Highlights for nurses at ECE from the Chair of the ESE Nurses’ Working Group

In this interview Sofia Llahana, Consultant Nurse in Endocrinology at University College London Hospitals and Chair of the ESE Nurses’ Working Group, talks about the upcoming highlights and opportunities for Endocrine Nurses at ECE 2017.

                       Nurses’ enjoy a guided tour of the posters at ECE 2016

• What is the ESE Nurses Network?

Several enthusiastic and dynamic Endocrine Nurses from across Europe and the USA took the initiative of organising a networking meeting for nurses during the European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE) in 2011 in Rotterdam. This led to a great interest from the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) to support the development of endocrine nursing across Europe. Professor Pia Burman, the Chair of the ESE Clinical Committee at the time, invited the creation of the ESE Nurses Working Group in 2013, aiming to lead on nursing activities and create a European Nurses Network.

The mission of the ESE Nurses Network is to provide endocrine nurses with support and resources to advance their role and practice, and a common ground to share expertise and learn from each other. This Network provides a forum for exchange and discussion of ideas related to patient care, nursing research and advancement of endocrine nursing role across Europe and internationally.

ESE is very supportive of our mission and recognises the funding constraints that many nurses currently face, so offers reduced ESE membership and ECE registration fees for Endocrine Nurses

• What opportunities does ECE offer to nurses?

Each year the ECE includes a dedicated programme for Endocrine Nurses. Our symposia focus on multidisciplinary working and involve speakers from different disciplines, as well as patients. We work very closely with the national endocrine nurses’ networks where ECE is hosted and attract many local delegates. The Nurse Programme at ECE 2016 in Munich was simultaneously translated in German, which German nurse colleagues found exceptionally useful. We also organised half-day pre-congress nurse courses and were able to support delegates with travel grants. The talks from the acromegaly pre-congress course in 2015 are available on the ESE YouTube Channel and offer a valuable educational resource for clinicians and patients.

Similarly, we aim to promote nursing practice  and research by having a dedicated session for  nursing poster presentations, where authors can discuss their work with colleagues and inspire  more nurses to present their work and get  involved with research activities. Nurses can  access resources on poster preparation from the  ESE website. The Best Nursing Poster Award  gives the winner the opportunity to present their work at the next year’s ECE meeting.

• What are you particularly looking forward to at ECE 2017?

ECE 2017 includes another exciting educational programme for nurses which includes 3 dedicated sessions taking place on Sunday 21 May and Monday 22 May. The Meet the Nurse Expert sessions will run in parallel to the ECE Meet the Expert sessions. This year we are honoured to have a large faculty of Endocrine Nurse speakers and are also having a session dedicated to diabetes and endocrinology overlap. We hope to expand this to a full day ECE pre-congress Nurse Course in 2018.

The multidisciplinary session will bring the latest developments in bone health throughout lifespan. The Professional Development session will focus on expanding the nursing role and expertise in adrenal insufficiency (AI) with the ultimate objective of developing a European position statement on the role of the Endocrine Nurse in AI. There will be ample opportunities for networking over lunch and poster presentations.

• What do you think were the main highlights of ECE 2016?

The pre-congress Nurse Course on Pituitary Secretory Tumours was a great success and well attended; the presentations from this course are featured in the ECE 2016 Pituitary Update. ECE is not only for networking and sharing expertise but also the place where long-lasting friendships are being formed. 

                Endocrine Nurses celebrating ECE 2016 at the Congress Informal Networking Evening