What I found out at the Nordic Ostomy Association conference in Finland
Thanks to starting my project for ostomates I had the honour to accept the invitation of the European Ostomy Association to a meeting of the Nordic countries held in Tampere, Finland. I did not have an intended role at the meeting, and therefore I was very curious what awaits me…
The three full days of the meeting were packed with interesting lectures and presentations from the member countries. Perhaps the greatest inspiration for me was to see how much more advanced patient care by local ostomy nurses is. They actively contact their patients, helping to prevent complications from which the patients often close their eyes, until it can be endured. Getting the situation under control is sometimes work for weeks, even months. Czech ostomy nurses try to help patients as much as they can, but their work has little room and support from hospitals.
The second very interesting lecture was on the topic of sex with stoma, which is a matter publicly unexplored, yet still a kind of a taboo. The Finnish organization went into battle, which is why they created a comprehensive handbook in collaboration with experts. Not forgetting even “more exotic” practices and mainly helping illuminate light onto gay sex with ostomy. It would be great to have something like that with us, I have the inspiration for my next project 😊.
The young ostomates also got space for planning projects and events. It’s all in its infancy, so I don’t want to say right away what we are planning, let’s see what happens. We all have the preference of activities on the local realm, time for international activities is limited. But I firmly believe that we will keep our word and the project will be successful and will be developed over the years.
Tereza