EAUN Meeting: ESU Course on Urinary Stones
On the third and final day of the 17th International EAUN Meeting, attendees had the opportunity to take part in a two-hour EAUN-ESU Course on the procedures involved with the treatment of urinary stones. From epidemiology and diet to proper sterilization technique and prepping the OR, every step up to and finally including surgical techniques was covered. Prof. Traxer (FR), Mr. Somani (GB) and Mr. Oussoren (NL) gave a nurse-oriented course that left no detail out.
For Prof. Traxer, this marked his first collaboration with the EAUN in such a combined course. “I hope the nurses were happy with the information we gave. It’s important to have good contact with the nurses, and to get specific questions from them to make sure they understand the procedures. We give a different talk than we would give to other surgeons to be as clear as possible.”
“I work a lot with nurses in France, and we also have nurse-oriented sessions like this. When we design workshops or hands-on training for surgeons at my institution, we try to invite nurses to accompany the surgeons as much as possible. It’s essential to preserve this working partnership. We work as a team in the OR and we need the best possible collaboration.”
The choice of topic for the course was no accident: “Nurses actively participate in these procedures and because they are so common, this kind of information is extremely useful in everyday practice.”
Mr. Oussoren was an OR nurse himself before becoming President of the Board of the Dutch Society of Sterilization Specialists, and Sterilization Expert at the Amsterdam Medical Centre. He spoke on the sterilization of flexible endoscopes, the maintenance of reusable laser fibres (although Oussoren “think[s] single-use will be the future”) and finally how the OR should be prepped before PCNL is to commence.
“The most important point for preparing for surgery is to have a standard operating procedure, and to have all the information on the patient beforehand,” Oussoren stressed, also giving participants a look at how the OR at the AMC was designed and run.
The 17th International EAUN Meeting closed with a General Assembly for members, which saw a changing of the guard between Mr. Lawrence Drudge-Coates (GB) and Mr. Stefano Terzoni (IT). As the new EAUN Chair, Terzoni thanked his predecessor and praised the support of the members. “In the end, we don’t hold positions like this for ourselves. We do it to be of use for urology nurses across Europe.”
Earlier, an emotional Mr. Drudge-Coates also praised the out-going Past Chair, Kate Fitzpatrick (IE) who was thanked for her services in previous years. Three members of fifteen years were also honoured, and they were invited to share their memories and observations on the current state of the EAUN. It was a celebration of an EAUN that has truly come of age.