A SCHOOL nurse has been invited to a world health conference, to share her research about whether GPs know if she exists.Barbara Richardson-Todd, who looks after up to 4,500 pupils at schools in the Westbourne and East Bergholt pyramids, will be attending the first International School Health Conference in Abu Dhabi.

A SCHOOL nurse has been invited to a world health conference, to share her research about whether GPs know if she exists.

Barbara Richardson-Todd, who looks after up to 4,500 pupils at schools in the Westbourne and East Bergholt pyramids, will be attending the first International School Health Conference in Abu Dhabi.

It will be an all-expenses paid trip, staying at a top hotel, paid for by the Ministry of Health United Arab Emirates.

Barbara was delighted to be chosen as one of only three people from England, after sending organisers samples of her research, compiled last year as part of her degree course at Suffolk College.

She said: "I will be making two presentations, one on Adolescent Transition and the other on my research about "Do GPs know what School Nurses Do?"

"I was warned not to try and survey GPs, because people said they would be too busy to reply, but 50 per cent did, and 63pc of them didn't know who their school nurse was, or how to contact them.

"There are five school nurses in Ipswich and a few more in the surrounding area.

"I recommended that we should get out into the surgeries and introduce ourselves, tell them that we existed. Many people thought that after we had a big shake-up in 1996/1997, we didn't exist any more but we do, so we have to get out there and tell them that."

She said the other two English people giving talks at the four-day conference were a doctor and a researcher from Birmingham.

Barbara added: "There will also be people there from America, Europe, Scandinavia, Egypt and the Middle East.

"It will be good to share ideas and see how school nurses work in other countries."