Feedback of SASOHN EXCO Meeting held on the 7th February 2008

2008 OBJECTIVES

• Update the professional image of OH nursing through improving standards & professional qualifications.
• Participate on the improvement of quality of audiometric testing in SA
• Provide an input to education programs for OHNP s
• Prepare for a research project in 2010.
• Build on relationship with other bodies involved in OH, both nationally and internationally.
• Assist members to improve professional behaviour.
• Financial compliance (regionally)
• Educational workshops
• OH of OHNP`s – SCOHN members

• Last meeting of NIOH committee was held 23 November 2007. It was agreed at this meeting that SASOHN will be requested to provide a proposal on the registration of audiometrists. K Michell will draw up this proposal and present to SASOHN before presenting to the committee.



• A meeting has also been held with the department of Labour and it has been requested that the need to be a registered spirometrist be legislated. It is necessary to do this as currently anyone is conducting these tests with a marked poor quality being noted. This could be achieved by making amendments to three of the regulations in the OHS Act. A proposal needs to be presented to DoL for this.



• SANS 451 has been sent for last comment to the Technical Committee. It should be ready for public comment within the next month.



• Unit std for spirometry was commented on and we await response to these comments. Two unit stds have been suggested. The first will be for the performance of the test which can be achieved by enrolled nurses etc. The second is a separate std on interpretation. M Felix is in the process of drafting this.



• ATS/ERS 2005 There have been changes made to the International Standards for spirometry. These were made in 2005 when the ATS and ERS merged their standards- now referred t as ATS/ERS 2005 standard. These changes have been mentioned a couple of times but I repeat them as many practitioners are not implementing them. All tests results must be repeatable to within 150ml for the FVC and the FEV1 and not 200ml anymore. The word repeatable now refers to closeness of test results for intra-test results i.e. at same sitting. The word reproducible now refers to the closeness of test results where conditions change i.e. from one year to the next. These changes have been incorporated into SANS 451.



• I applied to the ERS for sponsorship to attend a training course and visit testing facilities in an effort to acquire International support for the process we are following in South Africa. I was successful and took back to the books in Nov 2007. it was an amazing experience and much was learnt form the experience. It was also very encouraging to see that the training offered by some providers is more educationally sound than that in other countries. I want to thank SASPOHN for assisting me with costs that were not covered by the sponsorship.