BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF CRITICAL CARE NURSES

National Annual General Meeting - President’s Report

l‘his report was delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the British :\ssociation of Critical (:are Nurses for the year 1990/1991 at Owen’s Park, Universit\ of Manchester, Wednesday 4th September, by the outgoing president - Belinda Atkinson.

It is m! pleasure as President of BA(Z<:N. IO present the annual report of the Association for the year 1990-1991, I think that we will all agree that this has indeed been a challenging year. Not only have we had to cope with the effects of a general recession; but also the amount of change and turbulence in the health service has led to a general degree of uncertainty and concern for the future. As an Association, 1 am sure that we have not been left completely unscathed, and there is no doubt that these difficult times have not been without their effects on some of OUI- develop- ments. However, in our preoccupation with the cur- I-ent difficulties, and our concerns for- the future, it is perhaps all too easy to forget just how far we have come. I believe that although there are many chal- lenges ahead, and many areas that we still need to direct out- attention to, we have made significant progress in some areas and beginnings in others.

I would like to deal first with general matteI-s concerning the .4ssociation. We were pleased to IceI- come our 16th r-egional group thia year - BACON Mersey region, and the inaugural study day was held in Liverpool in April.

‘The Association now covers much ot England, Wales and Scotland and although there are some areas where geographical access to meetings is difficult; nevertheless with the decision made by some regions this year to vary their venues for meetings around the hosl;itals in th& area, significant attempts have been made in ol-dc~. to bring at least some of the meetings within reasonable access of the majority.

At the end of March 1991 the total national membership stood at just under 3.500. ‘This is indeed encouraging, consideiing that the national member- ship when the Association was formed in 1985 was around 600.

The conference again this year- is being held in Manchester. After careful consideration of various venues it was decided that this venue most closely met all the Association’s, needs - bearing in mind that the aim is to at least be within reasonable travelling distance of as man) of the regional groups as possible. As the conference has grolvn. so the commitment in

time needed to organise the event has also increased and the decision was made this year to alternate the organisation between each of the regional groups in turn. This year’s event has been organised by the former conference sub-committee, and next year the event will be organised by the Noi-th West regional group. It is hoped that this will not only give the different regional groups the opportunity to organise the conference. but it will also give regional groups the opportunity to present new speakers to the member- ship as a whole. The Association is always looking to increase the number of nurse speakers, and it is encouraging that compared to the earlier events. it is relatively easy now to find nurse speakers who are willing to share their expertise with an audience.

The total number5 in membership have alread) been referred to. .Thc membership continues to be handled by Netta Lloyd-Jones. the National Member- ship Secretary. The Association has continued to make use of a mailing house based in Cardiff for circulating material to the national membership. However, the cost of mailing has bee11 an increasing p1-oblem. ;mtl it is pel-haps with somr concern that the recent increase in postal charges has been t-eceived. We are also keen to streamline the method of dealing with membership renewals and subscl-iption payments, and to this end it was decided in April this year to introduce payment b! Bankers Standing Order. ‘I‘his has now been adopted by most regions, and it is proposed that the remainder should adopt the method in .4pril 1992. This does make records considerably easier to keep. and obvi- ously decreases the work load upon the ahead! hard-pressed membership secretaries. Registration has been maintained with the Data Protection Art, which lays down strict guidelines and control mechan- isms for the storage of membership data on compute1 and its release for mailing purposes.

Finance has once again continued to be a concern, but this is probably symptomatic of the general econ- omic climate and not just related to BACCN. John Short has again dolre sterling work as Kanonal ‘l’reasurer-, and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for keeping the booka in order-.

,Janet Phipps from South West region has continued to act as our National Publicity Officer. The BACCN stand which was purchased last year has travelled up alld down the country and has been used at several major exhibitions. BACCN once again exhibited at the N&sing TimesJob Forum in Docklands at the end of last yea], and more recently at a similat- event held in (;hsgo~. ‘The stand has also been used at various BA(:CIL’ events. Perhaps, to date, we have not exhi- bited at large national conferences and events, essen- tially bet ause the cost of.doing so has been prohibitive. Janet has also continued the development of the member ship packs. produced certificates for atten- dance ai conftrenccs, obtained supplies of BACCN sweatshirts. and is currently working on the produc- rion of nlembership application forms and posters for display in the various critical care areas.

‘Moving on to the educational aspects of the Associ- atmn’s work this year, most regions have put on a full programme of study days, study evenings e.t.c. The range of topics has been wide, and regions have generally reported good attendance at these meetings. This is encouraging, because as a national committee WC are all well aw’are of- the difficulties that members are experiencing, not only with funding for events, but also in obtaining time off work and study leave. This seems to be a widespread problem, and I fear that with thts current financial constraints in the health service it is one that we are likely to continue to experience. Howevet-. the motivation of many critical care nurses who have obviously funded their own attendance at events and attended in their own time has been extremely encouraging.

