15.04.2015

A 2-day seminar is currently held at Aarhus University Hospital where nurses and other professionals from Denmark, Norway and Sweden form networks and exchange experiences on the work at paediatric intensive care units.

The Nordic countries already collaborate in this field. Sometimes a child from a Nordic country is admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit to receive expert treatment at AarhusUniversityHospital. Especially doctors have a well-established tradition for exchanging experiences but they wish to make the collaboration even stronger and benefit from the experience of colleagues with a relatively small patient group. This seminar attempts to expand and strenghten this collaboration also among nurses.

- The purpose of the seminar is to exchange knowledge and form networks across countries. We wish to make room for exchange of experiences outside the framework of the busy clinical setting, says Marianne Baekager, Department Nurse at the paediatric intensive care unit.

In Denmark and internationally, there is currently specific focus on expanding the involvement of parents.

- At Aarhus University Hospital we work with family-centered care; parents are involved as much as possible during the admission of their child. It is a quite traumatic experience to see your small child attached to tubes and equipment and just changing a diaper can be challenging. This is demanding for the staff because they both have to be very profesional and specialised in their work and at the same time be able to make room for the parents who are seriously affected emotionally, Marianne Baekager explains.

The intention is to establish e.g. Facebook groups after the seminar where nurses in their daily practise can share knowledge and experiences concerning e.g. nutrition, new literature etc. The idea is not to take time away from the important clinical work in the department, but to establish a platform where you can quickly obtain knowledge of and inspiration to work with children in intensive care.

The seminar takes place 14-15 April 2015 at AarhusUniversityHospital and has 55 participants. The group responsible for the seminar has made a huge effort to make this seminar possible.