Review of the UKONS Annual Conference 2010

Manchester – 14 to 17 October 2010

Catching the red-eye flight from Edinburgh on the Thursday morning, I looked forward to attending my first UKONS conference. It had been described as a 2-day conference shared with the British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) featuring a wide range of innovative, stimulating and topical plenary sessions, presentations, poster displays and other activities. Wow, this will be good! And it didnt disappoint. I was very impressed with the calibre and quality of speakers. Dame Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer for England opened the conference and spoke about demonstrating quality in cancer nursing. She told us that the CNS plays an important role in any successful implementation of initiatives to improve services and have a vital role in delivering high quality patient care. Excellence in Cancer Care: The Contribution of the Clinical Nurse Specialist was highlighted both by her and Alison Richardson and its release was timely coinciding with the conference. She finished, inspiring us with a quote from David Cameron, Dont hold back – be innovative, be radical, challenge the way things are done. Exactly what a CNS does!

Nora Kearney followed this up with looking at technology and cancer nursing and how technology can affect health care and outcomes. A big session next supported by industry on nausea and vomiting and how we still arent treating nausea effectively. The breakout sessions had a wide range of speakers, from the NHS and the private sector and from all over the UK. These sessions were made up of four plenary sessions from experts from the following fields:

• Early detection and awareness
• Transforming patient care
• Developments in chemotherapy
• Supporting cancer patients

I attended supporting cancer patients and really enjoyed Kate Lennons talk on facilitating a national discussion around death, dying and bereavement. Alison Richardson spoke about improving outcomes and the need to look at nurse-sensitive indicators to show the value of the CNS. Lynn Faulds Wood completed the first day with her experiences of bowel cancer and how that stimulated her to lobby and try to improve services for patients with cancer.

Thursday night included the black tie dinner which was great fun and very lively!

An early start on the second day, at 08.30 with the Forums. I attended the Living with and Beyond Cancer Forum. Natalie Doyle chaired this informal session which has its roots in the Cancer Reform Strategy and Better Cancer Care emphasising the need to provide continuing care and support for anyone living with and beyond cancer. This day was every bit as successful as the first with David Kerr newly appointed advisor to the government talking about the NHS becoming more outcome-orientated. A session on leadership and motivation followed with two more industry sponsored sessions. The afternoon was made up of break out sessions relating to political, personal, and professional development as well as clinical updates. All in all, a great conference! My only negative thought was the venue was too big for the number of delegates making it always seem empty and thereby sometimes lacking atmosphere.

Diana Borthwick (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))