Delegates from across Africa share Best Practices at Nursing Conference | Western Cape Government

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Delegates from across Africa share Best Practices at Nursing Conference

21 April 2015

The Building Children’s Nursing for Africa conference will bring together nursing teams and experts from across South Africa and Africa to explore local, research-based solutions that will help improve quality and best practices in paediatric healthcare – boosting health outcomes for children and their families.  

The conference, co-hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Child Nurse Practice Development Initiative and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, will be held from 22 to 24 April 2015 at Belmont Square, Rondebosch.

“We are excited about this opportunity for nurses and other health professionals who work with children to present work from a variety of clinical practice settings. We also have numerous slots at the conference for delegates to think ‘outside of the box’ about nurses’ roles in providing person-centred care – concept central to the Western Cape Department of Health 2030 vision,” said Associate Professor Minette Coetzee from the Child Nurse Practice Development Initiative.

Topics that will be addressed include:
•    Evidence-based best practice in children’s nursing has measurable outcomes
•    Building the evidence base: intentionally including families in every child healthcare setting
•    Building the evidence base: best practice for teaching and learning in children’s nursing
•    Clinical outcomes that support innovation: developing new and alternative foundations of evidence in children’s nursing

Keynote speakers will include Karen Hermanus (Director of Strategic Planning and Co-ordination, Western Cape Government Health), Dr Una Kyriacos (Senior Lecturer, Division of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Cape Town) and Dr Sarah Neill (Associate Professor of Children’s Nursing, University of Northampton, UK).

The participative conference provides the opportunity to share best practices by:
•    creating an environment that recognises each participant’s value
•    creating an academic forum for professional nurses and others who work with children
•    encouraging debate on engaged ethical and reasoned care of sick neonates and children
•    exposing local nurses to international experts in the field of effective practice change,  who feature as key-note speakers, to improve outcomes of sick new-borns and children
•    encouraging debate around evidence for best practice in the teaching and learning of child nursing in African contexts
•    further developing learning collaborations between paediatric nurse training hubs in sub-Saharan Africa

“The conference will provide an opportunity to engage with child nurses. By working together, we will increase our knowledge-base of evidence-based care, influence the practice of nurses and thereby enhance patient-centered care,” said Sandra Roodt, Nursing Manager at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. 

The theme, Foundations of Evidence, has been chosen to build on the pioneer Building Children’s Nursing for Africa conference hosted in 2013. The first conference provided paediatric nurses and nurse educators from across the continent a unique platform for sharing on best available evidence for children’s nursing practice that had been developed for local contexts. Here, nurses’ crucial role in achieving best outcomes for neonatal, paediatric and paediatric critical care patients receiving care in hospital and/or clinical settings was highlighted.

Media Enquiries: 

Angelique Jordaan
Principal Communications Officer: Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital
Tel: 021 658 5448
E-mail: Angelique.Jordaan@westerncape.gov.za 

Jean Brown
Chief Communications Officer: Child Nurse Practice Development Initiative
Tel: 021 658 5492
E-mail: jean.brown@uct.ac.za