‘l-he BACCN Education Forum, under the con- tinued coordination of Helen Ellis from Preston, has continued to develop and has held several successful study days this year, in various parts of the country. A further study day is planned for November, in Edin- burgh, concerned with research.

One of the main functions of the Education Forum this Year has been to prepare the response on behalf of BACCN to the United Kingdom Central Council’s (UKCC) PREPP proposals. Consultation with regional committees took place earlier in the year, and a joint response was completed and forwarded to the UKCC prior to the closing date for comments. It is hoped that BACCN events can become accredited in terms of recognition for continuing education purposes. It is perhaps also interesting to note that the Association has been approached by several nurses from the US currently working in the UK, and wishing to maintain their CCKN certification by accumulating continuing education units. We are currently in dialogue with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses to find out how this can be achieved in respect of our events, although the position is somewhat complicated as the AACN functions as a provider of continuing edu- cation units on behalf of the American Nurses .Association.

During last year we had some correspondence with the Department of’ Health in terms of their revised guidelines on the extended role of the nurse. Earlier in the year we were approached by several regional groups, expressing concern at the interpretation of various aspects of the extended role. ‘I‘his matter wxs

taken up both with the UKCC and the Koval (Zollege c)t Nursing (RCN). and personal visits by myself to borh organisations were followed up with writ.en con]- munication. We I-eceived some reassurance from the RCN in regard to nurses professional irldernnit! hur we are still awaiting the outcome of the liKC(;‘s deliberations with the four government health departments.

I\‘e also discusced rhe question of rrclpn)c.il ccrtiii- cation for extended role procedure\ .I( ross the country, and it teems to be generallv lclt that tht UK(:C’s proposed professional porttoiio mai help to address this issue. ‘This is undoubtedI? ;III ~I.CJ thar I\-r must ti~llow c loscl~ , because with cducarionai resources likeh to hecome scartrr we nwct 10 makt sure that Ihcy are used in the best possible w,I\.

We have continued our involvelnelll with i he atlv~-

sory group to the InslitulcofSlant,o\~~r Srutlic5’srud\

of’ the role 01‘ iiurscs ant1 technicians in iritrrisiw c;it-c~

units. Man\ of ~OLI will have rcct4\rd ttlc, ques- tionnaii-es (hat have been rccentl\ sent 0111 to unit> which ask for a conhide]-able amount of clrt.Gl. I ;LUI sure that likr I did. many of you found them c:;tl-rmelb time conhuniing 10 complrte. but Ihe I.\IS has bet3 grateful for the good respoilse that they have ieceivrd. ‘Fhere is a tremendous anmunt of useful d;tca that can be gained from this study. but it will be up to u>, and thr other professional organisations IO tms~~rt’ that it ih used wiselv and to our benefit. Further licld work is currently being undertaken in respec-t of t hi:; project by the researchers and I believe that ;I preliminar\ report III;IY he available towards the end of rile year.

Earlier in the yeal- we made contact rvith the nul-sing division at the Department of Health, and in Februari I visited the dcpal-tment and met wirh 41rs Patricia Edwards, who is one of the nursing otflccr-t,. She ib responsible for providing nursing atI\ itc to Ihe Department of Iiealth and heI. remit 111~ 11 drs the high-tech areas.

The main purpose of this \,isit ~vas to c~stablish a contact point between the Department of He;dth and BAC(:N, to facilitate consultation on maltc~-s per-tain- in5 to critical care. It is also encouraging to rrporl that a sunilar liaison has been set up in Scotland between the three chairmen of the Scottish regions - I‘avside, Lothian and West of Scotland - and rhe Scottis ii Home and Health Departmenr. Several meetings betweerl this group have already taken place and BACCN was invited toexhibit at a recent Scotrish Homeanc~ IHealth Department event.

BAC(:N has also continued to liaise \\ith the Intensive (Zare Sac-iet! and as a national commlttec’ we ftiel that it i4 impor-tant 10 maintain <I t Ichc. li.lisorl

242 INTENSIVE CARE NURSING

between our two organisations. We are pleased that DI Ed Major, Chairman of the Intensive Care Society, is able to be with us today and address the conference this afternoon. Dr Major retires as Chairman of the ICS in October this year, and 1 would like to thank him for his encouragement to our Association, and fat facilitating the development of our good working relationships.

One of the prqjects that BACCN and the ICS have been engaged on jointly is the compilation of a document concerned with staffing levels in intensive care and high dependency areas. Both the Intensive Care Society and ourselves have received numerous enquiries from individuals who have experienced difficulties with staffing levels and require some guidelines. As the last available guidelines were published by the ICS in 1983, it was felt that some updating was necessary. A working party of the ICS and BACCN has therefore been formed, and it is hoped to be able to produce a document in the neal future. It has turned into something of a mammoth task and whatever is produced will have to stand up to scrutiny and competition from other demanding clinical services for relatively limited resources.

We have also continued to develop our links with industry and it has been pleasing to note several companies who have been willing to offer sponsorship to BACCN developments. It continues to be important that nurses have a voice in the development and selection of appropriate products for use in caring for the critically ill.

