Online Community of the Ophthalmic Nursing Forum
Welcome to the RCN Ophthalmic Nursing Forum from the Chair - Mary Shaw
Dear Ophthalmic member
Welcome to my January newsletter.
I hope it is not too late to wish you all a Happy New Year, certainly not for our Chinese members.
We are all of us working in what are very difficult times so it is good to get some good news. It has been announced that The Department of Health has adopted preventable sight loss as part of its Public Health Outcomes Framework, improving outcomes and supporting transparency, which is part 2 of the summary technical specifications of public health indicators. This has been the result of the efforts of this Forum Steering Committee representation on Vision 2020 strategy meetings. Yvonne Needham, in particular was our representative on the public health group.
Other members of the steering committee represent you on other committees and details of these will be incorporated into future newsletters.
With regards to this years RCN congress, we had our matter for discussion (about our concerns for the future of specialist education for nurses, including ophthalmic nursing) rejected by the Agenda Committee but were advised that it had reached the ‘long list’ stage. A disappointment, but as we will have strong representation each day at congress we hope to integrate or thoughts into our inputs into other agenda items.
The committee are preparing for this years conference so keep an eye out for the announcement of the date, venue and call for papers.
The NOVARTIS award will be run slightly differently this year because of changes in the RCN and RCN Foundation. As soon as we have specific detail of the bursaries, we will let you know how you can apply.
We hope to get details of the competency framework shortly and as soon as we do, we will let you know. I am aware that those who put a lot of hard work into revising our ophthalmic competencies are keen to see the fruits of their labours.
We would like to hear from you and what you are up to in the ophthalmic world, so do contact us and let us know what you are doing!
Best wishes
Mary
Mary E Shaw
Chair of the Ophthalmic Nursing Forum
- Forum member co-chair of RCO Allied Professions Day
- RCN forum member involved in inugural allied professional day at the annual BOPSS meeting
- House of Commons event raises awareness of prevalence of sight problems among people with learning disabilities
- Inclusion of an eye indicator in the public health outcomes framework
- New genetic test for patients with inherited eye conditions