Halton Healthcare Nurses Conference

In conjunctin with Nursing Week 2006, Halton Healthcare's Office of Professional Practice presented a conference May 9th on the ethical issues in health care. I was privileged to attend and set-up a display on behalf of Trillium Gift of Life Network to promote organ and tissue donation awareness.

From the moment I walked into the conference center I was greeted and treated royaly by the organizing committee. My thanks go to the committee and a special thanks goes to Lucia Bosnakova, RN from the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital ICU. She helped me set-up and take down our banner and made sure I had refreshments and lunch, etc. That's Lucia with me in the photo.

Almost 200 nurses and other professionals attended. As a matter of fact, the room was totally full and the organizers told me they had to turn away some late registrants. The reason for this huge turnout was the speaker: Dr. Diann B. Uustal, RN, MS, Ed.D., a widely recognized and dynamic speaker from the United States with a thought provoking presentation style.

Although the subject was the ethical responsiblity of nursing practice, Dr. Uustal's guidelines are applicable to many walks of life and I came away with much food for thought. As an example, I made a note to make sure I know my core values and then talk them and walk them. Another thought that stayed with me was that if you don't trust one another you don't go anywhere in a relationship.

Our display booth was very well attended and the nurses took time to ask many questions about organ and tissue donation. Several asked for my card so they could contact Trillium Gift of Life Network to have a speaker address their local hospitals.