BARNA co-hosted this inaugural global conference with our American, Canadian and Irish peri-anaesthesia nursing colleagues. Here's how it all began…
Back in 2008, during the course of the British Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association (BARNA) conference, a discussion took place in a London pub between American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ASPAN) and BARNA leaders about the possibility of hosting a collaborative international conference that could include participation from other associations that had been in regular contact. Sue Fossum (Past President of ASPAN) took the lead in contacting the president's of the National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, Canada and the Chairperson of the Irish Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association to ask if those groups would be interested in creating an International Conference for PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ICPAN). The response was an enthusiastic ‘YES!’. The first meeting was held at the April 2009 ASPAN National Conference in Washington, DC, and exploratory planning began.
The organising committee, comprised volunteers from the four associations, arranged to meet by teleconference and email. Detailed conference planning began in September 2010. Consensus was arrived at to hold the first conference in Canada, in its largest city located in the Province of Ontario. Toronto, with a population of 8 million, has a busy international airport and many exciting tourism and entertainment options. Toronto proved to be a fine choice, drawing almost 500 delegates.
Programme planning took up a great deal of time. Of course, the organisers wanted to include as wide a representation from our global nursing colleagues as possible; therefore, a goal was set to open up the programme to many different areas of clinical practice, including management and education. Presenters discussed not only the differences in practice but, perhaps more importantly, the common problems and challenges we share as post-anaesthetic care nursing professionals. Requests for speaker abstracts and poster presentations were sent out approximately one year prior to conference. For such a new venture, the response was excellent and allowed the committee to put on a two-track conference that was spread over two and a half days.
Understandably, the greatest response for both delegates and speakers came from North America. However, the programme featured speakers and delegates from many nations including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Denmark, Philippines, Australia, Qatar, New Zealand and Finland. Each morning, opening remarks and keynote speeches showcased representatives from the four host nations, providing a welcome feeling to the conference.
Uniting the Peri-anaesthesia Nursing World
The conference Opening Ceremony was impressive and among the most moving that many have ever attended. From the conceptual idea born in that London pub in 2008, through the rigorous planning phase filled with uncertainty about who would come, to finally be standing before such a massive audience was indeed a moment of which to be proud. It would be difficult to capture in this article the pride and optimism of all those delegates as we together realised a dream of meeting and sharing experiences as international pre- and post-anaesthetic care nursing colleagues.
For us, as BARNA Committee members and 2011 ICPAN organisers, the true reward for our volunteer efforts was to see so many nurses from so many countries across the globe sharing the same insight and goal: to make our patients’ journeys through the anaesthetic care continuum as safe as possible while surrounded by evidence-based knowledge and large-scale professionalism. Our hopeful shared dream had become a reality in Toronto!
British Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association President Pat Smedley carries the Union Jack into Opening Ceremonies.
International Organising Committee members at the Opening Ceremonies.
Local conference organiser and National Association of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, Canada President Paula Ferguson together with a Canadian Royal Mounted Policeman greeted delegates during the Opening Ceremony.
A Delegate Reception and Exhibits Grand Opening kicked off conference week activities.
Global delegates were presented with a small flag of his/her country during the Opening Ceremonies.
The Inaugural Programme
ICPAN 2011 featured an impressive education session schedule. Topics were varied and ranged from management issues and applied anatomy and physiology, to clinical and research presentations. The conference boasted a wide range of subjects throughout the days. Here is just a glimpse into one day's programming:
• Opening Keynote by Dr. Frances Chung (Canada) ‘pushing the boundary of ambulatory surgery and anaesthesia – safe care and discharge’.
• Owen Ashwell (New Zealand) ‘clinical events and indicators occurring in the Post Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU) – a New Zealand perspective’.
• Ruth Crampton (Australia) ‘educational mosaic: an Australian example’.
• Wanda Rodriquez (USA) ‘the challenges of managing rare PACU complications’.
• Martha Stratton (USA) ‘from manufacturing to healthcare: utilising lean principles in a surgery assessment centre’.
• Pamela Windle (USA) ‘from orientation to competency training: customising clinical applications and documentation’.
• Evangelos Konstantinou (Greece) ‘central vascular catheterisation by university degree nurses in Greece: training plans and current nursing situation’.
• Debi Witham (New Zealand) ‘improving the preoperative journey through innovation – preadmission in the new world’.
• Linda Lakdawala (USA) ‘do not ignore the score: an obstructive sleep apnoea screening protocol’.
• Jocelyn Reimer-Kent (Canada) ‘moving the liberalised preoperative and thirsting agenda forward’.
• Stuart Roberts (UK) ‘excessive self-imposed fasting regimes – a clinical audit’.
