Part of the ethos of our charity is to collaborate closely with healthcare professionals (HCPs). We see the support package for a patient as a partnership between specialist doctors and nurses, family and friends, and the Mitrofanoff Support community.
We have recently tried to enhance relationships with HCPs through a series of training events, and are keen to undertake more work like this. Both parties benefit enormously from such an arrangement – nurses feel more informed and better prepared to support their patients in hospital and the community, whilst we as a charity are able to raise awareness of our services.
In December our nurse advisor Sharon Fillingham led a training session at Wokingham Continence Advisory Service that was very well received, with useful contributions from those present. This was followed up by attending and exhibiting at the Paediatric Study Day organised by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in January.
In April, our Office Manager Neil Lightning spoke at the Stoma Care Nurse Meeting at Teddington Memorial Hospital. The day was organised by Caroline Rudoni who leads the Surrey branch of the Association of Stoma Care Nurses. She said afterwards “I’ve had great feedback from the nurses – they really enjoyed your presentation and found it so valuable.”
If anybody reading this is interested in further opportunities for future training events please contact Neil at info@mitrofanoffsupport.org.uk. Our members can get involved too – at your next appointment please make your specialist doctors and nurses aware of these sessions!