EONS Newsletter February 2020

This month we bring you exciting news of how EONS was at the heart of the World Cancer Day activities at the beginning of this month, advocating for cancer nursing at the heart of the European Union. The ‘Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’ consultation has now been launched. We also bring you news of two high-profile awards received by EONS members; plus, more about ECND2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland, in May, and EONS13 in September in Madrid, Spain – registration is now open! Happy reading!

On World Cancer Day on 4 February, EONS was at the heart of European Parliament for the launch of the Commission’s EU-wide public consultation on Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, with our Chief Operating Officer Emma Woodford and Policy Officer Eleonora Varntoumian attending in person. In their speeches, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and MEP Mairead McGuinness highlighted the important role cancer nurses play in prevention, research and ensuring equal access to cancer care. The EONS board will soon be developing an organisational response and individual replies to the consultation are also possible. Learn more about this here.

EONS also made sure the voice of cancer nurses across Europe was heard loud and clear with a number of videos from EONS Presidents, Board and Working Group members, calling for recognition of cancer nursing as a specialisation with recognised qualifications. Check out the videos at our YouTube page https://bit.ly/37VIyog

EONS is extremely proud and delighted to announce that the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC) has honoured two high-profile EONS cancer nurses for their outstanding contributions to reducing the global burden of cancer. EONS Past-President Dr Lena Sharp will receive the Robert Tiffany Lectureship and EONS Board Secretary Prof. Theresa Wiseman, the Distinguished Merit Award, at the upcoming International Conference on Cancer Nursing 2020 (ICCN 2020) in London, UK, from 29 March – 1 April. Dr Stella Bialous, Past President of ISNCC and Chair of the Committee that oversees ISNCC’s Awards Program, said: “ISNCC is excited to recognize the extraordinary work of nurses who have made a major difference to cancer care. The successful applicants for this year’s awards are truly outstanding leaders whose work has led to advances in nursing practice as well as the development of nursing as a profession.” Many congratulations to Lena and Theresa for being fantastic role models in promoting excellence in cancer nursing!
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European Cancer Nursing Day 2020 falls in the WHO designated Year of the Nurse and Midwife. One of the key tenets of the WHO is Universal Health Coverage (UHC): “UHC means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care.” In order to improve universal access to good healthcare services, healthcare workers need to be, and are, addressing means and methods to reduce health inequalities. 

Across Europe, a range of challenges that prevent access to good quality cancer care in many countries and regions within countries perpetuate inequalities. These include nursing shortages, a lack of specialist qualifications for cancer nurses, poor safety equipment or working conditions. Ensuring access to specialised cancer nursing care for patients in every European country would go a long way to reducing health inequalities by ensuring all patients benefit from approved standards of care. We know that many cancer nurses are also engaged in different projects that aim to improve equality of access to good healthcare, or are engaged in community outreach programmes relating to cancer prevention and healthy lifestyles for example.

This Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we would like to give two talented cancer nurses – who can be nominated by themselves, their co-workers, managers or friends – special awards at the EONS13 Congress in recognition for the work that they do to reduce health inequalities and increase access to universal health care. If you would like to nominate any nurses for these awards, please send an email explaining the work that they do and why they should be awarded the ECND Strengthening Equality in Healthcare Award 2020 to eons.communications@cancernurse.eu . Each winner will receive free travel, accommodation for three nights and registration to the EONS Congress in Madrid. Deadline for applications: 31 March 2020

It’s the time of year for our much-valued Society Members, Associate Members and Individual Members (with December 2019 expiry dates) to renew their membership. For this year, membership will run from January to December 2020. Members will be invited by email to renew their EONS membership. We look forward to your renewed membership and to continuing to work together for the future of cancer nursing.

For more information and to complete the specific application form, please go to www.cancernurse.eu/membership/index.html.

Following our excellent partnership with our friends at ESMO last year in Barcelona, we are delighted to be able to announce that we will again be joining with them this year at ESMO 2020 (18-22 September) in Madrid, Spain, for our conference – EONS13 (19-21 September). The theme of the EONS Cancer Nursing Track is: The Future of Cancer Nursing in the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. The registration rate to attend is €459,80 (including VAT) – that gains you entry to all the ESMO sessions as well as the full EONS programme of speakers and events. It’s fantastic value! This year, for the first time, EONS will be offering a €84,70 registration fee (including VAT) for students and young cancer nurses under the age of  35! There will also be a limited bursary fund available for which EONS members from low- and middle-income countries will be able to apply. More information about these will be available soon!

When booking your trip you are advised to use the ESMO accommodation provider to avoid fraudulent accommodation companies. EONS can also provide a service to link up individual nurses who would like to look for shared, cheaper accommodation – contact eons.secretariat@cancernurse.eu. (However, please be aware you will remain responsible for making your own bookings.)

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The call is now open for applications for the 2^nd EONS Eastern Europe and Balkan Masterclass in Oncology Nursing, in Belgrade from 3-5 September 2020. The masterclass is specifically designed to meet the educational needs of cancer nurses from Eastern Europe and the Balkan region. Three intensive days of full immersion in up-to-date cancer nursing will create a collective spirit of teaching and learning to improving clinical skills and patient care. Deadline to apply is 5 May. 
Find out more and apply

One grant of 2500€ is available for the 2020 EONS Research Travel Grant. Both novice and established researchers will be considered. The grant funds one or two visits to the host institution (including travel at economy fare, accommodation and expenses). The focus of the grant is to build capacity and capability through a period of working closely with experienced clinical and/or academic researchers in another country. The deadline to apply is 29 May 2020. Find out more

EONS is in the process of refreshing and modernising its website – www.cancernurse.eu The current site will undergo redevelopment over the coming few months. During this major design and build work, the site will not be updated with new information as often as usual, so please bear with us during this time as we put all our efforts into creating a wonderful new platform for all EONS members and the wider cancer nursing world.

To mark the 20th anniversary of World Cancer Day, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) commissioned a global survey to form an up-to-date picture of the public’s experiences, views, and behaviours around cancer. Conducted by Ipsos, the survey includes more than 15,000 adults across 20 countries in the first multi-country public survey on cancer perceptions in a decade. The survey’s results, detailed in UICC’s report, International Public Opinion Survey on Cancer 2020: What people feel, think and believe about cancer today, indicate a clear divide between higher and lower socioeconomic groups when it comes to knowledge and awareness of cancer risks and, as a result, the practice of behaviours to limit such risk. UICC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Cary Adams said: “It is unacceptable that millions of people have a greater chance of developing cancer in their lifetime, because they are simply not aware of the cancer risks to avoid and the healthy behaviours to adopt – information that many of us take for granted.”
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At the time of writing, the EU agency for infectious diseases control still considered the risk for the novel coronavirus ‘low’ for Europe. However, the director of European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon is calling for a rethink of pandemic preparedness plans to help ensure Europe is equipped to deal with a virus spread scenario such as the current one in China. She said: “Right now, the strategy in Europe is to contain, meaning that symptomatic cases should be detected and diagnosed early, also identifying all the contact persons in any case and monitor them closely.”
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