When we all help one another, everybody wins
Urology nurses need the help and support of all urologists and urological departments
Dear Surgeons and EAU members,
Dear Surgeons and EAU members, I’m taking this opportunity to introduce myself as the new chair of the European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN) and I’m asking for your help. The EAUN’s main role is to standardise the quality of urological nursing care across Europe. This was a similar reason the EAU was originally formed, as a platform for urologists to standardise practice in urological surgery. For modern urological care to be improved, nurses need to be involved. But whilst most Urology departments have a number of EAU members, only a minority support their nurses to join the EAUN. This is a serious barrier to the development of true holistic care in urology and something every EAU member can change by encouraging or ideally funding at least one nurse from their department to join the EAUN. EAUN membership offers opportunities that can benefit both the individual nurse and their Urology department: Fellowship Programme Nurses looking to develop their practice or learn from service improvements in other countries may benefit from partaking in this programme. It provides an opportunity to visit a host institution to observe nursing care in another country. Eligibility and details of how to apply can be found in the Education section of the EAUN website.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
For nurses with a special knowledge about specific urological issues to exchange experiences and investigate urological nursing issues related to their topic group. The SIGs help develop guidelines, deliver state-of-the-art sessions at conference, run ESUN (European School of Urology Nursing) courses and webinars.
Guidelines
The opportunity to join guideline panels. Building on the success of the previous guidelines which are used all over the world to standardised care.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
Annual meeting
Attend a 3-day nursing meeting and share papers on Research or Improvement. The nurses also have access to the EAU Congress. Allowing nurses to increase their knowledge and share this knowledge within their team.
Education
EAUN run webinars, e-courses & urological updates, recent ones include: bladder cancer care, catheter care, effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), the role of exercise in prostate cancer patient care and shared decision-making in prostate cancer care. We also run ESUN courses (European School of Urology Nursing) – where 25 nurses across the world attended with the aim to return to their departments, share the knowledge and improve patient care.
EFUN (Educational Framework for Urological Nursing)
EAUN, BAUN and ANZUNS are developing an Educational framework for urological nursing. This collaboration across the world aims to standardise and improve nursing skills within the profession, develop urology care and the provision of research-based practice.
These initiatives will only work with the help of urologists and every urological department, supporting their nurses. We have some excellent Urology departments in Europe that are already doing outstanding work, leading the way in holistic multidisciplinary patient centred care. But this needs to be shared so that it quickly becomes the standard of care throughout Europe.
Please encourage your nurses to join the EAUN, membership is 35 euros per year. There is also the option of group membership via national nurses societies. For further information on membership please contact Hanneke Lurvink via eaun@uroweb.org. The EAUN website can be found at www.eaun.org
Paula Allchorne, RN, Executive MBA – Health Service Management, Chair EAUN, London (GB), p.allchorne@eaun.org