Athens 2006 - General report/synopsis

In the middle of April the 16th meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Urology Nurse Group, ESPUN, was taken place in Athens, Greece. Paediatric nurses and paediatric urotherapists met in Athens to share their experiences and knowledge.

The Congress was held at The Athens Hilton, located close to the city centre and faces the Acropolis, the symbol of Athens. The monuments, the history and myths that connected with it are the pride and glory of the city. There were delegates from 45 Nations at the congress.

The philosophy and aims of the ESPUN are to share knowledge and experiences between nurses and other paramedical staff in paediatric urology and continence, increase the quality of caring for children suffering from these problems as well as support nurses and urotherapists in their professions and research. The nurse group has now 79 members. The President of the group Ulla-Britt Jansson from Sweden performed sterling work in the organization of this year’s nurses’ congress and all her and the other board members work was reflected in the quality of, efficient running and consistent high standards of the days.

English is the official language of the ESPUN but not the first language of all members. All nurses were therefore invited to attend a language course, sponsored by Astra Tech and ESPU, The course had 25 participants and the tutor was Miss Fontini Androulakaki. The course gave the nurses opportunity to get to know each other and to have fruitful discussions. After the course, the ESPUN board invited all the nurse delegates for a “Get together”.

The objectives of the ESPUN are also to develop and maintain an international networking group in paediatric urology nursing. Further to raise the profile of the group by promoting educational activities such as annual conference with paper presented by members and the workshops.

The ESPUN scientific meeting had 4 sessions; Dysfunctional voiding, Incontinence, Hypospadias and Bladder exstrophy. Twelve abstracts, one video and 2 posters were presented. Johan Van Daele, Belgium, Birgitta Karanikis, Sweden, Craig Taylor and Bridget Carr from U.K chaired the nursing meeting together with ESPUN board members.

The moderators for the work shops: Rose-Marie Wallenberg, Sweden and Sue Keeble, U.K presented a workshop about children suffering from bladder exstrophy. Sue Vernon, U.K received a lot of questions and answers about UTI. ESPUN’s former President Anna-Lena Hellström and the present President Ulla-Britt Jansson presented how to start a study in their workshop about Research school and this lecture will continue next year in Brugge, Belgium. The group from The Netherlands had two workshops; Laurence Hermsen and Ellen de Brüijn about CIC and Marianne Vijverberg and Leontien Berntssen about Bladder training. All workshops gave the delegates opportunity to share their experiences and knowledge.
You can read about the workshops at the website. The moderators promised to send a report to be published at the website.

The Swedish nurse, Eva Johansson received the prize for best nursing abstract; Is there a connection between UTI during infancy and the functional bladder disturbance at pre-school age.

I think we all agree to the adage about Greece; there is an ancients myth about everything; every place, every temple, every single nook and cranny.

Monika Doroszkiewicz
Secretary ESPUN