SMMC nurses recently attended the international Caribbean nursing conference held on Aruba. The event took place from June 8th to 9th at Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino. The conference is held each year, each time on a different Caribbean island. A total of eight nurses, each representing a different medical department, were in attendance.
The speaker of the conference, Barb Bancrott, is an internationally acclaimed nurse educator and speaker. Ms. Bancrott has been the motivational keynote speaker on health maintenance topics for numerous nursing associations, medical associations and dental associations as well as for corporate groups and events. Topics included “What’s new in the world of infectious diseases” and “Diabetes”.
This conference is aimed to connect nurses from throughout the region. Nurses of all levels of experience were able to participate in an area of career and education growth through interactive sessions and engaging content.
This year was the first in which nurses of St. Maarten, specifically the SMMC, have been in attendance to an event of this caliber. Nurses from eight separate medical departments namely; the Emergency Room, Intensive care, Medical/Surgical Ward, Operation room, Pediatric ward, Outpatient department and a Hygiene and Infection control practitioner were present.
“This conference gave its audience new opportunities to take back to my organization and my team. The keynote sessions offered during the conference gave us a highlight on the importance of innovation within the nursing field”, says Hygiene and Infection Control practitioner, Candidae Williams. “Ms. Bancrott is a very informative speaker whose dynamic and humorous presentation style made the learning experience very enjoyable”.
Nurses were presented with the opportunity to meet others within the specialty, to network and to learn the latest clinical information. Such connections, present opportunities to share knowledge with experts and peers, nurses are able to discover solutions for pressing issues and develop a learning organization.