XLIII National Congress of the Sociedad Española de Enfermería Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias

The XLIII National Congress of the Sociedad Española de Enfermería Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC) met last June in Madrid, bringing together 500 nurses. Our annual Congress was held conjointly with the LII National Congress of the Sociedad Española de Medicina Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEMICYUC). The theme chosen was “professionalism and humanisation”.

During the two and a half days the congress lasted, different subjects at the core of our clinical and academic practice as well as our research were examined in depth and advances were made, as is shown in the programme.

The congress started with the opening conference chaired by Dr. Julio Mayol and the presidents of both societies, while the local committee welcomed all of those attending.

The congress this year benefited from the presence of 77 professionals, including speakers, moderators, workshop instructors and the members of the Board of Directors and the Scientific Committee. National and international speakers took part, and among the latter we had the honour to include Maria Cvach, of John Hopkin's Hospital, Baltimore, who explained how to implement the correct management of alarm systems. She described the study they had carried out to improve patient rest and prevent a noisy storm in the unit; Ivens Giocomassi, of Geral Hospital in Alagoas state, Brazil, described early mobilisation; and Jilian Hartin, of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, described how to improve emergency management by creating rapid response teams which ICU nurses are the best-prepared to lead.

The joint SEEIUC-SEMICYUC sessions covered professional burnout, work engagement and the humanisation of critical patient care, in connection with the patient, their family members and professionals.

3 for-and-against discussions were held on open-door ICUs, new graduate training and nurse-doctors, and now what?

We worked on some subjects together with the physiotherapists, given that this year they have started to collaborate in the congress and receive accreditation for this, to ensure that they are kept up-to-date and to underline the value of a multidiscipline approach. A round table discussed humidification, inhalation and secretion management. Can nurses and physiotherapists reach an agreement? A themed session was held on early mobilisation, and there was an update on intensive care physiotherapy.

11 workshops took place, covering a range of subjects: clinical simulation, temperature control and management, induced therapeutic hypothermia, devices that aid in the mobilisation of critical patients, the use of sedation analgesia scales, how ethical conflicts should be examined, tracheotomy patient interdisciplinary care, non-invasive mechanical ventilation: the use of different interfaces and ventilators in adult and paediatric patients, renal function replacement techniques, Twitter as a tool for professional interaction and development, haemodynamic monitoring using transpulmonary thermodilution and pulse waveform.

We had an update on emergency management and another one on ICU expense limitation: evidence-based practice. There were round tables on dependency-related pressure sores, the benefits in clinical nursing practice of using motivational therapy to change addictive habits, and the ECMO membrane oxygenation system. Multidisciplinary care and care continuity.

The numbers corresponding to this congress are highly positive: 500 attendees, of whom 479 took part in workshops, with 315 accepted abstracts, 59 in oral format and 256 in defended poster format.

The closing ceremony took place on Wednesday, with prize-giving by the SEEIUC. Congratulations to all of the awardees.

Next year the Congress will be in Granada with the theme of “Intensive Medicine: VIP care for critical patients”, so please start to think about your presentations.

The congress and progress of the SEEIUC are due to the efforts of all the nurses who work in the ICUs that make it possible for us to meet every year. However, without the organisation and leadership of the Board of Directors and the Scientific Committee it would not be possible to hold the congress, so that I would like to offer my greatest and deepest thanks to all of their members.

Private companies have helped us a great deal, so that I hope they continue along this line, permitting the Society and industry to continue their co-working, with the introduction of new workshops and partial financing of the congress.

It should be remembered that although the congress is an annual event, the society works during the whole year for you. Recent years have been especially productive, with the creation of workgroups, the revision and translation of several documents, the authorisation of guarantees, representation in different institutions (the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality) and national as well as international Societies such as the European Federation of Critical Care Nursing associations (EfCCNa) and the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses (WFCCN).

One news item is that we have decided to implement the SEEIUC Research Grant that was approved by the Assembly, so we hereby encourage you to apply.

Our journal is making strong progress, and we are continuing to work on strategies to include it in the Thomson Reuter database Journal Citation Report (JCR). It has been translated into English and its foreseeable impact factor has increased, with an increase in downloads of the same greater than 112,962 times.

This year is a special year for the writer, as I am leaving the Presidency of the SEEIUC after many years of working with it, so that I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank absolutely everyone who has accompanied me in the Board of Directors and Scientific Committee, together with our secretary Elena and the members. I would like to apologise for any mistakes that I must have made, and I believe that I leave the Society in good economic and scientific health, and it will be in good hands with the new Board, so good luck and farewell. Goodbye, yours, Gemma.