History of BAUN
BAUN Founded
In 1992, Sarah Heatley, a urology research nurse started BURNS – the British Urology Research Nurse support group. Other nurses working in Urology heard of this, and were quite envious; a meeting was arranged in April 1995 to see if enough nurses were interested in forming a general association – the room was crowded! BAUN was born!
Development of the association
The aims of the association were always to develop Urological Nursing and support Urology Nurses. Meetings were held at the BAUS annual conference and independent winter meetings also took place. These provided networking and learning opportunities for nurses and were always very well evaluated. In 2001 the first Annual Conference was inaugurated; this remains the highlight of the BAUN year, thoroughly enjoyed by all who attend.
The association has also produced various guidelines for practice; a function that continues today.
Working with other organisations
As it has grown BAUN has forged links with the Departments of Health throughout the United Kingdom, various publishing groups, other nursing organisations, universities and pharmaceutical companies. International links are also being established.
The association has always worked closely with with the urological surgeons; a member of BAUN Council sits on BAUS Council and our meetings are held in the BAUS offices.
Education committee
BAUN continues to grow and develop; as part of your membership we ask you to indicate an interest in Benign or Oncology patient conditions. Whilst no formal sub-grouping exists, BAUN Council and the Education Committee are committed to developing and providing a broad range of study days to meet our members needs. We aim to provide a broad range of topics to reflect the diversity of urological nursing, if you feel there is a subject area which you would like the education committee to consider for future study please contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ tab above.
Please continue to check the Education section for our ongoing programme of study days.
A vibrant association
Over the years, thanks to the enthusiasm of its members and the hard work of those who have served on the council, BAUN has developed and grown into the vibrant organisation it is today.
In 2020 BAUN is proud to celebrates it’s 25th Anniversary. Current Council would like to Thank all who have gone before to make the Association as strong as it is today. We will celebrate our past and look to the future positively in this special year.
CURE
Craigavon Urological Research and Education, otherwise known as CURE, was founded in the Urology Department of Craigavon Area Hospital [CAH], Northern Ireland in the mid 1990s. The impetus for the development of the charity came about following a discussion between a patient who had been treated at CAH and Aidan O’Brien, Consultant Urologist. Working closely with Aidan and the CURE committee was a name well known to BAUN, Eileen O’Hagan.
Eileen was the first nurse form Northern Ireland to be elected to BAUN Council and in so many ways led a path that others have been very glad to follow. At the outset the aims were really quite simple and were captured in the name. CURE was established to raise funds to support the twin issues of urological research and education for both urologists and urological nurses. In the early days, when the education model for urologists in training required the completion of a research project, CURE provided much needed funding to urologists to complete their research. Hand in hand with the support offered to urologists undertaking research, both Eileen and Aidan were strongly convinced that CURE should also support nurses to undertake education initiatives as they sought to develop their own practice. To that end CURE assisted many local nurses to attend urology nursing conferences, including BAUN and EAUN, in addition to also supporting urology nurses to enrol in programmes of urology education that began in the early 2000s at Ulster University. Unfortunately Eileen O’Hagan became seriously ill a few years after she was on BAUN Council and she had to step down from that role that she so enjoyed. I was lucky enough to replace her, if indeed anyone could ever do that, and then commenced my own journey with BAUN. BAUN Council took the decision to initiate an Aileen O’Hagan Award for BAUN members as well as establishing an Eileen O’Hagan Lecture to be delivered each year at BAUN Conference.
Unfortunately the EOH Award ceased a few years ago, but the Eileen O’Hagan Lecture, with its aim of offering supportive engagement aimed at persuasively changing practice without confrontation, remains a fixture at BAUN Conference to this day. CURE provided some monies in the early day to support both these initiatives.
With the establishing of the International Journal of Urological Nursing, CURE took a decision to offer some modest annual financial support to ensuring that IJUN was not an overwhelming financial burden to the association. This financial support has continued to today and in a small way has been something of a support to the work of BAUN Council and the IJUN Editorial team in ensuring that a decade and more after its inception, IJUN continues to play an important role in spreading the urology nursing message both at home and abroad. Thank you to Jerome Marley for the information and historical context.