Letter from the chair - new guidance published
Published: 21 September 2012
Catheter care discussion and publication
I was very pleased to be able to launch RCN guidance document Catheter care at Congress this May in Harrogate. My thanks to forum committee member Tony Brooks, who was able to find time to come up north and join me.
Despite the threat that numbers would be diminished because of a last-minute meeting organised in the main hall for the same time, more than 50 people came along. There was plenty of interest from people working across all sectors of the NHS, care homes and the private sector as well as much discussion about all aspects of catheter management.
It reinforced for me the very real need for all of us to get the message out there:
- don’t insert a catheter unless you really have to
- plan for removal or continually question if it is still needed
- look after it properly.
One launch down, one to go... lower
The management of lower bowel dysfunction, including DRE and DRF guidelines is in the final stages of preparation for publication, as I write this at the end of August. We expect the final formatted version to sign off shortly, and then it will be available to download and print off via the publications section of RCN website.
I really am indebted to all those contributors who have given their time and expertise to update both of these valued documents (details of whom are within each document) – thank you all.
Conference nearly ready
Plans are nearly finalised for our forum conference at the ICC in Birmingham 15–16 November, with the focus very much on the need to use research to influence our practice. I hope as many of you as possible can make it. Read more about the conference on the main RCN Events web page.