Networking
Networking in nursing is the act of exchanging information and making contacts with other people, institutions, and groups to develop relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Networking can happen in many formal and informal ways, such as talking with leaders, managers, or colleagues on your team or unit, attending training sessions, professional conferences, or continuing education, or joining associations and forums.
Networking helps you to advance your career, learn from other professionals, and keep up with current trends in practice, technology, research in urology.
Networking does require emotional reciprocity, which means caring about the needs and agenda of those you network with.
There are many resources to help you understand how to get the most out of networking opportunities.
More about networking from the Royal College of Nursing
What does BAUN offer?
Being a member of BAUN gives you access to many different platforms to network with like minded healthcare professionals who are passionate about urology.
Events
Our conference takes place yearly, usually in November, and runs over 3 days. It is the best networking opportunity for urology nurses on the urology educational calendar anywhere and it is always UK based! It is a combination of;
- Workshops
- Plenary sessions
- Poster and oral presentations
- Junior members forum
- Celebrating achievement and innovation
With support from our corporate members who have committed to sponsor the event and over 50 exhibitors.
Day 1 – workshops which may include flexible cystoscopy, transperineal prostate biopsy, with practical sessions and presentation of up- to-date guidelines by experienced practitioners.
Day 2 – the opening of conference, which runs over 2 days ending in an evening of celebration and the award presentations to our inspirational high achievers.
Day 3 – includes a benign and oncology break-off stream
Annual BAUN Day was launched in 2024 which was a huge success. To celebrate, we ran a free summer study day in Newcastle for early-career urology nurses or those new to the field of urology. It was a great success. BAUN will celebrate BAUN Day every year on 6th June, offering our members a free educational event to attend (location will change each year). Keep an eye out on our socials and website for information about this year’s event. .
Online Networking Opportunities
BAUN Facebook page (add link to this) We currently have over 189 followers . A place to find up to date what’s going on at BAUN and events and discussions in urology care. What the trustees are involved in and what our members are talking about and sharing. Its obviously free to join. We have facebook live education events also.
Webinars – these are free to register to. All those who attend the live event receive a certificate of attendance. But as members you can also have access to the recordings of previously held webinars through the members area of the website.
We aim to hold 4 webinars per year and these are sponsored by our corporate partners so we can offer them out free. They provide 1.5hrs of structured content delivered by experts in the field of urology. This is a fantastic opportunity not only to develop professionally, but to network and to ask questions. (Insert link to education page and events calendar)
Collaborative education – We work closely with industry, other charities and organisations to support them with education and we will advertise these through our social media platforms; Linkedin we have over 600 followers and Facebook with over 250 followers including the BAUNJUN , and Instagram with over 150 followers. .
Publications; We have a partnership with the International Journal of Urology. And this is free to access on-line through our BAUN members page on the website and there is not only some great inspirational and informative articles there is also opportunity to submit for publication and to chat in the forum.
Mentoring
Mentorship is the patronage, influence and guidance and or direction, given to an individual on a 1-2-1 basis by another. The mentor is who is able to educate, inspire, help and support someone who is less experienced or knowledgeable than themselves in the subject area. The below link is to an article published in the Nursing in Practice Journal which talks more about mentorship in nursing and how to gain the best experience from it.
More about mentoring from the Nursing in Practice Journal
How does BAUN support you through mentorship?
The Bruce Turner Award
Bruce Turner was a well known and loved BAUN member, a nurse consultant at the Homerton Hospital, London, and BAUN Education lead for many years.
Our beloved friend and colleague passed away in 2016 after a terminal diagnosis of cancer. He was determined to continue his mission to educate and impassion urological nurses and left instructions that a legacy should continue in his name.
His legacy has been used to establish The Bruce Turner Award: an annual prize which will provide a fully funded place (transport within the UK, accommodation and conference fees) to the BAUN annual conference.
As an organisation part of our support to our members is to provide a unique opportunity to experience working closer with the BAUN Trustees. We offer a year’s mentorship to our winner of the Bruce Turner award.
Find out more about the award.
The award winner will be invited to attend attend a trustee meeting face to face either in January or June. In addition, the winner may also be given the opportunity to co-chair at our educational events or be part of one of our sub-groups such as the awards group. This will help you to gain experience, confidence and new skills to help you network beyond your workplace.
We will also link you up with one of the trustees who you feel most compliments your job role or professional development, so you can go and visit them in their work place and shadow them for a day.
Become a Co-opted Trustee
BAUN has a core number of trustees on its board, but we also invite novice trustees to be co-opted on to our team for a year. This is something new that we have initiated in recognition that not everyone feels confident to nominate themselves to become a full trustee or who may not feel in a position to commit longer term for the full 3 year term of office.
View Current Trustees Become a Trustee
Part of the role of a co-opted trustee is to provide support to the core team, you would be buddied up with 1 or 2 full trustee members in a functional role (conference, education, website, membership, etc) in addition to being invited to all meetings and events that we organise or support.
And if you have enjoyed your time as a Co-opted Trustee you could stay on and automatically become a full trustee at the end of your year!
These are both great examples of how BAUN supports individuals on a personal professional development level. If you want to know more you can contact us for more information or to arrange a chat with one of the trustees.
Its our members that drive our purpose and the members that inspire us to keep going, all with the goal to provide the best care to urology patients that we can.
