Florence Nightingale would have been amazed at the array of modern techniques to care for patients, which were on display in Staffordshire to celebrate International Nurses Day.

Feeding aids, hoists for lifting patients and a new hand-held device to carry out quick surveys were a few of the items on show at a Nurses Forum at Stafford Hospital.

More than 80 members of staff from Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust – many of them nurses or healthcare support workers, but also including consultants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, managers and health and safety advisors – attended the event last Wednesday in the Post Graduate Medical Centre at the Weston Road hospital. The celebration marked International Nurses Day, which actually took place last Monday, which is the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale nearly 200 years ago.

This year’s theme was Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things Every Day, which was emblazoned on the T-shirts worn by some of the nurses attending the Stafford event.

Dr Diarmuid Mulherin, consultant rheumatologist and head of medical services, and Mr David Durrans, consultant surgeon and deputy medical director, spoke about the difference a nurse can make to patients.

Other sessions included presentations by Clare Thompson, a staff nurse on Ward 11 – Dr Helen Moss, director of nursing and governance, and one on managing stress by Pam Turner, senior lead occupational health nurse.

“It was a wonderful celebration of our profession – its heritage and the technological advances that we use now to help care for our patients and which have led to increased quality of care,” said Dr Moss.

“Those attending were able to try out the modern devices that we use in nursing on a variety of interactive stands.

“While Nurses Day is an opportunity to celebrate the very fine tradition of nursing, we wanted to make our contribution very much about what is happening now – and in the future.”