Medic One Funded Projects

Global Conference on Emergency Nursing & Trauma
Polly Black

With a contribution from Medic One I was able to travel to Sitges near Barcelona to attend and present at the three day Global Conference on Emergency Nursing & Trauma. The conference is in association with the International Emergency Nursing Journal and this was the second time the conference had been held. There were delegates from all over the world, with the UK, Sweden and Australia being particularly well represented. The key note speakers included Heather Jarman (who is a consultant nurse in emergency care at ST George’s in London and the only non-medic  Clinical Director for Major Trauma in the UK) and Paul McMaster, a surgeon working with Medecins sans Frontieres. The content of the conference was wide ranging and it was truly inspiring and informative. All nurses working in emergency care would get something from it whether they work clinically or in management, research or education  – it’s a great opportunity to learn from other departments and forge collaborations.  The next conference will be in 2018 and there is also a International Conference for Emergency Nurses in Australia in 2017 run by the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia.

My presentation was on an EMERGE project myself and fellow research nurse Rachel O’Brien worked on looking at engaging the clinical members of the ED team into research. We found that there is a high level of engagement and a positive attitude to research in the ED. This is a very encouraging finding as research active boards are associated with better patient outcomes and shows that there is opportunity for staff to get involved in research and expand their knowledge and skills. It was a privilege to represent EMERGE, the ED and NHS Scotland on an international stage and by so doing Rachel and I’s project has attracted attention from other departments in the UK and in Sweden. This small nurse-led, local project has developed into something with far greater impact that we first intended and shows that conducting your own research project, however small, can lead to brilliant opportunities for professional development.