A well-received World Café Convention for Nurses
London, United Kingdom. 16 November 2021. In less than a few-hours of going public, the face-to-face event of the World Café Convention was sold-out. With a multitude of high-caliber speakers invited to talk at the Nurses Convention, the 2nd World Café Convention is positioned to be a hybrid gathering of nurses with a limited number of face-to-face participants and unlimited virtual attendance.
Present at this year’s Convention were participants from 16-different countries represented by 40% of the attendees from the Nurse Executive level, 55% from the staff to middle grade level nurses with the remaining 5% as non-healthcare. A good mix of nurses and other allied healthcare professionals including midwives, HCA support workers, Physiotherapists and Respiratory therapists and a student also attended the conference from the NHS, Health and Social Care, and private sectors.
Organized by the Philippine Nurses Association of the United Kingdom (PNA UK), this second World Café Convention is a step up from last year’s virtual conference.
With the easing of Pandemic restrictions, this year’s convention introduces a limited face-to-face interaction at the Hilton Hotel in Canary Wharf while following national health and safety guidelines. This year’s topic follows the World Health Organization’s theme of “Nursing the World Together” and have among its speakers the Chief Nurse Officer for England Ruth May and the Director of International Nurses Recruitment Duncan Burton. Other impressive speakers at the Convention who variably talked about the wide contribution nurses give to the national healthcare service and how they should be supported were the Vice-Chair of the Mary Seacole Trust Lisa Rodrigues, the Director of the Florence Nightingale Foundation Dr. Gemma Stacey, Professor Joanne Garside and Charlene Pressley from the University of Huddersfield, and the NHSEI International Nurse Recruitment Advisor Jennifer Caguioa.
The F2F convention participants were welcomed by the Philippine Embassy representative Labour Attaché Amuerfina Reyes, Philippine Secretary of Labour and Employment Silvestre Bello III, and Her Excellency UK Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils, who virtually attended via video link.
Focusing on the challenges and adversities faced by internationally recruited nurses, the speakers emphasized the need to advocate, empower and support the increasing number of Philippine Nurses in the UK. The convention affirmed the need for a professional nursing organization such as the PNA UK and how mindful collaborative efforts lead to successful advocacy and change.
Malcolm Conlan, Goodwill Ambassador of the Association, and Director of Nursing of University Hospitals Sussex Edmund Tabay solidified this year’s “Nursing the World Together” with their inspiring testimony amidst the presence of numerous Chief Nursing Officers, Directors of Nursing and Executive level Managers from various NHS across the UK who took the time to attend and show support for the World Café Convention.
The phenomenal success of the convention will not have been possible if not for the excellent hosting skills of Jan Arriola, Christine Tuazon and Marcie Soco; the welcoming and registration committee composed of Alex Melencio, Glady Dolina, and Melissa Balcorta. The virtual team Kier Dungo, MJ Robles and Riza Mae Stan who labored online to keep virtual order were fabulous. The ushering team composed of Eds Opulencia-Lorusso, Jessie Macaspac, and April Montoya. The networking team brought a face to the name of PNA UK were Dennis Singson, Myrna Maquinana, and Gehrie Almario. Our documentation would not have been complete is not for our resurging photographer and videographers Charrisse Melo and Riza Stan who visually documented the convention. Of course, to the other core committee members who contributed to the overwhelming success of the WCC2021 were Cielo Caneja, Rogie Delos Santos (technical), Jay Jay Jimenez, George Bermudez, Joel Delfin, Aldons Chua and Oliver Soriano, a massive thank you for all your efforts.
