Health 2.0 Europe 2013: Nurses, registration and £££

This year I've really enjoyed the Health 2.0 Manchester chapter meetings and there's some great evening sessions to follow this northern autumn. In June as I posted on W2tQ I also spent a weekend at the NW Health Hack in Knutsford. 

For several months European Health 2.0 conference has been publicized at the Manchester meetings. I was keen to attend until I saw the registration fee even with a 15% reduction. The fee increased yesterday too as I was reminded by Pascal Lardier on twitter:

@pascal_lardier 19 Sep
Today is the last day to pay less for your ticket to @Health2eu Register here: http://www.health2con.com/events/health-2-0-europe-2013-registration/ … #health2con #nhssm #hcsmeu

I retweeted the above and replied to Pascal and Health2eu, telling them what they already know - Health 2.0 rocks! but adding that I thought few nurses would be able to afford the registration fee.

NW Health Hack was a success for me (in addition to our group coming 3rd) because it was free, apart that is from driving there over the weekend on my days off (thanks again to all the sponsors). As the NHS is trying to save money I've also taken some unpaid leave this year.

NHS nurses, like many public sector groups have effectively had a pay cut these past few years. There are other general challenges:

• Are those nurses who might attend already 'onboard'?
• Does nursing engagement itself need a health check (what is 'clinical engagement' now)?
• Much was made of achieving clinical engagement in previous NHS IT projects. How can clinical engagement that reaches nurses be assured now?
• If (technical) innovation is to be a constant stream, please don't leave the nurses on an island: they can set sail too.
• Are nurses, like the one writing this, tainted, having been sat on the fence (health care || ICT) for too long?
• Once projects are established how can nurses, patients and carers stay the course and keep in touch and engaged?
• As 'NHS clinicians' can nurses participate in initiatives such as the forthcoming Code4Health, or will operational constraints limit their involvement?
• How are the socio-technical aspects and outcomes measured (hospital vs. home personal use vs. self-care...) ?
• Is there a golden ratio for the mix of delegates?
• If there's a strategic partner involved where's the strategy?

Pascal sliced through my query and many of the points above:

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier 19 Sep
- then they should reach out to me!

So if the World Wide Health 2.0 conferences are of interest to you, do as Pascal suggests. New communities can provide new opportunities. Don't just help make your day, help make tomorrow too.

In 2012 the NHS employed 146,075 doctors, 369,868 qualified nursing staff, and 37,314 managers. 
http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/political-engagement/Pages/NHS-statistics.aspx#staff

Additional notes 29 Sept:

Health 2.0 MCR ‏@H20MCR

@h2cm patients are also asking how can @Health2eu Health 2.0 Europe conference be made more accessible for them @pascal_lardier?

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier

@H20MCR @h2cm @Health2eu @pascal_lardier they should email me pascal AT health2con.com there is a FREE reg code for them.