NZUNS | USANZ New Zealand Urology Conference 2023
USANZ/NZUNS conference 2023
Convenors report:
A face to face Conference has been a long time coming with Covid forcing the cancellation of the Auckland conference and then last years conference being held as a virtual event. Because of this we had a great turn out and luckily for me as convenor there were no problems filling the programme with speakers – in fact so much so that a cancer survivorship workshop was created to make room for all of the excellent speakers that made themselves available to present. I am truly grateful to every single one of them for their contribution as in my opinion (I may be slightly biased) there wasn’t a single boring presentation in the nursing programme all three days.
When I agreed to be convenor , I had an underlying theme in mind – ‘lets talk about the things we’re not talking about’. Throughout the conference we covered themes such as medicinal cannabis, euthanasia, LGBTQI+ issues, mental health, sexual function and ACC claims for gradual process injury (what! Theres more than just accident and treatment injury?!). I think we covered some outside of the box topics but all of which were interesting and if not urology specific – nursing specific and patient focused. We can have all of the urology skills and experience in the world but without a patient focused mindset then we fail to deliver good care.
Our keynote speakers Dr Jo Milios (physiotherapist) and Melissa Hadley-Barrett (NP and sexologist), both from Perth, Western Australia were real troopers each doing 4 presentations through out the conference. Each and every one of their presentations were fabulous and the only negative feedback I have heard is that I didn’t give them long enough to speak. Mellissa, covered topics such as penile rehab, talking to pts about sex and menopause; while Dr Jo Milios discussed urological issues that physios treat, neglected sexual side effects and pelvic floor dysfunction. They were an absolute fountain of knowledge and most importantly (for some of us) were their amazing tips on how to tame long curly hair!
Highlights of the conference for me personally was being able to show off our region and everything we are achieving here in Taranaki and some fabulous local speakers who truly inspired me and I’m sure everyone else. In particular the amazing Andrew Judd with his ‘recovering racist’ presentation – just WOW!; the ever enthusiastic Mia Carroll who could read the phonebook and you would be riveted, discussing ‘how every conversation can heal or harm’ . And the wonderful Jamie Allen who talked about mental health and suicide. Jamie is an inspiration in himself, and I wish he could have talked about his own life story – he is a reality TV star, a priest, covered in tattoos, he has his own Wikipedia page… and much much more. We were truly in the presence of greatness.
And of course… the dinner… the venue of the Bowl of Brooklands stage was awesome, however the conference organizers were somewhat worried about the lake in front of the stage and patrolled it vigilantly throughout the night ensuring there were no ‘incidents’. The theme of ‘The Wild, Wild West’ was also great with everyone dressing up appropriately. Special mention has to go to Sha in her incredible cactus outfit. The band ‘On ya Bike’ were perfect getting everyone on the dancefloor from the very first song and they stayed there til the very last.
Thank you to everyone that contributed to the success of this conference, and I very much look forward to the next one in Wellington so we can share our enormous combined skill and experience and inspire each other further.
Jenny Corban
