Emergency care matters: making your voice heard in emergency care
Published: 18 May 2009
Over 240 professionals representing all aspects of emergency care provision attended the ECA Annual Conference in Daresbury on 14 and 15 November 2008. For the first time, the conference brought together the ECA with the RCN Minor Injuries Group, RCN Paediatric Emergency Care Group and the British Paramedic Association, to offer an exciting and diverse programme. Heather Jarman, ECA steering committee member and conference lead for 2008, reports.
Featuring keynote speakers Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb and motivational speaker Alf Dunbar, as well as Nursing Standard 'Nurse of the Year' award winner Cheryl Chainey, the Conference had several other invigorating discussions and talks, including those from Judith McLeod and Steve Brodie, who spoke about post-incident analysis in the Armed Forces, and Alex Water, who spoke on the changing role of the ambulance service. There were also a number of first-time presenters who braved their nerves to deliver informative and stimulating sessions, all offering excellent opportunities to take things back to other departments to improve patient care and nursing practice.
Delegates were offered a wide range of concurrent sessions presented in a number of 'streams' covering leadership, education, clinical practice, research and innovation, paediatrics and minor injuries. As part of a new session, the steering committee, along with newly appointed RCN Acute Care Adviser Alan Dobson, took part in a Q&A session with delegates to discuss issues raised directly by those in attendance, which enabled some good dialogue. A similar Q&A is being planned for next year's conference.
The committee would like to continue to hear your views on the conference and other issues, so please participate in the Emergency Care Discussion Zone available on the RCN website.
We look forward to welcoming you to the 2009 conference and hope you will celebrate and share your hard work by submitting an abstract (see the event's page for details).
Best wishes for the forthcoming year.
Conference 2009: date for your diary
The success of the conference and steadily increasing demand for places means the Daresbury venue, while excellent, no longer has sufficient capacity. With this in mind, the committee has made the decision to relocate to a larger venue in 2009, while still keeping the cost of the delegate fee down. This year the conference will be held in Harrogate at the Majestic Hotel. The date is slightly earlier: 16-17 October 2009. See the event's page for details.
We look forward to see you all there.