Core Groups Updates
Carolyn Wheatley, PINNT Chair
Email: comms@pinnt.com
Website: http://pinnt.com
Facebook: PINNTcharity
Twitter: @pinntcharity
PINNT’s HAN (Home Artificial Nutrition) Week 2020 took place from 3–9 August and was a roaring success. This annual event is designed to raise awareness about lifesaving home treatments for people who need artificial nutrition to stay well.
We were involved in the production of a fantastic animation that explained the process for the delivery of home artificial nutrition, which our members rely on. During the pandemic, this essential requirement came under the spotlight as there was a heightened awareness of the need for this incredible service.
We published a daily story from different PINNT members throughout HAN Week, who each explained their life and journey with HAN. This ranged from some of our youngest members through to senior members of the PINNT community. It is hoped that these stories will help others to realise that they are not alone.
Each day during HAN Week was themed and included a range of activities such as the launch of the third booklet in the Transition series – produced for PINNT members who are transitioning in their care journey. One of our members completed a virtual cycle ride from PINNT HQ to County Durham – a 375-mile epic virtual adventure. He did this to both raise awareness of artificial feeding plus much valued funds for PINNT.
We want to send a huge thank you to everyone who took part and we are grateful for the new opportunities that have arisen because of this fabulous event. While the week has concluded, it does not mean the conversation about home artificial nutrition should stop, far from it. Recent times have shown that we need to protect and value not only our services and provisions but those who are dependent on them.
We continue to work with partners to develop resources for our members as well as shared items that will help healthcare professionals to support patients.
Our virtual meetings will continue until it’s safe to bring people back together.
The week saw the launch of the final booklet in the Transitions series. You can find out more via: bit.ly/2YpLhn2
Membership to PINNT is available via: bit.ly/2EuFDsG
Contact us via: comms@pinnt.com
Kate Hall, PENG Chair
Email: communications.peng@bda.uk.com
Website: www.peng.org.uk
Twitter: @PENGDT
This Summer has been a period of catch up and reflection on what to focus on for the rest of 2020, along with looking forward to 2021. It is hard to believe we are already thinking of 2021 and that our 2020 AGM is also on the horizon.
Our AGM will take place on 6th October, just before the PENG webinar. If you are a member of PENG and reading this you will know that we have put out a call for interest in joining the PENG committee, with a deadline of early Sept so that new committee members can be mentioned as part of the PENG AGM in October. If you are a PENG member and would like to get more involved, whether as part of the committee or in any projects, please get in touch.
The Annual PENG Award was launched over the Summer and you can find out more information here on how to apply (deadline: 30th November 2020). Through the BDA PENG page we have been able to set up a regular update for PENG members from the PENG committee to help keep members as up-to-date as possible on what is happening/coming.
With PINNT’s Home Artificial Nutrition (HAN) Week being held in August, PENG were really pleased to be able to add their support and it was amazing to see all of the stories shared throughout the week as part of the ‘This is Me’ campaign.
With the challenges that 2020 has brought to events and symposia, we have been looking at alternative ways to bring you a new look study day. It is with great thanks to the PENG committee, working alongside the BDA and some other specialist groups of the BDA, that we have organised our first ever PENG webinar. The webinar takes place on the evening of 6th October and will focus on the topic of prescribing and the role of dietitians in nutrition support – further details will be shared on the PENG website.
As always, we are looking to be able to share any experiences of working in dietetics and the area of nutrition support so that we can all learn from each other and through this also help to provide any thoughts on any new tools/resources, or further development of any current tools/resources already available, that would benefit dietitians, other healthcare professionals and patients/carers – promoting excellence in nutrition support. Please do get in touch if you have anything to share.
PENG will be adding their support to BAPEN and the Malnutrition Task Force’s UK Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020 in October, so please do keep a watchful eye on what is happening and how you can get involved through the BAPEN website.
We are trying to put more updates via the PENG twitter account, so if you are not already following please do: @BDA_PENG.
Georgie Adams, NNNG Communications Officer
Email: nationalnursesnutritiongroup@gmail.com
Website: www.nnng.org.uk
Twitter: @NNNGUK
The Year of the Nurse and Midwife may not have had the celebratory feel we had hoped for. Our annual conference planned for July lay tribute to our many nurse leaders and pioneers past and present. COVID-19 has without a doubt pushed the profession into the floodlights, showcasing its diversity and level of responsibility held within the NHS and its central role within an MDT.
Nutrition Nurses must remain focused in their delivery and passionate in their voice for reinforcing this message over the coming months and years. Lessons learnt from critical care supportive therapies, oral supplementation and energy requirements to allow for rehabilitation and the national agenda for identifying those greatest at risk; malnourished, protein deplete and living with obesity – remain all of our responsibility.
The work of the NNNG has inevitably slowed. But like so many of our core groups, we too embraced virtual meetings, conducting these during busy clinical days and early starts. The NNNG has been running for over 30years, as a committee we wanted to ensure it sustained our voice and vision for a future that continues to place Nutrition Support centre most in the UK.
Behind the scenes, the banking system has had a bit of a spruce up ensuring it remains current, transparent and safe for our members when making membership and conference payments. We are working on easier ways to pay with regular direct debit systems. Watch this space. With the virtual world upon us, now seemed the right time to review and refresh our website. The new look website will be easy to navigate, find resources and information. The biggest change – the discussion forum. Posts and feedback at your finger-tips, just as you remember them! Active threads are a necessary requirement for our members to share, compare and inspire each other.
We have been reaching out and reviewing new projects and work streams, reflecting on new ways of delivering and performing Nutrition Nursing. We will be working in close partnership with our co-opted member – Dr Neil Wilson, Manchester MET, creating and developing education and training resources. In the absence of conference, we have been working closely with our conference planners to look at alternative media. Nursing networks, collaboration and communication are essential to the core work of the NNNG.
Look to be inspired late autumn. The NNNG launches lots of exciting and very new media for our members to participate and engage with – if we are to embrace the digital age, we are fully signed up to the importance of user-friendly systems.
Finally, our members make the NNNG what it is today – we want to hear from you and understand what it is you need to manage each and every working day in the NHS, industry and the public sector. Watch out for an NNNG Survey Monkey making its way to your inboxes. We want to survey enteral medication administration and tube blockages!
Do keep in touch with us; we are always looking for good news story and the harsh reality of nutrition nursing. For us to sustain and maintain our voice and vision, we need our members to guide and inform this journey however many challenges and opportunities we face now and beyond COVID-19.