The Society of Vascular Nurses at the Vascular Society, Harrogate

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This year the Society of Vascular Nurses again held their meeting in association with the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Harrogate, Yorkshire. 169 delegates attended the 11th annual meeting, which continues to enjoy strong links with the Vascular Society.Vascular Society President, Peter Harris, made it clear that he sees a Vascular Society which welcomes all Vascular Specialists as part of the blueprint for the future, and this can only lead to shared benefits from drawing on the experience and knowledge of a broad range of Vascular professionals. SVN President Jill Arthur, highlighted the enthusiasm of her members to attend more of the main meeting, and that not only is the joint meeting “an excellent opportunity for our vascular teams to get together” but has led to “an increasing number of vascular nurses now presenting their audit and research findings at both the SVN and VS conferences”. Many SVN members enjoyed the Vascular Society annual dinner & the main symposia in another successful meeting for the society.

The SVN not only provides a national network to promote the needs of Vascular patients but it encourages its members to gain the necessary training and become actively involved in nursing or multidisciplinary research. The SVN itself has this year released a patient information booklet on claudication, entitled “All About Intermittent Claudication” in response to the increasing number of vascular nurses who are running claudicant outpatient clinics and exercise classes. This excellent resource for patients has already had a print run of 8,000 and has been a great success. Highlights of the meeting this year included a lively and topical debate on the future of carotid intervention, which featured input from surgeon Mike Gough, consultant radiologist Sumira Macdonald as well as a patient’s experience of his perioperative management and rehabilitation. 2005 again looks to be a progressive and important year for the SVN, further details can be found on their website www.svn.org.uk