Hi DANA Members
I was the lucky person who won a registration to attend the Royal College of Nursing Community and Primary Health Care Nursing Conference which was held in Hobart I October.
The Conference was held on Thursday and Friday however I decided to travel down a day early to get in a bit of site seeing and attend the welcome reception / cocktail party.
There were presenters from many different Nursing and Midwifery backgrounds who discussed how they provide nursing care and health promotion services to communities all over Australia, from some of the larger cities to some of the most remote locations in Australia.
Some of the interesting topics included:
- A presentation from a nurse working at The Logan Refugee Health Clinic in Brisbane who discussed the many challenges they face daily dealing with some very complex health problems that would not generally be seen in the Australian population.
- A presentation from a community nurse currently working for the Royal Flying Doctors Service in Cape York. She spoke about a three day camp that she organized to educate children on the “No Smoking” message and to promote alternative healthy activities to prevent chronic disease in an indigenous community.
- Some of the staff from Health Works, Western Region Health Centre in Melbourne gave presentations on the work they do with injecting drug users to promote harm reduction, community development and the social model of health while working with a multidisciplinary team approach. They provide services including a peer-based recruitment for cervical screening (Pap Test). Were women were paid a small amount to complete the screening and if they recruited other women they would gain another payment. Results revealed that 50% of those tested had an undiagnosed STI and almost 30% needing a colposcopy or other referral for follow up.
Another highlight included the Conference dinner on Thursday night. The food was great and the band afterwards was even better with plenty of networking and dancing well into the night.
Attending this conference helped me realize what different opportunities there are for nurses working in the Community and Primary Health setting to promote and provide health services to the general population.
On Saturday morning before my flight home I squeezed in a walk, and some breakfast at the Salamanca Place Markets. I had a great time in Hobart it is a great city and I really enjoyed having opportunity to attend this conference.
Thanks DANA for making it happen.
Chris Brittain (Queensland)