First Annual Orthopaedic Nursing and AHP Conference a Resounding Success

This week saw the first annual Orthopaedic Nursing and AHP Conference, a day dedicated to the development of Nurses and AHPs.

The focus for the conference was Innovation and Quality Improvement. We heard from a range of experts on innovation approaches, cutting-edge techniques and transformative quality initiatives.

Quality is a consistent pattern of behaviour, so said Aristotle and so began our conference. Quality improvement is absolutely vital, and especially in healthcare. Whether it’s small changes, big projects or forums where people can share experiences and learnings, improvement helps brings about positive changes in patient care and experience, operational improvement and staff wellbeing.

The conference started off with a patient’s story – Christine took us through her experience as a patient undergoing a Total Ankle Replacement. She talked about her experience compared to a previous stay at ROH when she had a Total Knee Replacement and offered opportunities for us to learn and grow. Patient stories are a continuous improvement tool which help identify areas where we need to improve the quality of services and transform patient and carer experience, through listening and learning from their lived experience.

We then moved on to discuss a wide range of topics including overcoming barriers to implementing Whole Genome Sequencing at ROH and the need for musculoskeletal transformation in the region. Delegates also heard more on the history of joint replacements and infection prevention, our research nurse work in Denosumab injections for Giant Cell Tumours and the use of Cryotherapy for treating tumours.

Gayle Kwidini, Advanced Nurse Practitioner at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital: “This conference has brought people together to network and showcase their fantastic work in caring for their patients, and not only did it show how good we are in orthopaedic care, it also showed how happy our patients are with the service we provide. The patient stories were evidence of the partnership we have with our patients and how this plays an important role in quality improvement. The attendance was great. The amount of innovative work across the trust that was shared was phenomenal. I was blown away by some of the work happening in our hospital.

“When I first thought about organising the conference my wish was to provide a day full of education, networking and fun, and the day has certainly fulfilled my wish.”

We caught up with Beulah Dilipen, Genomics Research Nurse at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital – here’s what she had to say: “What an amazing event! So privileged to be part of it and thank you for organising this interesting conference. Congratulations to everyone in the team who made this event a grand success. I believe this is going to pave way for many more successes in the future!”

The event was attended by nursing staff from other Orthopaedic hospitals – ensuring these development forums bring together diverse perspectives is vital and collaborating with other Trusts is a key way to involve other views to support continuous improvement. Jo Teixeira, Senior Research Leader Programme: Nursing and Midwifery | NIHR Nursing and Midwifery and Nursing Research Lead at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London attended the event and commented: “Attending the ROH meeting, we can feel the hard work and inspiration of these colleagues, which serves as an example to all of us. Keep up the amazing work!”