Critical Mass at the Critical Care Nursing Conference

Boston + 9,000 nurses = NTI2018

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is well-known for its annual National Teaching Institute (NTI), but this year, in terms of sheer scope, it surpassed all other meetings I know of. With over 9,000 attendees, registration had to be closed for the first time ever. Imagine—there were almost too many people at the Boston Convention Center, one of the largest venues in the country.

The exhibits, as always, were never-ending, with sections for industry, education, organizations, recruiters, and publishers. And as always, the “newbies” could be identified by the bags of giveaways they carted off . . . as opposed to the NTI veterans, who merely scan badges and have info sent to them.

Obstacles as opportunities for change.

Monday’s opening address by AACN president Christine Schulman was heartfelt. Reflecting on her soon-to-end year as the president and its chosen theme, “Guided by Why,” she encouraged us to explore the possibilities of making real changes when we face obstacles. And she announced that AACN was planning to take on the fundamental issue of nurse staffing:

“Inappropriate staffing has gone on for far too long. It involves many factors . . . and needs a major shift in how we think about delivering patient care.”

Body language creates and projects confidence.

The next day’s keynote address by social psychologist Amy Cuddy (see her popular TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are“) gave attendees some insight […]

2018-06-06T12:38:27-04:00June 6th, 2018|career, Conference reports, