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A message from WCET: A year to remember and a journey to celebrate

  • Writer: NSWOCC
    NSWOCC
  • 6 days ago
  • 3 min read

“Happiness is a journey not a destination” – Buddha 

 

Laurent Chabal 

BSc (CBP), RN, OncPall (Cert), Dip (WH), ET, EAWT 

Specialized Stoma Nurse. Ensemble Hospitalier de la Côte - Morges’ Hospital 

Lecturer. Geneva School of Health Sciences, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland.

Haute école de santé Genève, HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale 

WCET® President 

Member of the WCET® Education Committee 

 

As we are celebrating the 45th year of the WCET® Journal, this year has a special acknowledgement to my own Nursing and Stoma Nurse journey. 

 

As some of you will have heard me say, being a Nurse is my second life. Prior to that I had been a student at the University studying biology and more specifically “Cellular Biology and Physiology”(1). This is a pathway which definitely helped me in my career, even though at the time I had no idea it would, or that it would bring me where I stand today. It was also the time that I moved from France to Switzerland, although since a young age, I had traveled back and forth between these two countries to see my mom’s family on holidays. 

 

It has now been 30 years that I became a Nurse. I started at Morges’ Hospital, Switzerland in July 1995. After years of practice on an internal medical unit, and some oncology care, with two years spent in the Hospital’s Pain Control Unit, I was officially certified as a Stoma Nurse in July 2005. I then joined the WCET® Executive Board (EB) in June 2014, at the end of the WCET® Congress held in Gothenburg, Finland. 

 

What amazes me is that I am still learning from patients, families and colleagues, even though I am working in the Stoma, Wound and Continence field for more than 20 years (which I started in July 2003 even before being trained). I feel blessed to serve as an Executive Board member for more than 10 years. I am proud of the job done so far:  

 

  • I was instrumental in the revision of the BullETin changing it into the Magazine as it is now 

  • I have seen our Journal be professionally translated into 4 languages other than English; thanks to the effort of our Past Immediate President, Dr Elizabeth A Ayello, and the support of Coloplast China regarding its Chinese version, and to Calmoseptine® for its Portuguese and Spanish version. For now, WCET® is still supporting the French version, and all electronic versions (including the English one) which are available via the website(2) in free access. These languages are the top 5 most spoken languages of our membership. 

  • Our organization has won 3 prestigious awards in a row, thanks goes to our outstanding members (EB and others, past and present) 

  • We joined the International Council of Nurses (ICN) as an affiliate organization, allowing our work to be seen on the international specialty and non-specialty nursing stage  

  • Led the creation of the WCET® Past President Advisory Panel 

  • Led the WCET® Journal “Best Article of the Year” initiative. Please refer to the next Journal joint message for more information about it.  

  • I feel very fortunate to have been Vice-President and President Elect in the COVID-19 period, when we also underwent a change of company management, a challenge we had to deal with as a team, under Dr Elizabeth A. Ayello presidency. 

  • I got to work closely with such amazing Wound Ostomy and/or Continence Nurses dedicated to their work, giving their time and energy, without expecting anything in return, for a purpose which goes far beyond themselves. 

  • As an EB member have witnessed the celebration of the 100th anniversary of our founder, Norma N. Gill, the 45th birthday of our organization, Sadly I had to witness several pioneers leaving life’s stage – most recently we lost Norma’s daughter, Sally J. Thompson(3) who will be greatly missed. 

  • I was honoured to attend the 2024 Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses (WOCN®) Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where our tri specialty was created from the ground up.  

 

In addition, this year marks the 120th anniversary of the Nursing school where I was trained in Geneva, “Le Bon Secours” now called “Haute Ecole de Santé” and the 25th anniversary of the Ensemble Hospitalier de la Côte, where I work as a Clinician. 

 

Denise Hibbert will be taking over as the next WCET® President. This year will mark the special attention and follow up on WCET® matters in order to make ready for her to be able to step in at the end of our next WCET® Biennial Congress in 2026, this will be a celebration of our 25th biennial Congress.  

 

We will know by the end of this year who our next President Elect will be as the call for nominations has gone out and the election will run in July. 

 

I can also say I could not be happier to end my presidency when attending this next biennial congress which will be a WCET-NSWOCC joint congress, held in Vancouver from April 24 to 28, 2026. I feel very confident WCET® will continue its journey in very good hands when the time comes for me to formally pass the torch to Denise and her team.  


 

 

  1. Chabal LO. 2022. WCET® Welcomes new President: Laurent O. Chabal. NSWOC Advance 52(2):52-54 

  2. https://wcetn.org/page/ReadJournal  

  3. Ayello EA & Chabal LO. 2024. Sally J (born Gill) Thompson, ET 1 June 1952 - 19 October 2024. WCET® Journal 44(4):11. 

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