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NAWP attends the Women’s Health Professional Care and Best Practice London conference

Ayah Abbass, President of the PDA NAWP Network recently attended the Women's Health Professional Care and Best Practice London conference. Here she shares her experience and what she learnt from the sessions.

Thu 16th May 2024 The PDA

I attended the Women’s Health Professional Care and Best Practice London conference on 28 – 29 February 2024. This was a very interesting and inspiring event. I had the chance to speak to so many wonderful inspiring women who are trying to shift women’s health in a positive way instead of it being a taboo or a stigma. What I found wonderful is the pharmacist’s role in this exhibition. Many events were hosted by female pharmacists and how they are changing the healthcare environment to be more welcoming and understanding of women’s health.

I managed to attend multiple sessions that were very beneficial and not only empowered me as a pharmacist but also as a patient. I attended sessions where I learnt so much more about a range of topics, such as managing menstrual migraine by Nazia Hussain, which is a topic we don’t focus on enough, as well as learning more about endometriosis which is a topic we have focused on as NAWP. Tailoring our approach to help women suffering from endometriosis is so important to understand patient suffering. I was so overwhelmed and proud to see how we are slowly approaching women’s health struggles more seriously and tailoring our ways to help out.

Some very relatable sessions were called ‘Practical steps to support Women’s Health in Primary Care’ and ‘The role of Community Pharmacy within the Women’s Health Strategy and Patient Pathways.’ This helped me and others to understand that we are on the right path to help pharmacy become a better world for women – not just as pharmacists but as patients too.

Again, I was very happy to see female pharmacists taking more of a role in the community beyond our usual role to help women. Veerpal Sandhu, an advanced clinical pharmacist, led a session on ‘Menopause and Mental Health: the need for a holistic and medical approach.’

Another aspect that I loved at the event was the number of exhibitors available focusing on women’s health, such as Endometriosis UK, CoppaFeel!, The Menopause Charity, and Breast Cancer NOW.

I had the chance to speak to the lovely team from CoppaFeel! and attended their incredible session on cancer awareness and engaging young people in positive health behaviour. We spoke about the work we do as NAWP and I look forward to working with this charity in future. What I admired about them is the material they are providing for young people to encourage them to check their boobs. I saw their shower hanger and sticker which is a great reminder to check your boobs in the shower through the simple checklist. The material was very engaging and fun to help encourage people to check their boobs which can be easily forgotten with our busy schedule.

As NAWP, we have raised money for the past few years for Breast Cancer Now during Wear it Pink Day. I had the chance to speak to the team about how as pharmacists we can help encourage our patients to approach us regarding breast cancer and to attend their screening. We discussed how so many factors can prevent patients from attending their breast screening, such as a language barrier, but they informed me they have successfully managed to produce a range of leaflets that have been translated into different languages which we can provide as pharmacists.

Overall, this was a very inspiring and empowering event on women’s health. I hope to attend again next year and would encourage other pharmacists and NAWP members to take part too.

Images from the the Women’s Health Professional Care and Best Practice London conference

By Ayah Abbass, the President of the PDA NAWP Network

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