NAM at NHIVNA

For Thursday and Friday of this week NAM has been at the annual National HIV Nurses Association (NHIVNA) conference, held at the huge ACC centre in Liverpool, overlooking the Mersey. Delegates have come from all across the UK to gather together and learn about the latest in HIV treatment and practice.

NAM has an exhibition stand at the conference and we are attending to hear about how people use our resources, introduce our new titles such as the HIV and UK African Communities book and find out about how our resources are helping nurses in their work.

It has been fantastic to have a steady stream of people coming to the stand to have a chat and, as many people put it, “check I’ve got everything!”. A lot of nurses have told us that they tend to use a mixture of the basics and the booklets to explain the key issues of HIV to people newly diagnosed, and find our drug chart is a good way of preparing people for what kind of pills they will be taking.

Robert Fieldhouse from Baseline (looking lovely in the photo to the left) also popped over to the NAM stand to say hello and take a look at our new resources. Baseline also had an exhibition stand at NHIVNA and were promoting their magazine throughout the conference.

The lovely Ian Hodgson from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance popped over in the morning tea break just before his talk on ‘Stigma and HIV’ to take a look at our new HIV & UK African Communities book, which he said was a very useful resource, and to say hello. He is tweeting throughout the conference and you can follow him to hear what he has to say about the sessions today at http://twitter.com/ijhodgson.

Sarah Radcliffe from NAT also stopped by the stand just after the session on ‘Standards for psychological support for people living with HIV’ by Dennis Dobin, and said it was a very interesting talk, which seems to have generated a lot of interest amongst the nurses.

If you are at the conference and have a spare minute do pop over to our stand and say hello. And in case you need an incentive, our stand is right next to the biscuits! (I highly recommend the marmalade ones).