Connections for Healthcare Professionals
In 2022, Fittleworth launched a programme called Connections, designed to support ostomates in reconnecting with their own bodies post-stoma surgery and to strengthen their physical and emotional relationships with others.
Connections gained huge support from the nursing community, and we’ve listened to feedback and surveyed many Stoma Care Nurses regarding using the Connections toolkit and how patients have received it. Responses were overwhelmingly positive, but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t just patients who needed guidance when discussing sex and intimacy; it was also Healthcare Professionals.
NEW from Fittleworth! Connections for Healthcare Professionals is a programme devised and developed for Healthcare Professionals by Healthcare Professionals.
The Connections workshop will support HCPs to encourage conversations around intimacy with their patients, with guidance from an expert panel, including experienced Psychosexual Therapist and Intimacy Coach Charlene Douglas and a team of Clinical Nurse Specialists.
Charlene Douglas, famous for Channel 4’s Married at First Sight UK, will support you throughout this new programme with the launch of a face-to-face HCP workshop in Birmingham in February 2024, coupled with step-by-step patient guides and materials.
Connections is a powerful tool that will ultimately help nurses to:
- Avoid subconscious judgements surrounding patients and their intimacy journey;
- Build self-awareness regarding your own triggers;
- Reflect on your own practice and ask questions;
- Feel confident and comfortable speaking to ostomates about sex and intimacy using the connections tools in clinical practice;
- RCN Accreditation (pending).