JSTA December 2010 - Australian Association of Stomal Therapy ...

South Australia
Although there have been no meetings for the wider South
Australian Stomal Therapy Nurses group since June, regular
monthly meetings continue for the organising group of the
WCET congress meeting in 2012. I gather the arrangements are
progressing slowly but well, with new ideas gradually coming
to fruition.
At the Royal Adelaide Hospital, a group of 22 nurses are
undertaking the first module of the South Australian stomal
therapy course. Some of the nurses will go on to complete the
rest of their Stomal Therapy Certificate, while the others will
have completed the Ostomy Resource Person Certificate and
finish at the end of the week. The participants come from a range
of settings and quite a number are from country health centres,
which is very pleasing to see as continuity of care is always
important.
Another activity involving stomal therapy nurses was the
Riverland Study Day held at Berri on Friday 24 September.
This event was sponsored and organised by Hartmanns and
Independence Australia and 32 people attended the day. Topics
presented covered wound, ostomy and continence issues and
Merle Boeree was there to present an overview of stomas and
their management.
On Friday 15 October, the annual quiz night will be held at the
Clarence Park Community Hall. Many stomal therapy nurses
have organised tables with families and friends in readiness for
an evening of entertainment. The Royal Adelaide Hospital table
has pulled out all stops to recruit talent and are expecting to win
after a very low placing last year!
December will be a busy month with the usual stomal therapy
nurse Christmas celebratory dinner along with other seasonal
functions. We are also anticipating an invitation from the South
Australian Nurses for Continence Interest group to attend a
dinner with Doctors Mary Palmer and Jan Paterson speaking
on issues relating to continence matters. Dr Palmer is visiting
from America and is well known for her interest in continence
and aged care, while Dr Paterson runs the continence course at
Flinders University of South Australia and is a widely respected
member of the international continence community. With such
speakers, a good attendance is expected as many of us are keen
to enlarge our knowledge in this area.
Tasmania
Christmas greetings from Tassie!
Tasmanian STNs have had a busy year both on the work front
and in education. Carolynne Partridge and I have completed
our Master in Clinical Nursing, with clever Carolynne also
completing a prostate cancer nurse course! We are both very
much looking forward to a study-free 2011!
We would like to say a very happy 50th to Sue Delanty, who
escaped to a northern, more tropical island to celebrate her
36 Journal of Stomal therapy australia – Volume 30 Number 4
birthday in style. Good work Sue. Sue continues to represent
us in education and professional development with the AASTN
and has had a recent trip to SA in that capacity.
Our latest journal club meeting was held in Hobart. Guest
colorectal surgeon, Emilio Mignanelli, discussed the latest
in colorectal cancer statistics and surgery, which was very
interesting. The evening was very enjoyable and well worth the
travel for us northern girls.
Congratulations to Karen Campbell who has become a
grandmother with the birth of an adorable little boy, Oliver.
Continuing on with the congratulations, we are looking forward
to high tea at the Grand Chancellor to help celebrate Teena and
Evan’s upcoming nuptials. We wish them every happiness as
they begin the rest of their lives together.
All in all, it has been a very busy but successful year in our state.
Wishing one and all a very merry Christmas and a very healthy
and safe 2011.
Tracey beattie
victoria
As we come towards the end of another busy year, the Victorian
branch has enjoyed an interesting and hectic time. The focus
of this year has been to provide our members with education
sessions that have been current, topical and relevant to our
practice.
The last two education sessions of the year have proven to
be relevant to our stomal therapy roles, within the hospital
environment and the community setting. Both sessions were
well supported by our members from the metropolitan and
country areas.
In August, the topic of the session was nutrition. Margaret Allen
is a nutritionist, in private practice. Her special interest is in
the nutrition and fluid needs of the ostomate. Her presentation
Nutritional troubleshooting for the STN gave a unique insight into
these issues from both a professional and personal perspective.
Margaret has personal experiences of Crohn’s disease and an
ileostomy. She certainly gave us a lot of useful hints and tips,
as well as an in-depth look into the fluid management of highoutput
ileostomies.
In September, the topic was Neobladder versus ileal conduit,
presented by Kay Talbot, urology nurse consultant, working in
private practice, in a specialist urology clinic. This presentation
gave an insight into the selection of clients who would be
suitable for the ongoing management of a neobladder and
those who would be better suited to having an ileal conduit.
The information on client selection for neobladder surgery,
the commitment required to make this surgery work and the
information that clients would need to make these decisions,
was of interest to our group. Ileal conduit surgery is much more