My First Nursing Conference Experience

Hey friends,

So I was very excited to be given the opportunity to attend a nursing conference almost two weeks ago. The conference was put on by Sigma Theta Tau International and centered around population health and nursing's role: ethics, leadership, and global action. My own chapter of STTI sponsored me to be able to go, so thank you!

The conference was split into two days. The days were structured with a keynote speaker in the beginning, two 1.5 hour sessions of research or innovation presentation, and then a closing keynote speaker. Of course there was also opportunities for breaks and time to look at the poster presentations. 

My strategy for my first conference was to map out which presentations I wanted to see ahead of time. The first day I ended up attending both sessions of the innovation presentations. The second day I split my time between the two. 

Although I only knew one other person attending, I made sure to be social and network with the other individuals there. I was extremely humbled to be in a room with amazing nurses while I am still a student. A few nurses I met told me about what quality improvement projects their hospitals were working on; A lot of them were structured on preventing falls. The conference was also great because there were nurses from both areas that I am looking at working in. Talking with the other nurses made me excited to graduate in May and attend more conferences. If you know of any good ones let me know!

I took some notes from a couple of the presentations so I thought I would share with you some items I found interesting:

Nursing's Role in Advancing Translational Science

• it takes 17 years for new knowledge to be incorporated into practice
• have a generalist leadership style
• focus on relationships
• enable things to happen, do not do the work
• see the bigger picture
• rely on "executive" presence
• team development
• forming: identify team, scientific ideas
• storming: roles and responsibilities; process; encourage interdisciplinary ideas
• norming: effective & efficient work; trust develops
• performing: seamless work

Bedside Shift Reporting

• benefits
• increased pt involvement
• understanding care
• decreased pt and family anxiety
• increased accountability
• increased teamwork
• tools
• update whiteboard
• warm handoff
• check IV site, skin, and environment

Leveraging Technology to Prevent PT Falls

• remote PT safety monitoring (Careview Cam)
• virtual bed rails and chair rails
• immediate response to pt attempts to get out of bed/chair

Blood Glucose Checks

• Alcohol wipes
• dries skin which leads to skin breakdown and increased pain and risk for pt infection
• increases blood glucose reading
• Water soaked gauze
• ideally hand washing
• only when no cleaning was available did the second drop yield a more accurate result

Let me know if you have been to any conferences or which one would be good for a student to attend to,
Have a great week!