts were submitted by colleagues from Europe as well as from Australia, Pakistan, Israel, Hong Kong, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan and China. Just to show you how well-known our conference is around the globe.

Entire patient pathway

The posters came from a wide variety of settings: from outpatient departments to clinical settings in hospitals and from the entire patient pathway, from pre-diagnostic tests to post-treatment follow-up. The subjects of the posters were good examples of how nurses can improve their clinical or personal practice, as well as their work settings for other nurses to follow in the future. Unfortunately, our colleagues from Pakistan were unable to attend the conference in person. Therefore they gave their presentation via skype, a first I am led to believe. This worked well, it seemed they were in the room with us. A first for the EAUN conference and one, I am sure, that may well be used again.

Abstract scores

The abstracts submitted by hopeful participants were initially scored by the Scientific Committee and the submitters of the top-scoring posters invited to bring and present their poster in Barcelona. These top-scoring posters were displayed on the poster boards for your review. The adjudicators viewed each poster and listened to the participants presenting their research/work during the session. Each participant’s poster was scored against predetermined criteria. It should be noted that the final total number of points given to the projects were exceptionally close for the winning posters in each category. This means that they were of a high standard and promoted urology nursing. I would like to present a brief synopsis of the winner of each category’s poster.

“…the posters were good examples of how nurses can improve their clinical or personal practice…”

Winner practice development section

The winner of the practice development section was poster 3: ‘Development of an advanced nurse practitioner-led bladder cancer surveillance service in Ireland: Preliminary audit results’, presented by R. McConkey (IE). This practice development was building on the advanced nurse practitioner role used in other countries where the role of a nurse cystoscopist has evolved. The poster showed the reader how the role was conceived, planned, implemented and then evaluated. It was this evaluation that McConkey presented to the conference. It took into account some of the issues that we contend with every day in clinical practice, such as effective care and support, antimicrobial
Poster viewing by jury and delegates before the poster presentations start stewardship and use of resources. McConkey concluded that appropriately trained nurses can deliver safe and high-quality patient centred services. Something with which we all agree I think.

Ostomy self-care study

In the scientific section, the winner was poster 13: ‘Self-care in ostomy patients and their caregivers’, presented by M. Boarin (IT). This was a descriptive study focussed on self-care levels in ostomy patients and their caregivers by using two new tools. They noted that ostomy patients face great challenges in the physical, psychological, emotional and social aspects of their lives. They sampled 105 patients and 75 caregivers. The conclusion of this study showed that the tools were important in supporting nurses in their practice, as they gave an objective assessment of ostomy patients and caregivers levels of self-care. Boarin hypothesised that these tools may contribute to significant reduction in readmissions and ostomy complications.

Improve healthcare

In concluding this short piece, I don’t think I have done the winners and their work enough justice, so I wholeheartedly invite you to look at these pieces of work by following this link https://resourcecentre. uroweb.org/resource-centre/prize-winners/eaun19.

Please feel free to take a look at other works presented as well, digest them and look at how they can be used to inform your daily practice. These examples can be spread all over Europe by presenting them in a congress such as ours, as well as in your own workplace. This way, best practiceand knowledge can be used in other hospitals and improve healthcare for all our patients.

Jason Alcorn, FHEA, DN, MSc, BSc, Dip Urol Carer, RN – Adult, EAUN Board Member, Wakefield (UK), j.alcorn@eaun.org