High-level congress of the Association of Urological Nurses

Bente and I were invited to Istanbul for the fourth congress of the Turkish Urological Nurses Association to represent the EAUN and European urology nursing.This four-day conference started with two courses: one on the current practice of laparoscopic and robotic nursing in urology, and one on voiding dysfunction in children.

The actual congress started on Sunday, 31 October. Themes of this day were education and communication in urology nursing, with an EAUN vision on the European education in urology nursing as well as on evidence-based urology nursing. The afternoon covered urinary stone disease, and the prevention of urinary infection.

Monday started with operating room security, and developments in the care for the urological cancer patient. The afternoon covered the topic of male and female incontinence, conservative treatments, and I personally covered the contribution of the ICS to continence nursing in Europe. The day was concluded with the presentation of 12 abstracts on urology nursing topics.

On Tuesday we had to go home, so we couldn’t participate in the last day of the conference which covered the nursing application in prostate cancer, the management of urology problems in neurological patients and OR nursing in urology. This day was scheduled to end with 11 poster presentations.

The sessions we participated in (the Turkish association kindly provided simultaneous translation) were graded (by Bente and me) as being of a high standard, well-documented and referenced; and what was most interesting to us was the interaction and participation in the discussion by the audience. The Turkish urology nurses are very eager to learn, ask to-the-point questions, but most of all are already working on a high level.

We would like to congratulate the Turkish Urology Nurses Association with the organisation of this congress, to thank them for inviting us, and above all, we would like to encourage them to continue the way they are doing now. We also would like to thank the Turkish Urology Association for their support of the nurses.

Ronny Pieters, RNChair Educational GroupGhent (BE)

ronny.pieters@rug.ac.be

Article from European Urology Today, volume 23, No. 1