This established annual course runs for nurses and Allied Health Practitioners working with infants, children and young people who have congenital heart disease and related cardiac conditions.
The course is run collaboratively by the Practice Educators and Specialist Staff of the London Congenital Heart Centres and attracts attendees from Cardiac Centres in the UK, Ireland, Europe and further afield. The course rotates around the 3 London Centres every 2 years and was held at the Great Ormond Street Site like last year. This year charitable organizations were invited to hold a stand at the conference so that the course attendees could have an opportunity to talk to them and the services they offer for children with cardiac conditions. Kanika Bhateja, CRY’s myheart coordinator, manned CRY’s stall on 21st July.
Some of the nurses who we spoke with were interested in myheart because they felt there were hardly any support groups for young people with cardiac conditions who are making a transition from children’s hospitals. CRY’s medical and myheart booklets were all taken very quickly by the nurses. Some of the nurses also showed interest in the upcoming annual CRY conference.
CRY’s myheart member, James Doherty spoke about living with a life-threatening cardiac condition called LQT. The presentation was the highlight of the day as James went about the presentation with funny anecdotes and was absolutely optimistic about his condition. James gave an inspiring and personal insight into what it is like for young people with cardiac conditions and their parents.
Thank you to the CHD conference for inviting us to hold a stand to raise awareness of the myheart network.
