This is the a daily report from the conference.
I have asked people to contribute a short paragraph about a paper or
event or their impressions of the day.
A debate on the topic of "This house believes that clinical nursing
information is not useful in interdisciplinary care". Despite a few
passionate appeals from the proposers the motion was heavily defeated.
Unsurprisingly, the group concluded that nursing clinical information
was a valuable resource. The only support for the motion revolved on the
nature of clinical nursing information and whether the information "is"
valuable at present or is potentially valuable in future. There was
general agreement that much of the information that nurses currently
record is of little value or of ephemeral value. However, the majority
view was that this did not negate the fact that much of the process of
interdisciplinary care was dependent on clinical information collected
and recorded by nurses.
-David Markwell.
For the first time in my professional Informatics career I have agreed
with a nurse and Ann Casey in particular.
While talking complete B******s during the debate on the topic of "This
house believes that clinical nursing information is not useful in
interdisciplinary care. The multimedia was as usual above expectation.
Neill
The debate was a great deal of fun. Not least seeing well known
colleagues argue from a position different to that which they usually
hold [or I *think* they usually hold :-) ] Apparently all that data
which we have collected and assimilated over the years is not nursing
but medical data, physio data, OT data... Carried to it's logical
conclusion nursing is only doing other people's work and really we are
all out of a job! That said think how much money the government can
save. Patient nurse thyself.
Carol Cooper, University of Manchester.
The whole day has gone very well with interesting sessions and all
present enjoying the day. The highlight for me was the debate which
although I was one of the originators, proved to be even more enjoyable
than expected. The motion that This house believes that Clinical Nursing
information is NOT useful in multidisciplinary care brought out some
hilarity but the underlying it all were serious discussion of the
usefulness or otherwise of nursing information. I was persuaded to agree
with the motion as at present the ability to share data which could be
regarded as useful information is so limited as to be unhelpful.
Alison Young
The highlight of the day was Simon Old of the Department of Health
impersonating Yvonne Moores, the Chief Nursing Officer of England -
well, maybe not impersonate, but he did stand in for her absence. Simon
talked about the progress of the 1992 IM&T Strategy, Frank Burns' review
process, and some of the upcoming papers etc. from the new Government
that might influence the future direction of healthcare and IM&T in the
UK.The debate, as described above was very useful - a not too serious
approach to exploring an issue that did, nevertheless, through the range
of interpretations of and approaches to the motion, raise some
interesting issues.
Peter Murray
The end of day two: the sessions on clinical information and guidelines
etc well received. Complemented by the chairman, Dr Glyn Hayes
extolling the dubious virtues of travelling by Continental Airlines
(marred by a computer cock up with his seat allocation!) The morning
also allowed Paddy McGowan and Patricia Flanagan to describe the roles,
history and current hot topics of NPIG, CPIAG etc. Some good quality
debate followed. The afternoon provided the highlight of the event so
far. The debate "This house believes that clinical nursing information
is not useful" - highly successful event chaired by Simon Old, with
scintillating contributions from Anne Casey, Liz Rahim, Dr David
Markwell and Dr Neill Jones (a GP and nurse on each side) plus lively
input from the floor. The motion was defeated on a vote but won morally
in the debate! - and now to the bar and the prospect of dinner!
Brian Layzell
This is a slightly shorter report as I left the conference before the
evening bar session. I hope someone else will post tomorrow's report.
--
Cheers
Rod
Rod.Ward@Sheffield.ac.uk
Lecturer, School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Sheffield
Professional home page - http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nr1rw
Nursing & Health Care Resources on the Net -
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nhcon
ICQ UIN: 423064
If you have any questions or comments please mail me; Rod@RodSpace.co.uk
Page Created: 10.11.97
Last Updated: 3.9.03