The Nurses Committee

 

UPDATE

Welcome to the 43rd Congress of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology in Auckland, New Zealand
The Children’s Haematology and Oncology nurses from Auckland, New Zealand are very pleased to be hosting the 43nd International Society of Paediatric Oncology Congress (SIOP) in October and we would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of those who are planning to attend.

Preparation for the conference is now well underway and you can find much of the information you need on our website www.siop2011.com. If you look at the ‘Programme at a Glance’ section you will see that in addition to a great scientific programme we have 3 days of concurrent nursing papers. Detail of the papers will be available in the next few weeks once all of the abstracts have been accepted. On the website you will also start to see information about the social programme which will provide you all with some great networking opportunities. 

If you have already registered for the conference you should still keep an eye on the website, as closer to the meeting there will be lots of information available to help you gain the most out of your meeting. If you are not registered but hope to attend the meeting you should sign up on the mailing list so that you will also get all of the information and updates sent directly to you.

New Zealand is a great place to visit and whether you stay for a couple of days or several weeks we really want you to enjoy our beautiful country and great hospitality. On the website you will find some useful tourist information to help you plan your stay. Also, if there is anything the local nursing group can do to assist you with your trip then please feel free to contact us for advice.

Natalie James
NatalieJ@adhb.govt.nz

Ready for Auckland…… from the Scientific Committee

As the nursing representative on the SIOP Scientific Committee I can assure all our nursing members that we will have a great nursing programme again in Auckland! Our nursing keynote lecture will be given this year by Faith Gibson, Clinical Professor of Children and Young People’s Cancer Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital and South Bank University in London, and of course known to many as the past Chair of the SIOP Nursing Committee. Faith will be talking about the difference that the place of care makes to teenagers and young adults with cancer.

The care of Teenagers (or Adolescents) and Young Adults is one of the key themes of this SIOP conference, and one that we will be picking up on in the nursing programme. The nursing symposium this year, run in conjunction with surgical colleagues, will be looking at the whole issue of fertility and updating us on developments in the field, as well as hearing more from some of the young people having to deal with potential or actual treatment related infertility. Natalie James and her colleagues in Auckland have been doing a great job in pulling together a really interesting programme for this symposium.

We had a great range of abstracts to choose from again this year (well done to all those who submitted them!) and we have been able to build from them some really good sessions. People often ask us why we choose the topic areas we focus on each year - so let me just take this opportunity to remind you that they come from you! Apart from our keynote lecture and symposium, all the rest of our programme is built from submitted abstracts - so if you want to see us discuss a particular topic, you need to submit the abstract next year (remember SIOP is London in 2012)!

One of the other questions that has come up again this year is…why the conference is only 3 days, and what is ‘day -1’ all about! The official conference programme is only 3 days (Friday 28th to Sunday 30th), but there is also a full day of educational events, open to all delegates, on ‘Day -1’ - Thursday 27th. On offer this year is a day of Advanced Practice nursing education, hosted by the local nursing team in Auckland with their colleagues from the Australia and New Zealand Haematology and Oncology Group (see the nursing page of the conference website for more details), a State of the Art Educational meeting giving a comprehensive overview of the Multidisciplinary Management of CNS Tumours and a whole day dedicated to Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries. The day will be rounded off with the opening ceremony for the conference - which starts bright and very early the next day! So…make sure your travel plans make room for that extra educational day - as well as the opportunity for many of us to adjust to a very different time zone!

We hope to see lots of you in Auckland, and I would be delighted to receive any feedback on the conference and thoughts you might have as to how we make the nursing programme even better in years to come!

Rachel Hollis
rachel.hollis@leedsth.nhs.uk

SIOP Nurses Group Report of Activities 2008
Membership of the SIOP Nurses Group
We introduced two new members to the committee in 2007, Patti Byron from Vancouver Canada and Rachel Hollis from the UK. You will remember that Nelia Langeveld stepped down from the committee, also in 2007. There are two changes in 2008. Carola Freidank will step down from the committee after many years leading and influencing the direction and success of the group. We can now announce that Margaretha Nolbris from Norway joins us on the committee: this was the only nomination we received this year to join us on the committee following a call in Berlin and distribution of a call for nominations via email to all nurse members of SIOP.. Margaretha’ s appointment will be in time for her to join in the planning of SIOP 2009, this meeting takes place always around Easter time in the Netherlands. Carola will stay on the Advocacy Committee, as this new group is in the early stages of being established and requires consistency with membership. Rachel will take Carola’s place on the scientific committee. Faith Gibson has stepped down as chair of the group with Patti Byron taking up this position at the close of SIOP 2008, Faith will stay on the committee as past chair, and will step down from the committee following SIOP 2010. As mentioned in previous years our aim is to coordinate succession planning to ensure that new interests and new approaches continue to influence the direction of the work of nurses within SIOP.

