A nationwide conference held earlier this month discussed the key aspects of cardiovascular, renal and metabolic care.
Entitled ‘hFRenDs’, the event welcomed more than 100 specialist heart failure, renal and diabetes nurses from across the UK.
The conference focused on education and gathered insight to help address the frequent comorbidity of these three conditions.
Held at the Birmingham Conference & Events Centre, the free-to-attend event was organised by LKOTT Medical Communications and three nursing forums – The British Society for Heart Failure Nurse Forum, the Association of Nephrology Nurses UK and the Diabetes Specialist Nurse Forum UK.
Keynote Speaker, Professor Kamlesh Khunti CBE of the Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester, highlighted key research around comorbidities in a session entitled ‘Why managing the ‘whole’ patient has never been more important’.
He said: “We’ve now got this new emerging phenotype of people with multiple long term conditions because people are living longer, but also developing these conditions younger due to obesity. People who live in deprived conditions have double the number of conditions at the same age.”
Specialist Heart Failure Pharmacist Vicky Ruszala then delivered a real life example of a cross-functional service and how it benefits care.
A key element of the day were ‘deep dive’ sessions into the three areas of Heart Failure, Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease, designed to boost the knowledge of the other disciplines for specialist nurses.
The afternoon featured an inspiring leadership session delivered by Julie Brake, Diabetes Nurse Consultant, who highlighted that even if you don’t see yourself as a leader, others might. She shared her own leadership journey.
The session was followed by two real-life case studies presented by two nurses. Amy Galloway highlighted a project on renal genomics being embedded in the UK and Zoe Jayne explained how her team is improving care through sustainability in quality improvement.
Lisa Kelly, Managing Director of LKOTT Consulting, said: “The feedback from our attendees has been fantastic, and it’s always so rewarding making this event happen.
“These nurses have incredible passion about improving care for people with long term conditions and they are hungry for knowledge.”
She added: “We’ve seen many of our attendees working to join up the three specialities in their own localities, which is so inspiring. We are proud to be able to put some drive and momentum behind this – and ultimately change lives.
“A huge thanks to the hFRenDs Faculty: the DSN Forum UK, ANN UK and BSH Nurse Forum for their support in keeping this extremely worthwhile project fresh and impactful.”
hFRenDS (Heart Failure, Renal and Diabetes) is a unique nurse-led programme focused on networking, learning and collaboration.
LKOTT Consulting received funding by means of sponsorship to support the delivery of hFRenDs Season 3 2024 from multiple sponsors.
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