Versatility and collegiality were celebrated at this year’s Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association – Western Australia (AONAWA) meeting, held adjunct and just prior to the main RANZCO meeting in Perth.
With more than 100 delates from across Australia and further afield, the programme, led by AONAWA President Gina Storey, focused on the connectivity between service providers, ophthalmologist and nurse sub-specialty experts, and independent nurse-led project and research presentations.
Perth based ophthalmologist, Associate Professor Geoffrey Lam, presented alongside neonatal clinical nurse specialist, Karen Shearer, an early career nurse responsible for implementing a dynamic nurse-led digital imaging programme for the screening of retinopathy of prematurity. Associate Professor Angus Turner and nurse-paramedic Sharon Brown, both from Lions Outback Vision, further demonstrated the unique nature of their collaboration while managing eye care for rural and remote communities where teamwork is essential and demand on services remains high.
The collaborative approach continued, with Professor Steven Wiffen, from Lions Eye Bank of Western Australia, and myself exploring the many facets of eye tissue bioethics, corneal recipient needs and surgical techniques, challenging delegates to consider the possibilities and limitations we would go to, as a society, to provide human tissue to those waiting for ocular transplant surgery.
An impressive line-up of nurse-led initiatives continued, with key note international nurse speaker, Dr Elissa McDonald, a microbial keratitis researcher from the University of Auckland, setting the pace. Elissa was joined on the platform by Associate Professor Vicki Drury from the Singapore Eye Institute; clinical nurse specialist Joanna McCulloch from the Sydney Eye Hospital; outgoing AONA-National Council chair and educator Amanda Wylie from Queensland University of Technology; and nurse practitioner Anne Lentakis from Kingswood Eye Centre in Adelaide. Their collective take home message was loud and clear: ophthalmic nurses are in a unique position to contribute further to the needs of the vision impaired, be that through self-reflection and improvement of their own practice; by supporting other eye care providers; or through nurse-led research initiatives, all creating a lot of enthusiastic discussion among delegates.
