Letter from Jane Reid

Dear Marianne and SATs colleagues,

I was delighted to be invited to deliver the Elise Michau Memorial Lecture; it was a true honour and a priviledge.

I am only so sincerely sorry that I got sick and my voice was so bad; it limited the intonation I could accord to key points, and hampered my capacity to add lib and share more stories; as I had planned. ( it was so tough to force my voice, I just lacked suffificient energy to do so)

I recieved so many messages of thanks and support after the lecture from your delegates; so I have to be satisfied that despite some technical difficulties, the key message struck a chord/resonated for the delegates which was my primary goal.

It was important to me that it was an appropriate tribute to Elise and all that I learned from her biography that she stood for, promoted through her leadership, which the SATs Board wish to honour of their founder and promote with the current and contemporary membership.

The constructive criticism that was shared by some delegates, that I acknowledge and have taken away with me, was that whilst I shone a light and highlighted the challenge of the hospitals of the public sector with regard to resourcing; I could have acknowledged the excellence of resourcing in the private sector. This was an oversight, which I will rectify in future; of note and interest, colleagues of both sectors shared the same and equal challenges in implementing the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist; illustrating as we have learned elsewhere that success is not a resource issue, but a behavioural and attitudinal one.

As regards IFPN contribution, we certainly got a sense from the delegate feedback that the international flavour, added value/was appreciated.

We are only sorry that our own meeting schedule meant we were not in the conference as much as we would have liked; all be it we indulged ourselves on Thursday afternoon in a visit to Pretoria ( we have all watched Invictus and it is unlikely that many of my colleagues will have opportunity to visit SA again).

SATS have to be commended on the conference, particulalry Marilyn and her Chapter team, as do you and your team in your organisation and support of the event.

The highlight for the majority of your delegates, was undoubtedly the Lamp service of celebration for Florence Nightingale/International Nurses Day and all credit goes to Marilyn, for its orchestration and impact; it was a moving and powerful aspect of the conferenence.

Were it of percieved value and to compensate some of the deficits in my contribution this year, I would be delighted to support your next congress 2013, in Cape Town,securing finances/sponsorship for my flight, given that IFPN will be meeting in Canada that year.

If my contribution would be of interest to the SATS Board and the Cape Town organising committee, please give me early notice/confirm dates, so that I can pursure and secure support from appropriate sponsors.

Best regards
Jane Reid