Benefit of membership
European Journal of Oncology Nursing (EJON)
A relationship has been established with Elsevier and the European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS). Members of the SIOP Nurses Group receive a subscription to EJON at a highly preferential rate: subscription fee is now 70 Euros. Members from developing countries continue to pay a reduced fee (35 Euros) and receive a complimentary print and online subscription to EJON from Elsevier. EJON is the official journal of EONS and their journal is an outlet for high-quality papers on every aspect of (paediatric) oncology nursing. We publish a selection of abstracts from each SIOP meeting in the journal every year. In 2009 there will be a special edition on teenagers and young adults edited by Faith Gibson and Danny Kelly.
SIOP newsletter
As an associate member of SIOP you will receive currently both electronic and paper copy of the newsletter. Currently Patti Byron coordinates our submission. With the help of Yoshiko Kajiyama, Julia Challinor, Jacques Cristiano we have our contribution translated into Japanese, Spanish, and French (with sincere apologies to our Japanese colleagues as we received the translation in Japanese but for a technical error it did not make it to the July 08 newsletter). We continue to encourage our medical colleagues and other members of SIOP to tear out these middle sections of the newsletter to give to non-nurse members in their units. We are endeavouring for our news to reach as many nurses as possible, and hope to increase our nurse membership.

Council/Advocacy committee
Since the beginning of this year one nurse will be, together with 6 Continental presidents, part of the SIOP Advocacy Committee. Some topics for the function of this committee will be

• To help care givers develop and identify resources necessary to build adequate infrastructure for local delivery of cancer care.
• To build up a network with national SIOP nurses groups and to include them in national pediatric oncology meetings

SIOP/EONS ECCO project
A research project was developed by SIOP Europe, SIOP Nurses Group and EONS to improve the integration/collaboration at the cultural, technical, and professional and research level between doctors and nurses in the European paediatric oncology units. To run this project a grant was received from ECCO (European CanCer Care Organisation). The overall aims of this two year research and educational programme to help nurses and doctors work more collaboratively are: 1) to describe and measure the level of integration between doctors and nurses in several areas of care: planning, organisation, monitoring and evaluation of activities; 2) to improve the integration in specific areas of care: planning, organisation, management and evaluation of clinical care; and 3) to encourage the exchange and enrichment of theoretical and technical knowledge between professionals (doctors and nurses) belonging to the same working environment. This project began in 2007.

The Course coordinators are: Alison Arnfield (UK), Prof. Paola Di Giulio (Italy), Dr. Faith Gibson (UK), Dr. Momcilo Jankovic (Italy), Dr Martin English (UK).
Fifteen pairs of doctors and nurses began this project and we continue to work with 11 pairs. We have held 3 seminars, the first in Milan, second Amsterdam and the third in Prague. All participants have worked hard in the face of many challenges, such as work pressures etc. to continue to move their projects forward. Our initial plan was for work to be completed at the end of 2008, but we are seeking further funding through ECCO for a final year to allow participants to put their projects into practice and to sustain ongoing work: always the difficult part of any project. There are a range of projects underway some were presented at SIOP in Berlin, with many focusing on communication methods, between team members and with the families in our care. For reports from this project please see the SIOP Europe and EONS newsletters.

Communication with members and paediatric oncology nurses around the world
We have produced an information leaflet for new nurse members. You will have seen this if you were in Berlin, but for those not present at the meeting, we will distribute a copy with the annual report. For those wanting to become a member please contact the SIOP secretariat at www.siop.nl.

Education initiatives
Education remains on our agenda. Initiated in Amsterdam in 2000, the Educational Programme for Nurses is specifically aimed at nurses working in countries not supported by paediatric oncology education. The event is organized by the SIOP Nurses Group in collaboration with the SIOP Local Nurses Committee of the country who is hosting the meeting. In 2008 this course was offered for nurses from Russia with the main topic “Palliative Care”. In this country the role of the nurses seems to be very different to Western countries, so this meeting was an excellent opportunity to share views and approaches to care.

Dr Faith Gibson
Past Chair of SIOP Nurses Group
Written on behalf of the group

MEMBERS

Mrs. Patti Byron (Chair)
B.C. Children's Hospital
4480 Oak St. Room 3B50
VANCOUVER BC V6H 3V4
Canada
pbyron@cw.bc.ca
Tel : +1 604 8752345 ext. 7624
Fax : +1 604 8752012

Ms. R. Hollis
St. James’ Univ. Hospital
Ward 10
Beckett Street
LEEDS LS9 7TF
United Kingdom
Rachel.hollis@leedsth.nhs.uk
Tel: +44 113 2065412
Fax: +44  113 2066206

Ms. Margaretha Nolbris
Barnsjuksköterska, fil dr.
Sahlgrenska Akademin vid Göteborgs Universitet
Institutionen för vårdvetenskap och hälsa
Arvid Wallgrens Backe 1
405 30 GÖTEBORG
Sweden
margaretha.nolbris@fhs.gu.se
Tel: +46 31 786 60 79

Ms. Christina Bagott
Assistant Professor
UCSF School of Nursing 
Physiological Nursing 
2 Koret Way, Nursing
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94143
USA
christina.baggott@ucsf.edu
Tel: +1 415 476 43 20 
Fax: +1 415 476 88 99