It would truly be difficult to single out one presentation as superior as all were not only of a high quality, but delivered with passion for the topic under review. Fionuala O'Gorman's (Ireland) keynote speech was indeed moving as she shared with us how her hospital has instigated a national policy of managing a patient's death with humanity and dignity (http://www.hospicefriendlyhospitals.net/index.php). As a topic that is rarely addressed yet a fundamental fact of life, Fionuala stimulated quite a buzz among delegates even after her talk had concluded. Jan Odom-Forren's (USA) ‘Across the C's – Changes, Challenges, Choices’ speech was loaded with humour and streaming videos. It is amazing how such a motivational talk like this actually makes one look at life from an entirely different perspective. Pat Smedley (UK) closed the conference by sharing a typical day in the life of a Nightingale trainee nurse in 1878. This lecture is certainly one of the most entertaining and realistic analogies of a nurse's life in the later part of the 19th century one will ever hear as Pat brings the experience to life in the most wonderful way. Life was truly hard back then … and we may possibly have lost some of those original nursing values over time. In fact, the phase ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ was a favourite of that time. One thing is for sure, many delegates will never look at a leech in the same light again … ugh!
New Zealand's Owen Ashwell travelled a great distance to present his excellent lecture.
Global Practice Panel presenters hailed from the United States of America, Canada, Greece, United Kingdom and Ireland.
Theofanis Fotis (Greece) vividly described the experience of trying to maintain clinical standards in a climate of social unrest and financial meltdown. To capture the essence of diversity and similarity of practice, a Panel Discussion featured representatives from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Greece and the United States of America. Each gave an overview of how the preoperative and recovery/PACU areas worked in his/her country and the questions were taken from the floor. Unfortunately, despite best laid plans, little time remained following the presentations, and the session stimulated much conversation over coffee and lunch with the delegates revealing that our practices generally suffer from many of the same issues across the globe: lack of beds, Intensive Therapy Unit overflow, low morale and nurse fatigue topping the list. However, the message came through loud and clear; we are in this nursing speciality because we love it and appreciate the needs of our patients. Thus, it is important that we advocate for the high standards of knowledge underpinning clinical excellence in our practice.
Nursing Science and Practice
A call for posters yielded over 50 posters under three categories: Innovative Practice, Research and Evidence-based Practice. Innovative Practice proved by far the most popular category. Delegates spent a great deal of time reviewing and discussing the posters while meeting nurses from other countries. The poster displays were a resounding success and far outweighed the organisers’ expectations. It was most inspiring to see how much work had gone on in the clinical setting in order to deliver a display of this high calibre. The posters were excellent and, in many cases, challenging practice – always a beneficial and practical thing. Congratulations go to all of the 2011 ICPAN poster presenters.
Many lively delegate conversations took place around many poster presentation displays.
Lois Oswald (left) and Joy Pfeffer from Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital (USA) accepted the ICPAN 2011 First Place Innovative Practice Poster Award for a poster entitled Peri-operative Diabetes Medication Management Guidelines.
The Toronto Experience
ICPAN 2011 was held in Toronto's centre city. It was quite easy to get about and walk the modern city streets, dominated by skyscrapers and cracked paving stones due to the always freezing winter weather experienced.
Toronto is undergoing new growth and development in its city centre.
British Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association Treasurer Markku Viherlaiho working at its International Conference for PeriAnesthesia Nurses Conference Store booth.
Toronto General Hospital.
During the conference, trips were laid on to go and visit a PACU in Toronto General Hospital. The staff certainly took its time to show us around, and the pre-assessment unit was truly impressive. On the free day some delegates visited Casa Loma, Canada's foremost castle, and a beautiful and impressive place, situated to the north of the city. Indeed there was not a lot of time to get away while working as conference organising members, but we did manage to visit some museums and grand houses on the last day. Unfortunately, the security staff at Toronto airport decided that this would be a perfect day to go on strike, so Casa Loma had to be cut short and we headed back to the hotel to gather our luggage. On our way back to the hotel in a taxi, we had a rather exciting incident when pulled over by a rather handsome (although non-humored) Toronto policeman. Our nurse's compassion came flooding out for the poor taxi driver who, seemingly, had done no wrong! We were held up for about 20 min and our taxi man left with a $200 fine and 6 points on his license. We finally proceeded on to a very long security line at the airport.
Niagara Falls, a beautiful and spectacular place, also had a visit from us. Looking beyond the sea-side type town, with its casinos and gift shops, the view of the Falls was absolutely amazing. This was an experience worth every moment and it will be remembered forever. A visit to the beautiful little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, followed by a wine tasting of the loveliest ice wine made by students at Toronto University's vintner program, rounded off the day to a satisfying end. One interesting fact learned was that in the whole province of Ontario, fruits can only grow in the area around the Falls due to this local climate. As a consequence, the preserves and grapes yielded from the local vines are very nice indeed.
In Closing
So what did this conference teach us? We who first conceived the idea of such a gathering believe it proved that across the world there is far more common experience in pre- and post-anaesthetic nursing than is there divergence in practice. The passion for peri-anaesthetic care nursing was certainly something we all shared and this was evident right from the Opening Ceremonies. We collectively felt that this was the start of a collaboration that was exciting, bigger than us as individuals and in terms of one's nationality, and that nurses are stronger speaking together from a global perspective – and with one voice
Our thanks go to Sue Fossum (USA) for taking the lead and a leap into the unknown, and then directing a completely successful inaugural conference venture.
Callout box
What of the future? Watch this space and visit www.icpan.info for more news about the next conference to be held in Dublin during September 19–22 2013, and the ongoing work towards development of an international confederation/consortium for peri-anaesthesia nurses.
