By Kelly Banz - Notre Dame University

For its tenth anniversary, the Nurse Consultants Planning Group got back to basics: Safety. While there were presentations on the latest in telehealth, and, very interestingly, acute coronary syndrome treatment algorithms, the emphasis was on how do our systems cope with our first obligation, Do No Harm? Reports from projects around the State and country attempted to answer this fundamental question over the course of two days in a very chilly but lovely Orange, NSW August weekend.

The winning oral presentation, by NP Ron Wilson, was on improving the structure and function of handover. Camden trialed performing handovers not at the station but at the bedside, which: improved patient satisfaction with the effectiveness and transparency of their care, improved the understanding and participation of junior staff, decreased, rather than increased, the amount of time spent in handover because of a reduction in socializing, and had no negative impact on confidentiality.

The keynote address on day 1, from Prof Cliff Hughes the CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission, was a highlight. He drew some interesting parallels between health care-- especially the “5 Moments” campaign from Hand Hygiene Australia—and the powerful Malcolm Gladwell book, The Tipping Point, showing how excellence in seemingly small areas had a huge impact.

The social side to the conference was also very fun. The theme was Christmas in August and the exhibition area, which held the usual suspects for vendors—Laerdal, Metalyse (Boehringer Ingelheim), etc—certainly got into the mood with their Yuletide displays of the latest intensive care and point of care testing equipment. The conference dinner was very good, and I deleted all evidence of participation in the conga line.

BSP kindly supported a dinner the night of everyone’s arrival at a local restaurant in a historic building, and that allowed us to all get to know each other before the conference proper.

“The fact that the conference was largely from a nursing perspective could at first seem to lower its relevance for medical students struggling to master their own profession, much less the advanced discussions of another. But exposure to the work done by other health professionals can only enrich our training, I believe. 

Sometimes the impact of a conference is seen first in the little things—for instance, hearing first at this conference that out of all the vital signs, respiratory rate was the most important sign for clinical deterioration, and yet the most badly measured by nursing staff.

Our clinical teachers have emphasized that an experienced charge nurse knows better than an intern how to identify the deteriorating patient, so I took note of this assertion—and in an anaesthetics lecture the next week, was told the same thing about respiratory rate. Yet if someone had asked me during the conference if I “learned” anything clinical, I probably would have said I hadn’t. So if you attend a conference that appears to be outside your area—give it a shot; you will hear clinical pearls as well as see the world from the point of view from another profession.”