The National Patient Safety Office (NPSO) in the Department of Health will be hosting its annual conference on Tuesday 11th October in the Printworks, Dublin Castle following a 2-year hiatus due to the pandemic. This year's conference will be a one day, in-person event and attendance will be free of charge. Please register early as numbers are limited.

This year’s theme will be “Working Together for Patient Safety”. The aim is that the conference would look beyond COVID-19 and highlight how collaboration and people are drivers of patient safety.

Registration time: 8:00am to 9:00am

Refreshments and lunch will be provided

Keynote Speakers currently confirmed include:

Dr. Suzette Woodward – Dr. Woodward is an international patient safety expert with over 40 years experience in the NHS. Her background is as a paediatric intensive care nurse. She has over 20 years of experience in patient safety at a national and international level. Her roles include patient safety advisor and lecturer. She has written 3 books on patient safety and led many large-scale campaigns related to patient safety. Her expertise is in safety I and safety II, psychological safety, restorative just culture and all other aspects of a positive approach to safety.

Prof. Eilish McAuliffe – Prof. McAuliffe has more than 20 years of experience in health systems research. She conducts research in several areas, taking an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on psychological safety, and identifying learning and improving the quality and safety of services amongst other topics. She has considerable experience of educating policy makers and managers and has supervised more than 100 research students conducting applied research in Irish healthcare. 

There will be two poster competitions this year as outlined below:

1. 1. General Poster Competition (choose 1 of 3 subthemes below which best fits your poster)

•                  (a) Working together with patients to implement change and improve care

•                  (b) Working together to improve and enhance quality health systems

•                  (c) Working together to promote evidence-based, clinical and cost effective care
• 
  

1. 2. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) & Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Competition for Students and Graduates Of the Last Decade (GOLD) - Posters and abstracts should clearly identify how the AMR/ IPC initiative aligns with Ireland’s second One Health National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2021-2025 (iNAP2) with a focus on human health impacts but can also include the One Health approach. 

- Abstracts should be submitted to patientsafety2022@isqua.org

- Applications for submission of abstracts opens 9^th August and closes 6^th September

- Posters must be in A1 and landscape orientation to accommodate our poster boards
- Not all posters submitted will be displayed as numbers are limited

- The poster review teams will decide the most suitable posters for the conference based on the suitability of the submitted abstracts

- It is important that an author of each poster is available to attend the conference on the day and is present for judges questions at 1:30pm and the announcement of the poster prize winners which is scheduled to be at the closing remarks of the conference.

ISQUA is supporting the NPSO with the administration of the poster competition and coordination of the applications this year. ISQUA is a member-based, not-for-profit community and organisation dedicated to promoting quality improvement in health care. They have been working to improve the quality and safety of health care worldwide for over 30 years.

Background of the NPSO:

The NPSO was launched in December 2016. Located in the Department of Health, the NPSO was established to oversee a programme of patient safety measures and engages with the HSE, HIQA and health professional regulatory bodies on patient safety issues. Current work areas cover patient safety, quality, and care experience as well as a legislative programme. Policy workstreams includes clinical effectiveness, open disclosure, patient safety advocacy, and the use of data and health information for patient safety. The office also covers policy on antimicrobial resistance.