Articulations: a letter from the Chair
Published: 18 March 2013
Welcome to the first Bare Bones of 2013.
Our 25th RCN Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing (SOTN) conference and exhibition last September in Manchester was a great success and the evaluations were very positive. Details of our 2013 conference in Glasgow this September can be found on the conference webpage.
I was also lucky enough to attend the third Association of Maltese Orthopaedic Nurses conference in Malta last October – needless to say it was much warmer and sunnier than Manchester. There was a very diverse programme, with presentations from all over the world, and it was good to see SOTN represented both by delegates and by presenters.
The SOTN committee is working on several projects this year.
Peripheral neurovascular observations project
Our peripheral neurovascular observations project has begun. It is a two-year piece of work which will examine the evidence base for the prevention and detection of acute compartment syndrome.
We plan to develop guidelines for reducing the risk of it, as well as a peripheral neurovascular observations chart (similar to the early warning score charts you are probably familiar with for cardiovascular observations).
Traction manual
We are also putting a bid together to revise the 2002 SOTN Traction Manual to bring it up to date. As part of this we will be giving all of you the opportunity to have your say in what the manual should include, with a short survey of all SOTN members planned. Please take the time to complete and return it when you receive it, so that we can develop a manual which is useful to you in your work. We plan to submit the bid in May and if successful the project would start in the second half of the year. More details will follow in future editions of Bare Bones and at our September conference.
Competences in practice
The completion and publication last year of our Competence Framework for Orthopaedic and Trauma Practitioners was only the first step. We need to ensure that they are used in practice and that they influence standards in the NHS, private sector and in the teaching of orthopaedic and trauma nursing. We will be working in 2013 on a plan of how to spread the use of the competences in these areas. This edition provides some examples of how the competences can be used – please let us know how you are using them.
Strategic planning
The SOTN committee has its annual strategy day at the end of March, when it considers work priorities for 2013-2014. Some of these areas come from the RCN’s priorities and existing projects described above. Others come from the committee’s experiences in practice and education. If you have any suggestions you would like us to discuss please let me know by email at blucas@hotmail.co.uk.
Congress 2013
This year’s RCN Congress is taking place in Liverpool from 21-25 April and SOTN has successfully applied to run a seminar with the Cheshire East branch. Julie Santy-Tomlinson and Jean Rogers will be presenting on improving dementia care in the general hospital setting on Monday lunchtime (12.45-13.45) – don’t miss it if you are attending Congress.
New beginnings
2013 is a year of great change in the NHS, with the introduction of clinical commissioning groups and national bodies such as the NHS Commissioning Board. It is important that the RCN and SOTN have influence in decisions about the care of people with musculoskeletal conditions or following trauma. For this reason SOTN has joined the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA). This umbrella organisation has over 40 patient and professional group members, including the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) and the RCN Rheumatology Forum, and is a collective voice for the arthritis and musculoskeletal community in the UK. We are also developing closer links with the BOA through their involvement in our acute compartment syndrome/peripheral neurovascular observations project.
Internationally we continue to be actively involved in the International Collaboration of Orthopaedic Nurses (ICON) which is currently looking at our competences and determining whether they can be the basis for international competences for practice.
It looks like 2013 is going to be a busy year for orthopaedic and trauma nurses and for SOTN. Please do get involved in our work - either through your local group if you have one (or set one up if you don’t!) - or nationally through submitting an abstract for our conference in September. Later in the year we will be recruiting to the SOTN committee. Look out for the call for interested members.
In the meantime don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas about developing SOTN or other issues you wish to discuss.