Fertility nursing education

Now that our fertility education seminars have come to an end I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how useful I believe these sessions have been.

One area that I know fertility nurses have struggled with recently is finding the time to go to education events, seminars and courses. From personal past experience, over the past couple of years being able to release nurses for a day to go on a course has often been impossible due to patient numbers vs staffing levels.

As a forum we recognise this has been an issue for many fertility teams and we wanted to create a way where fertility nurses can get back to the basics and learn about the core topics that are required to become a specialist fertility nurse.

I am happy to say that the seminars have been a bit hit. With many nurses signing up to listen to our amazing speakers. All our events have been virtual which means they are more accessible to watch within clinics as a team and many of them have been recorded for later viewing.

The topics that we have covered this year have been:

• Male factor fertility - presented by Sheena Lewis
• LGBTQIA+ and fertility care - presented by Francesca Steyn
• Reproductive genetics - presented by Karen Sage
• Fertility care and emotional well being - presented by Angela Pericleous-Smith

These are all topics that are at the forefront of current fertility nursing practice and really highlight some of the key areas that should be focused on either by new fertility nurses for development or refresher sessions for the more long standing members of the team.

These sessions are not just open to fertility nurses, they are available to midwives, HCAs, Women’s health nurses, urology nurses and students. All of these teams will be able to benefit from learning about reproductive medicine. From understanding the emotional wellbeing of a pregnant woman following IVF treatment to understanding the reasons for reduced sperm numbers in men.

Reproductive medicine, although still a taboo subject among many patients, actually has a massive impact on at least 1 in 6 couples in the UK and impacts not only physical aspects but emotional and mental wellbeing for many men and women.

These seminars provide relevant and good quality continued professional development and as a forum we have every intention of hosting more of these sessions in 2023. Education is so important when it comes to fertility nursing as it is an ever changing subject.

The RCN fertility nursing forum is dedicated to helping provide clear education and development pathways for fertility nurses as we understand and appreciate that in recent times accessing education can be difficult, so watch this space!