The committee had spent months organising it — even recruiting former members to help — after having to cancel a planned face-to-face event in Northland in 2020 due to COVID-19. We eventually decided to make it online, relocating to the NZNO national office in Wellington to present the September event.
We began the day with a session by a patient recounting his lived experience of bronchiectasis. This touched the whole committee and, judging by comments, the attendees also.
He recounted the effects of his condition on him and his family and his interactions with health-care professionals, both the good and the bad. What emerged was the benefit of consistent relationships with individuals, rather than repeating his history of constantly changing health-care professionals. This was a refreshing reminder to keep our care patient-focused.
What emerged was the benefit of consistent relationships with individuals, rather than repeating his history of constantly changing health-care professionals.
We also heard from colleagues up north on their excellent programme ‘Lungs for life’ — identifying and preventing bronchiectasis in the under-twos.
This was followed by some more clinically-focused sessions from respiratory nurse practitioners, on the assessment and management of bronchiectasis. We had contributions from our allied health colleagues — speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and a pharmacist — reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of patient-focused care.
A session on our respiratory knowledge and skills framework highlighted the importance of developing core skills for our specialty.
Finally, such a symposium would not be complete without some research examining the patient’s perceptions of coughing, and being seen to cough, in a COVID world. There was certainly more anxiety, noted especially by younger people, on coughing in public.
Attendees’ positive comments reflected the success of the event, encouraging us to to plan bigger and better for our next symposium in two years’ time, to be held in Wellington.