Reflecting on my time as EAUN Chair

At the last Annual EAUN Meeting (EAUN24), I handed over the position of EAUN chair to my valued colleague Ms. Corinne Tillier (NL). After three great years as chair and over seven years on the EAUN Board as treasurer and membership secretary (when I first joined the board), I can now look back and reflect on what we have managed to achieve.

The Covid epidemic was terrible, but it showed us the advantages of sharing knowledge between like-minded countries, and it taught us to respond to challenges in healthcare by making clinical improvements quicker than ever before. But it also exposed some organisational weaknesses, and I recognised quickly the EAUN needed a more resilient and sustainable structure and strategy. The clinical landscape made us more acutely aware of the needs of our members and the board needed to look at what we were delivering to our members and how this could support urology care across Europe, and internationally.

I have said in many of my speeches, the EAUN is a platform for national societies to share, learn and support each other. It encourages and provides collaboration and is in prime position (perhaps the only organisation with 3,000 members in urology nursing) to provide a platform worldwide.

So, we canvassed our members, we listened to your comments and then reviewed the long-term strategy and completed a SWOT analysis to identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. Using this information, we restructured and enhanced the overall governance for the EAUN Board to deliver your individual countries’ and members’ needs. We also adapted the Board’s skill mix, with many more board members having PhDs, which has enhanced the development of the EAUN. This better supported our key focus on education and allowed us to deliver learning opportunities in a more modern and efficient way with more webinars, ESUN (European School of Urology Nursing) courses, guidelines and new initiatives – like podcasts!

Two or three members of the board now work in conjunction with key subgroups  – for example:

Special Interest Groups

We now have five active SIGs (bladder cancer, endourology, prostate cancer, sexual health, and continence) – each SIG has a chair and a co-chair.  Each chair has devised a two-year plan on what they want to do and achieve. They have all increased their group memberships substantially. For example, the bladder SIG now has >25 nurses/allied professionals.

Accreditation & endorsement

Mr. Jason Alcorn led on the accreditation and endorsement allowing us to launch our collaboration with the EU-ACME/ACNE for accreditation of the CME/CNE programme in urology nursing.  With its own independent board, this ensures that there is no bias when reviewing accreditation requests, which have steadily been increasing year on year.

Guidelines

We are now working in collaboration with the EAU Guidelines Office to develop and update our guidelines with a better structure in place and support from the EAU, to ensure these are now completed within a timely timeframe. There is a plan to update the intravesical guidelines by mid-2025.

Social media

We were slow off the mark in this rapidly growing area. Taking advantage of a younger generation of board members, we now have LinkedIn, Instagram and X, as well as an increase in Facebook followers. Please join us online!

Educational Framework of Urological Nursing (EFUN)

Over the last five years, the EAUN has been collaborating with BAUN (British Association of Urological Nurses) and ANZUNS (Australian and New Zealand Urological Nurses Society) to devise an Educational Framework for urology nurses. This framework could be applicable worldwide, and I have contacted the nursing associations of 29 countries whom all want to be a part of the EFUN work. Stage two of the project will be rolled out (1st paper; Marley, Taylor, Brocksom et al, 2020) once a national agreement with the framework between the three societies/associations has been reached.

EFUN will allow the EAUN to reach (and help) countries that need this structure and support to improve urological nursing care. This demonstrates what the EAUN can offer to help standardise urological nursing care internationally.

During my time as the chair of the EAUN I have also pursued strong collaborations with BAUN and ANZUNS. A programme was recently devised between the BAUN president Ms. Sarah Hillery, the EAUN, and the President of the RSM (Royal Society of Medicine) to promote excellence in multidisciplinary working, culminating in a one-day meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine in London to showcase the work of inspirational urology nurses in the UK and how important it is to work as a multidisciplinary team.

During the same period as being the EAUN Chair, I also managed to collaborate with ANZUNS and sign a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ underpinning our future collaboration with guidelines and projects. I hope that we continue with other international collaborative opportunities like this and share practice on the EAUN platform.

Before I became EAUN chair, I undertook an MBA in Health Service Management. I encourage others to do so, as it has given me the skills to advance the EAUN and critically examine what is needed to advance urological nursing care across Europe. To further this endeavour, the Board have constructed a proposal and we have had meetings with the EAU Executive Board to outline the improvements we have already made and to be clear about the further collaborative support and resources that are needed to take the EAUN and urological care forward into the next decade.

I feel the EAUN now is in a better place to take on new challenges and deliver the long-term strategy to our members. I would like to thank our members for supporting me in my role as the Chair of the EAUN and am extremely proud to hand over the reins to Ms. Corinne Tillier who will steer the EAUN to the next level. She will be a great chair and continue this valuable work to benefit staff, carers and patients.

Ms. Paula Allchorne, MBA, Past Chair, EAUN (London, GB)