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Report 2nd Congress of the EAPC
Brussels, Belgium, October 1992
The 2nd Congress was held in Brussels, Belgium, in October 1992. The major aim of this Congress was to offer a more detailed and specific educational programme and stimulate and encourage all health carers and professionals involved in the palliative care field. Pre-teaching sessions were included in the programme.
The importance attached to this event and the interest that it generated was evident from the patronage of the King and Queen of Belgium and the participation of several Belgian Ministers at the opening ceremony. The opening address was given by Professor Jerzy Einhorn, Chairman of the Palliative Care Subcommittee of the ´Europe Against Cancer´ Programme, and the closing lecture was given by Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern palliative care movement.
Taking into account feedback from participants at the 1st Congress in Paris, the Scientific Committee gave much greater emphasis to seminars and discussion sessions in formulating the programme.
The five main topics chosen by the Scientific Committee were presented in two plenary lectures, followed by seven seminars and five round-table discussions. Once again the official languages were English and French, for which simultaneous translation was available in most sessions.
There were 65 invited speakers and 122 free posters were displayed during one of the sessions. For both the seminars and the round-table discussion a choice had to be made at registration. The Congress was attended by 1,300 participants from 27 different countries. Many of the participants from Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Norway and Portugal were nurses. All the other countries were represented mainly by physicians. The distribution of professions was as follows: 38% physicians, 37% nurses, 5% psychologists, 3% social workers and 3% volunteers. The Chairs of the Organising Committee were Professor Christian Deckers and Mrs Bernadette Wouters from Belgium and the Chair of the Scientific Committee was Professor Geoffrey Hanks from the UK.
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