Day 3 - Melbourne - extending the scope of end of life ethics....

Second full day of ICNE conference with keynotes from Belgium (Chris Gastmans), Ireland (Joan McCarthy), Japan (Emiko Konishi) and Australia (Olga Kanitsaki and Megan Jane Johnstone). Parallel sessions included presentations from colleagues in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Japan and the US.

Much discussion of end of life ethics focuses on debates about autonomy/choice, ageing and advanced care planning. This conference extended the scope of the field reminding participants that people die at all ages, that other values are at stake and that people do not just die in care facilities but also in disaster situtations.

Emiko Konishi's presentation examined 'nurses' responsibilities in radiation emergency' and related to nurses' involvement in historical and more recent disasters such as Hiroshima and the radiation emergency caused by the tsumami. There was interesting discussion in response to the question: 'do we expect too much from nurses?''

Megan-Jane and Emiko were interviewed on ABC radio about the conference theme and had an incredible 30 minutes of airtime - wonderful to raise awareness of the conference, nursing ethics and end of life ethics.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Deakin University launched Megan's new book Alzheimer's disease, media representations and the politics of euthanasia: constructing risk and selling death in an ageing society (Ashgate UK) - definitely a book we need to review for Nursing Ethics.

After the conference we made our way to the Convention Centre to register for the ICN Congress. Opening ceremony today and 4000 participants to attend. I met some UK Royal College of Nursing colleagues and was surprised to learn that RCN will not be attending this year....

But now, I'm off mushroom foraging and will tell you about this later :-)