‘Recognition Of Importance Of Nursing Education Has A Long Way To Go’

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

Though advancements in cardiac care have been rapid, not enough is done to educate the nurses about these advancements. Hospital management is slowly understanding the need of nursing education, but they have a long way to go, averred Kawaljeet Oberoi, Director, Nurisng, Asian Heart Institute (AHI) to Express Healthcare Management on the sidelines of 6th Asian Cardiac Nursing Conference 2005, which was organised by the Asian Association of Cardiac Nurses (AACN) at AHI, recently.

About 250 delegates attended two-and-a-half day conference from reputed institutions in India and abroad. The theme of this conference was “Creating New Rhythms – A Challenge for the Cardiac Nurse”. Speaking on “Preventive and Rehabilitative Aspects of Cardiac Disease,” Vijaylakshmi Banerjee, Chief Nursing Superintendent, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, (EHIRC), said “Prevetion and rehabilitation are to be considered as an integral part of competitive coronary care. The early initiation of such comprehensive interventions in the acute convalescent and manitanence phase after MI, may have contributed to the systematic decrease in death rates in recent years.” Indrani Rani, Principal Tutor, EHIRC, said, “Non-invasive monitoring will not replace invasive monitoring in the immediate future, which currently reflects the gold standard and is used to standardise non-invasive monitoring systems. “ Scientific sessions were conducted on topics like newer technologies and modalities, legal and ethical issues, effective management of cardiac units, preventive and rehabilitative aspects, research in cardiac nursing and approaches to paediatric clients.

Clinical presentations, along with demonstrations, were conducted on cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ECG interpretation and pacemaker therapy.

Prior to this, ACCN held similar conferences in Kolkatta, New Delhi, Malaysia and Singapore in the last few years. AACN was started in the year 1995, pioneered by B M Birla Heart Research Center, Kolkata, which also functions as the headquaters.