Aidin Mckinney Grant Report
10th May 2019
Conference report- Aidín McKinney awarded a BACCN Grant
As a critical care nurse currently studying for a PhD I sought funding from the BACCN to present my paper entitled “Patient and family-initiated escalation of care: research protocol” at the 8th International European Federation of Critical Care Nurses Association Congress (EfCCNa), in Ljubljana, Slovenia from 13-16 February 2019. The opportunity to present at this conference was a very valuable opportunity to contribute to both my personal and professional development. It provided me with the opportunity to network with critical care experts from many different countries and enabled me to disseminate current knowledge and encourage discussion and sharing of ideas surrounding my topic area. It also allowed me to explore my research design and methodology with other critical care researchers who have used similar approaches to further inform my research.
Attendance at the conference also afforded the opportunity for me to listen to many very interesting and informative presentations. It was particularly interesting to learn how so many other studies and presentations resonated with my own work and very much centred on the importance of listening to and involving patients/family in their care. For example, in the opening plenary session, a very informative paper by Dr John Albarran discussed “Family involvement in ICU”. Professor Leanne Aitkin also presented a very interesting paper on “Patient preferences for receiving an early intervention after critical illness to improve psychological recovery”. Another particularly inspiring and thought provoking presentation was by Cillian Gray, a staff nurse in ICU, who eloquently provided the patients’ perspective and outlined his experiences of his time in ICU and the time period following his transfer back to the ward. This very much highlighted the importance of listening to the patients’ perspective and emphasised how much we can learn from them. It also further reinforced to me how valuable research studies are that consider patient and relative involvement and that really aim to listen to what the patient or relatives’ want or need, from their perspective, rather than what we presume that perspective to be. Hopefully by doing so, it will help us to consider how best we can embed another safety layer into practice to pick up on deterioration earlier and to really work in closer partnership with patients and families.
The conference was extremely well organised and the breaks between sessions allowed the delegates the opportunity to visit the informative exhibitions and also network with each other. Many very valuable links were made with colleagues from all over Europe and indeed beyond. As delegates we were also extremely lucky that we were able to attend such an inspiring conference in the most beautiful setting of Ljubljana. It was a stunning location and we received a very warm welcome from both the conference organisers and local hospitality. The conference dinner in the stunning setting of Ljubljana Castle was also another highlight of the conference and provided further opportunities to share our similarities and differences with our critical care colleagues from other countries.
Sincere thanks to BACCN again for providing me with this very valuable opportunity to attend this wonderful conference in the most beautiful setting of Ljubljana.