International Emergency Nursing 22 (2014) 177–178

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Emergency Nursing journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aaen

Editorial – Welcome to the Conference!

‘‘No man is an island, entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’’ (John Donne, 1624) It gives me great pleasure to present the oral and poster abstracts for the 1st Global Conference in Emergency Nursing and Trauma Care in this issue. As you can see from the abstracts the breadth and depth of emergency care is represented at the conference, to be held this month in Dublin, Ireland, and which we hope will bring together clinicians and academics in one amazing social space. In 1993, Bob Wright established this journal with the aim of sharing knowledge and spreading good practice on an international platform. In the 21 years since, we have worked hard to deliver on this vision. A conference, supported by International Emergency Nursing and Elsevier, providing a physical, not just literary, space to discuss, debate and describe our specialism seems like a natural progression. Providing an environment where motivated, enthusiastic professionals can meet will only enhance our collective understanding of emergency care, and hopefully, drive a shared vision for the future of the specialty. Building relationships and effective social interaction is the basis of great emergency care. None of us can deliver care or develop knowledge in isolation. We work within a huge emergency care community coming together to create and expand our understanding of front-line care. Observing any clinician in practice provides unending opportunities for examination of social interaction, whether in their contact with the patient, or with other practitioners in discussing treatment plans or diagnostic dilemmas. All of us work with and share information on a minute by minute basis to deliver safe patient care. We rely on community services, in-patient wards and mental health workers to provide ongoing treatment, so we build relationships that facilitate this. This interdependence is crucial to the development of our specialist knowledge and of ourselves. As new practitioners we learn from our mentors and peers – we get shown what to do, taught how things happen. As we become more knowledgeable, we might look to the literature for the evidence behind our practice, or to challenge how things are done. We might start looking outside our own departments locally, nationally or internationally to understand how things can be different, or share our own practice at conferences, through publication or through a multitude of social media interfaces. Reading the latest literature is only one way to learn the trade, and may feel far removed from the social space of conferences or

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2014.08.005 1755-599X/Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

clinical practice. But lots of social relationships are needed to get a paper to the point of publication. Any research study, or even a small audit of practice, requires interaction to create, plan and deliver. Increasingly we see large teams of authors contributing to published work which takes much coordination. Our job as publishers and editorial teams is to ensure that papers are robust and presented in a way that is relevant to the reader, so all papers have to be carefully reviewed. It is likely, subsequently, that if the paper is effective it will influence the reader to share what they have learnt or to change practice as a result – creating further interaction. Of course, not all research or innovations get published and it is a great frustration for me as editor that many of the great practices I hear about have never been published, either through lack of robust evaluation or confidence to write for publication. Presentation of a short paper or a poster at a conference can be a great way to share new innovations or the latest research findings. Sadly, not everyone can make it to a conference. Money in healthcare and in research, is tight, so it is not always possible to attend the latest meeting or a global conference. However, it is still possible to interact with this conference from the comfort of your home or department. I would encourage everyone to read through the abstracts to get some new ideas for practice. Or you could contact the authors directly about their work – they will undoubtedly be delighted to share their achievements. You never know what opportunities this might bring. In the era of social media we cannot ignore the power of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. We will be tweeting from the conference using #ENTCConf and using the journal account @IntEmergNursJnl for all the latest events – clearly we cannot be everywhere so we will be encouraging all our delegates to share experiences to the wider, virtual, emergency care audience. New friendships, research partnerships and, for me, reviewers are often established at conferences, and no doubt, this one will be no different. The conference programme is packed full of papers, posters and workshops where delegates can share, learn and interact about emergency care. The Scientific Committee, led by Mrs. Mary Dawood and Dr. Rob Crouch, have worked hard to choose papers of interest from both developed and developing countries, and from across the spectrum of emergency care settings. The programme has been built around an ethos of sharing and diversity with each break-out session having a different theme and range of international speakers. Unlike 21 years ago when the specialism of emergency nursing was very much developing, I feel, as a specialty, we are much more mature in our understanding of our role in healthcare, and the

178

Editorial / International Emergency Nursing 22 (2014) 177–178

knowledge base to deliver this. We have a strong identity with the public and the media, so this conference gives us a unique opportunity to show off our collective strength and expanding knowledge base and to share experiences of emergency care, no matter the continent it’s delivered upon. Enjoy the conference whether you are in Dublin in person, or joining us virtually.

Editor Heather McClelland @hmac231 @IntEmergNursJnl URL: http://www.globaledconference.com

Editorial - Welcome to the conference!

Editorial - Welcome to the conference! - PDF Download Free
178KB Sizes 1 Downloads 6 Views