ASCN UK News

Summary of NSWOCC Vancouver 2026 – 23rd-28th April 2026

Date: 20 May 2026

In April, committee members Wendy Osborne (Governance and Communication Officer) and Maddie White (Clinical Practice Development Officer) attended NSWOCC Vancouver 2026. In this news piece, Wendt shares a summary of the event.

This international conference was held as a joint venture between the WCET (World Council of Enterostomal Therapists and NSWOCC – (Nurses specialised in wound, ostomy and  continence, Canada).

Some of you will remember WCET UK was the UK’s National specialist stoma care Association until 2013 when the UK took the decision to reform as an individual UK society, rebranded as ASCN UK – we remain to this day as the UK’s  only professional Specialist Stoma care forum.

However, as ASCN UK, we remain passionate to maintain and support the longstanding collaborative arrangement we have had for a number of years with WCET. As Specialist Stoma care Nurses in the UK, we are very fortunate with our healthcare system to have the resources, expertise and opportunities in stoma care to continually advance our services.  It is with this knowledge and transparency we feel it is imperative to support and share this internationally.

Maddie and Wendy therefore attended this joint conference representing the UK as ASCN UK.  We manned our ASCN UK exhibition stand throughout the conference as an ‘exhibitor’ to raise the profile and presence of ASCN UK.  This provided us with the opportunity to share the amazing work ASCN UK have developed. Our standards, guidelines, specialist book and key projects such as EXPASS and ASCS (Advancing Stoma Care Services), provoking interest and curiosity to all those that stopped by to talk to us. Many delegates were keen to further explore the work we have undertaken and the availability of QR codes enabled us to share further details.

We had a poster accepted for the conference highlighting the collaborative work of EXPASS and supported Sarah  Russell, co author and EXPASS project lead,  after she presented to conference delegates.

With over 1000 delegates from around the world attending – this truly collaborative event offered the opportunity to share knowledge, service developments and our unique UK experience as Specialist Stoma Care Nurses.

It was actually the first year NSWOCC had undertaken an abstract process, as normally they only had invited speakers to their conferences.  Our feedback of this process and what they evaluated in the sharing of new and innovative knowledge was inspiring for them. However, only 9 UK nurses attended the conference and we would encourage members to join WCET and submit abstracts to gain an international perspective on stoma care.

Maddie and I attended the educational program throughout the conference, attending primarily the ostomy focused sessions:

Just a few key take aways from the sessions attended

• There is an international consensus on ostomy guidelines that the ASCN UK guidelines are compatible with (International Ostomy Guideline). See WCET website for more information (https://wcetn.org)
• Convexity & assessment of peristomal skin condition where predominant themes – consensus around the world of the ongoing challenges we are seeing – and need for regular clinical assessment, that demonstrates rationale and justification to our assessments with a need to focus on the individual, safety and prevention There was an Interesting presentation on the assessment of dark skin tones which is an area of interest to take forwards.
• EXPASS – is very much on the international arena – every one was talking about it 🙂 and they are all waiting for our further development of the resource tool – which I am sure you are too – watch this space – soon !
• Rising rates of Colorectal cancer in younger people – highlighted the Tsunami of CRC heading our way
  • The Canadian consultant an annual increase of up to 4.5% over the last decade –
  • Many delayed diagnosis – as deemed ‘too young’ for CRC
  • Steepest rise in the under 40’s – highlighted impact of sexual dysfunction (65%) – infertility
  • They are in their decade of career building/ partnerships/  parenthood
  • 45% CRC survivors experience clinical anxiety / depression
  • Mortality of CRC increasing by 27% from 2004
  • Although not proven – contributing factors being diet / sedentary lifestyles / obesity  / 1:5 genetic
  • Women with obesity 2x risk of early onset CRC
  • Proposed – screening should start at 50yrs / age 40 if a family 1^st degree relative
  • I heard everything they were saying – but I couldn’t truly understand it  – (2025 patient report ). This was a statement from a patient – for me it resonated that we need to remember that patients may be listening but we need to ensure we evaluate their understanding.

• Canadian Patient satisfaction survey feedback – the positioning of the questions provided additional insightful information – that I had not seen before and encouraged me to reflect on my practice;
  • Adjusting to an ostomy – majority stated over 18 months
  • Physical changes in body was the most alarming for the patient
  • Request for more info of the emotional impact of living with a stoma
  • People were surprised at the level of ostomy care required in the initial weeks post op

Being a member of WCET opens your eyes to the international challenges of specialist nursing and highlights how fortunate we are in the UK with our health care system (albeit the frustrations we have with it !!), we and our patients really do have access to so many more resources. However, we can learn from each other and conferences such as these are fantastic opportunities to network and share knowledge.

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