Collaborating in neonatal care.

About 130 delegates from New Zealand, Australia and the United States gathered in Dunedin in October for the 10th annual New Zealand Association of Neonatal Nurses' (NZNO) (NZANN) conference. The theme "Neonatal care--a collaborative affair" was reflected well in the range of presentations. Topics included the development of nursing research, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environment, clinical practice, reflections of nurses and parents, equipment issues, medico-legal considerations, grief and cultural awareness.

Overseas keynote speakers were chair of nursing and midwifery research and practice development at Adelaide's Women and Children's Hospital, Philip Darbyshire, and dean of the College of Public Health in Tampa, Florida, Stanley Graven. Graven is a world renowned neonatologist and expert in neonatal neurodevelopment, with a particular focus on the impact of light and sound on outcomes for pre-term infants. His presentations provided fascinating insights into neuro-sensory development and how the NICU environment can be managed to lessen its impact on high-risk infants.

Darbyshire is well known as a researcher and educator in the field of child and family health. His interests involve the promotion of clinical research using interpretive and qualitative approaches, and the development of nursing arts and humanities. In his inimitable presentation style, he implored nurses to become more actively involved in projects. His challenge for nursing research, was "if not now, then when?" In keeping with the theme of collaboration, he suggested nurses look beyond their area of practice to groups such as educational institutions for support and advice when developing research proposals.

Two of Darbyshire's questions were: "What experiences, education and training do NICU staff need to get closer to understanding 'what it is like' for the parents on the receiving end of our services?" and "What unit and service changes are needed to enable us to respond to this?" "What it is like" was answered by a mother's experience in NICU, presented by Dunedin lawyer Jenny Beck. Beck's powerful presentation left not a dry eye in the house as she shared the uncertainty, joy and sadness of being a mother in NICU. Her presentation reminded us of the privilege we hold as neonatal nurses working in partnership with families. Maybe it is now up to those who heard Beck to answer the second part of the question: "What unit and service changes are needed to enable us to respond to this?"

Neonatal nurses who submitted successful abstracts gave interesting and varied presentations. Research is definitely happening in many units and with Darbyshire's enthusiasm and "helpful hints", more projects are already being planned.

At the AGM, the hard work and commitment shown by previous committees were acknowledged and are reflected in the ten years of professional development of neonatal nursing in New Zealand. The first honorary association membership was conferred on MidCentral District Health Board (DHB) nurse Anne Russell for her huge contribution to neonatal nursing. Russell is now co-ordinator of the professional development and recognition programme at the DHB. We wish her every success in her new role. The focus of NZANN's scholarship for 2004/2005 was nursing research. The successful recipient was Auckland nurse Robyn Wilkinson. Wilkinson's research will investigate parents' perceptions of the NICU environment. We look forward to hearing about her findings on completion of the study.

Report by conference organising committee members Juliet Manning and Jo Dobson.