On an international front close liaison has been maintained with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. We were obviously disappointed that the 4th International Intensive Care Nursing Conference, scheduled to be held in Vienna in August, had to be cancelled. This was due to a large number of reasons - predominantly political and economic.

However, it was perhaps particularly disappointing for us as it was to be the first year that there have been a substantial number of speakers from the UK - both invited speakers and presenters of free papers - at such an international event. It is important that nurses are able to participate in global exchange of views, practices and problems concerned with critical care, and we hope that there will be a resolution to the difficulties of mounting an international conference before too long.

Also on the international front we hake had cow siderable discussion this year regarding our status in the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine. We have previously been dissatisfied with the status accorded to nursing soci- eties within the Federation. With this in mind Sarah Sanford, who is Executive Director of AACN, and myself met in Brussels earlier this year prior to the council meeting of the Federation. We are pleased that the council of the Federation have agreed to propose

significant amendments to their constitution at the General Assemby in Madrid in 1993, which will significantly enhance the status of the non-physician societies.

We are maintaining close links between the rep- resentatives of the three non-physician societies - Sarah Sanford in the United States for AACN. Lorraine Ferguson in Australia for the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Nurse Specialists Association, and myself in the UK. All three of us believe that it is important to raise the profile of our own societies on an international basis, and we look forward with interest to the outcome of Council deliberations at the General Assembly.

Earlier this year, having experienced continuing difficulties with the circulation of complimentary journals to our members, we decided that a final decision needed to be made as regards the future of a newsletter OI- journal. One of the major problems in making such a decision was the realisation of the time commitment required by any individual to edit such a publication, and we therefore decided that it would be more beneficial for the Association to go into part- nership with an already established and recognised ,journal. We therefore made several investigations, and you will by now know that we ultimately decided to adopt the international refereed journal I~zt~~wive Carr 2”L’vr.Gxg as our official journal.

We believe that the subscription offered to members by the publishers, Churchill Livingstone. represents excellent due for money in providing members with a quality, academic journal; and this will become of increasing importance \lith the development of man- datory periodic education. Anyjournal is only as good as those who contribute to it, and our next aim is to encourage members to write articles. We are pleased to have been joined at this year’s conference by Miss Pat Ashworth, who 1 am sure needs no introduction to anybody, and is of course the Editor-in-Chief of lrllmsil~r Caw ‘vuK\i~lg.

We have also continued to receive assistance from Eli Lilly & Co Ltd in producing a newsletter three times a year - the Eli Lilly LlNCc Bulletin. A newsletter committee has been formed as a sub-committee of the national committee. chaired by Janet Ferguson of Lothian region. ‘l‘hin publication has recently been circulated to members, and it is intended that a further publication will be circulated this year with a brief synopsis of the conference. It has also been a useful medium in which to advertise details of BACCN regional groups and regional events.

We have also been pleased that once again Eli Lilly & Co have offered the LlNCc Award for innovation in critical care nursing. ‘The winner of this year’s award will be presented with their prize at the dinner this evening, and we are pleased that Mr Bill Robinson, Director of UK Pharmaceutical Operations at Eli Lilly will be present to make the award. 1 would also

IhTENSIVE (..4RE SL’RSINC. 243

particularly like to thank David Moore, Critical Care Product Manager at Eli Lilly for his continued support of.the Association. David is shortly taking up a newjob within the compnay, and we would like to wish him well for the future.

Finally, as outgoing President of BACCN, it now falls to me to make some personal acknowledgements. ‘I-here are many people that I would like to thank who have personally supported me during my time as President, and in the development of the Association. ‘1‘0 all who have been involved I offer my sincere thanks, but I feel it appropriate to name one or two in particular.

First of all I would like to thank John Short, who has been treasurer since the inauguration of the National <:ommittee in 1985. John has not only managed the books admirably, but he has also been a tower of strength during some of the more difficult times that we have experienced. Thanks also to Isobell Jackson who again has been involved with the Association since the beginning, and who retires this year as National See retat v, and from the National Committee. Thanks also to <elta Lloyd-.Jones, National Membership Sec-

retary and Janet Phipps, National Publicity Officer, and all the remainder of the National Committee.

‘The backbone of the .4ssociation is undoubtedly the regional committees who have the face to Lace contact with the membership and spend considerable time arranging the study days. The Association could not survive without them, and 1 would like to thank them for the time that they give up in order IO engage in this work

1 could also not have succeeded without the support of my family and friends, and my staff in the intensive care units in Southampton. and in particular my Senior Nurses. Kate Kersley and Isabella Lally. Thev have tolerated my continued periods of absence, assumed additional responsibilities, and managed to keep the flag flying during these times.

And finally I would like to thank Patsy Barrir- Shevlin, our president-elect, Pats), as manv of you are aware, takes over from me as Presldent this year. and I would like to wish her the very best as she takes on this new role. It can certainly be said to be one of the experiences of a lifetime.

HELIND.4 A’I‘liINSON