The Nurses Committee

UPDATE

SIOP Congress Berlin
Thank you to all of you who participated in this year’s congress in Berlin. At this congress we had 216 nurses registered from 34 different countries. Although we see consistent attendance at the meeting from some countries, every year we are excited to see the increased range of countries participating. There were many highlights at this year’s meeting, too many to list in detail, but we would like to mention our engaging key note address by Pam Hinds from the USA, titled: Trying to be a good parent from my dying child. We would also like to mention the winners of the poster prize, this year won by our colleagues from Spain Paola Hernandez, Lara Sanchez, Estefania Rodriguez, Blanca Lopez-Ibor. In addition, we had 6 free paper sessions, two joint sessions with our physicians, one with parents, and our ever popular round table discussions. On behalf of the Nurses group we would like to thank all speakers, chairpersons and participants who contributed to the success of this nurses meeting. Especially a big thank you to Kerstin Hürst, Karin Semmler and Carola Freidank and their colleagues on the local organising committee, we certainly enjoyed working with you this last year.

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. Carola Freidank
Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
PflegeTumorkrankerPatienten
Carl Neubergstr. 1
HANNOVER 30625
Germany
freidank.carola@mh-hannover.de
Tel: +49 511-532 5354
Fax: +49 511-532 4997

Dr. Faith Gibson
Directorate of Nursing
Great Ormond Street Hospital
For Children, Nhs Trust
Great Ormond Street
LONDON WC 1N 3JH
United Kingdom
gibsof@gosh.nhs
Tel: + 44 207 8138543 
Fax: +44 44 829 8602