Please note: This was written before many of the recent developments in relation to COVID-19
Here I am again – where have the first months of 2020 gone?!
2020 – The year of vision looks set to be a busy one for the Scottish Orthoptists, we already have three events lined up, Spring meeting in Dundee on the 30th April, TU training on the 2nd October in Perth are already on the events page so please, please, please book your tickets now to support our local teams who are working hard to provide these sessions, click here to book your place. We also have our Autumn meeting in planning for the 6th November in Glasgow so keep a look out for that coming on the webpage soon too.
The whole of the BIOS team will be involved in using 2020 to our advantage – look out for 6/6/2020, social media will be buzzing! Join in @followBIOS
Since my last update exemption courses continue to take up our attention, we have been very fortunate with the funding from Scottish Government and the support from Nadia Northway and GCU, that the majority of Scottish orthoptists will have exemption certificates by the end of this year – a strong vision very much seen to the end by all involved as we move to increase our capabilities that we can offer to the ophthalmology team.
NHS Education for Scotland provided a funded “visionary day” for Scottish Orthoptists organised by Hazel McWhinnie and Tayside, this was a well-attended event in January covering the roles within teams, presentations from OCCCF, and Veronica around advanced practice and also our role as AHPs in driving forward change in line with the Scottish Government particularly for our more vulnerable patients. Thanks to NES for funding and to all who organised the day.
I talked about Sophie Tsang taking on the role as a “blog writer” for BIOS in my last introduction, this was for two projects, one for AHPFS around ‘Positive Impact Stories’ which are due to be published in the next few weeks – keep an eye on @AHPScot to see what other professions say too.
The other was for a “Day in the Life of” for AHP Scot which has been published here: https://ahpscot.wordpress.com/ Well done Sophie and thank for your hard work at helping us to increase the profile of our profession to others. Feel free to tweet and retweet when you see you these appear on the web.
On a final exciting note – I am delighted to announce that the 2021 BIOS Conference will be held in Scotland! Details have still to be fully decided so please keep a lookout on EPV for updates – on that note if anyone wishes to get involved to help with the organising locally please get in touch. (no going back now – it’s in EPV!)
As always I urge you to keep reading EPV, it has all the updates you need about what is going on, save the dates for your diaries and opportunities for you to get involved if you wish – it’s all there and there’s always lots going on. To my Scottish colleagues – you know how to find me if you need any help or support – drop me a line.
Best Wishes hope the Easter Holidays brings us some sunshine and daffodils.
Angela Carlin
BIOS Trustee for Scotland
