Nursing in Practice event, Cardiff

Following on from my presentation for Nursing in Practice event at Manchester, I went to Cardiff to repeat it there.
http://www.nursinginpractice.com/default.asp?page=event.home

The night before I had dinner at Strada at Mermaid Quay and have to say the three young men who served us had the best customer service I have experienced in a long while - the food was good too.
http://www.strada.co.uk/locations#21

I had a wonderful evening with Terry Stuart, a Cardiff GP who also is a very successful speaker, mainly on stress management. Have a look at his work here http://www.tmpsrelax.co.uk/

The event was held at the impressive City Hall. http://www.cardiffcityhall.com/

I had a wander around the many exhibits but the following caught my attention:-

The Queen's Nursing Institute http://www.qni.org.uk/ the charity dedicated to improving patient care by supporting community nurses.

The new Nutricia Fortisip Compact food supplement which gives an extra 60% energy - http://www.nutricia-clinical-care.co.uk/asp/show_subject.asp?brand_id=13&market_id=4&lng_id=1&lng2_id=1&id=358&pageId=18

But I feel I must say what a pleasure it was to meet a wonderful group of people from The Healing Trust. Healing is a natural therapy where healing energy is thought to be channelled by the healer through to the healee. However, they stressed that one of their huge benefits was to listen to people - so important! This service is available across the UK and could be another source of support from those suffering from postnatal depression. Have a look for a healer in your area at http://www.nfsh.org.uk/

I also spoke to ladies from the Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/ as I am currently doing some critical reading for one of their new courses on mental health nursing.

One of the presentations I was especially interested in was from Dr. Heather Currie who is a specialist gynaecologist and obstetrician. As I face a hysterectomy next month I want to learn about her area of the menopause! We ended up travelling on the same train later so shared plenty of information! For anything about this subject take a look at her excellent award winning site at http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/ . They are planning a weekend retreat which sounds wonderful!

Health professionals may also like to look at The British Menopause Society at http://www.thebms.org.uk/

If you need information on Premenstrual Syndrome look at http://www.pms.org.uk/

On our train journey with Arriva I must comment on the excellent service two fellow passengers who were visually impaired received from the train manager and young lady from the restaurant. They were so polite and helpful - a credit to their company. http://www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk/home.aspx?LangType=1033

Thank you to the Nursing in Practice team for another successful event and looking after me so well again - I lok forward to the next one in London!

Elaine Hanzak

www.hanzak.com