On Saturday, 3 October ROPSF team said goodbye to six young Romanian paediatric nurses who had spent ten days in the UK learning and gaining experience in supporting neonates – babies - and young children who have undergone major surgery leading to the formation of a faecal or urinary stoma.

The nurses spent four days at key UK children’s hospitals under the supervision of leading paediatric stoma care nurses. Here they observed techniques to help young patients to recover as well as how best to offer support to the parents and other carers in the community, including in one case the smoothing-out of the child’s pathway back to school. This type of support is invaluable but often fraught with unexpected occurrences that can be stressful for the child, the parents as well as the teachers.

Furthermore the nurses spent time hearing from four experienced UK specialist nurses and had the opportunity of visiting one of the leading ostomy appliance manufacturers.

On the last day they spent time sharing their thoughts and considering how they might adopt some of the good practice seen during their hospital visit into their own hospitals in Romania.

The climax to their trip was the chance to view London from the high vantage point in Canary Wharf and to be presented with certificates, having attended stage 3 and other stages of the paediatric stoma care course, by the chairman and CEO of the company, Sir George Iacobescu.

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Judging from the feedback and subsequent comments from the nurses the course was highly successful, they said: it gave an<em>, “<strong>opportunity to have experience….and learn wonderful things” - Magda; “thank you for the opportunity to exchange experiences” Daniela; “I had a great learning experience and a good time too” Oana; “thank you for all your support” Dima.</strong></em>