More than 350 operating theatre professionals, two days, one address: the Kursaal in San Marino.
On 6 and 7 November, the Republic hosted the fifteenth edition of the Conference on Operating Theatres and Surgical Intervention Areas, bringing together university lecturers and healthcare managers from Milan, Bologna, Genoa, Brescia, Udine and Forlì, with opening remarks from Secretary of State for Health Massimo Andrea Ugolini.
The number is striking, but the real story lies elsewhere: in the direction of travel.
Normally, to keep up to date, you pack your bags. Here, it’s others who do the travelling: for years now the conference has made its home in San Marino, and for two days Milan and Bologna found themselves just minutes from Cailungo.
And San Marino didn’t simply lend out a venue.
San Marino’s nurses were the hosts. Alongside names from abroad, the programme also featured a senior consultant from the State Hospital, Nicola Cautero. The San Marino Order of Nursing Professions also granted its patronage.
The programme read like a trailer for the operating theatre of years to come. It opened with the changing nature of the profession, the evolution of nursing roles and new professional figures, followed by a round table on training and organisation.
Then came robotic surgery, the management of medical devices in the most complex procedures, and the green operating theatre. There was also room for those who live the operating theatre every day, through professional presentations, workshops and a poster session.
Training that counts on paper too: the conference is ECM-accredited, awarding participants continuing education credits.
In his address, Ugolini placed people ahead of machines. “A more technological healthcare system will not necessarily be a better one,” he said, unless skills, professional responsibility and teamwork grow in step with innovation.
For San Marino, he added, this exchange carries “particular value”: the Republic’s small scale fosters direct relationships and allows dialogue between professionals and institutions to be turned into concrete opportunities for growth.
The conference bears the signature of the Italian Association for Healthcare Professional Training, is held under the patronage of the Secretariat of State for Health, and is dedicated to Luciana Fagioli.
Starting with their next shift, those 350 professionals will be back in the operating theatre, caps and masks on.
And with something extra, learned in San Marino.
