28 November 2019
The UKONS Board are delighted that our annual conference in Telford 22 – 23 November was such a success. The Board received very positive feedback at conference from delegates, speakers and exhibitors. Please follow the conference Tweets to find out more #UKONS2019.
The conference was of the best academic quality with a range of great presentations. Some high spots included a great summary of ‘The Unfinished Business Report’ , analysing progress against the original Cancer Plan, delivered with real flair by Dr Rebecca Fisher despite being a relatively short-notice replacement for Professor Sir Mike Richards, and a presentation of national importance from Professor Anne Marie Rafferty considering the evidence base for determining safe staffing levels for nursing. There was a range of really excellent poster presentations including one from Yang-Ting Liou who had travelled from Taiwan to present her audit of the UKONS 24-hour triage tool in hospitals in her home country, with the tool having been translated into Chinese. The standard of posters on display was also uniformly excellent.
Thank you to all speakers, poster presenters, UKONS Champions and UKONS MIG Committee members for all your hard work in supporting our conference. Thank you also to our exhibitors and industry sponsors and to Kirstie Wicke and her team without whom the conference would not be as successful as it is. UKONS are delighted to be able to continue to work with Kirstie Wicke and Anthony O’Rawe when they leave the Open Health Group in the New Year to work for Media 1.
Many congratulations to winners of UKONS Poster Prizes:
1st Prize
Mary Woods – ‘A service development evaluation of retrospective data exploring prophylactic risk reducing advice for patients with gynaecological cancers’
2nd Prize
Gwawr Hughes – ‘Staff training during the implementation of a new Ambulatory Care service’
3rd Prize
Susan Llewelyn – ‘Increasing the professional skills of primary care nurses across Wales with the Macmillan Primary Care Cancer Framework Programme’
Enormous congratulations also go to Dr Catherine Oakley and Philippa Jones for jointly receiving the UKONS President’s Award from Helen Roe.
In other news, Helen Roe is now the Immediate Past President of UKONS. The UKONS Board are thankful to Helen who has been a dedicated member of the UKONS Board since 2007, firstly as the Lead for the SACT Members Interest Group and then as a fully elected Board member since 2010. Helen has led UKONS with rigor and clarity.
Dr Verna Lavender is now UKONS President and Mark Foulkes is UKONS President Elect. Verna and Mark are looking forward to their ongoing collaboration with charities and cancer nursing societies in both the UK and overseas. They also look forward to working more closely with UKONS Champions.
We thank all the members of UKONS for their ongoing engagement and support, which has made UKONS the society it is today.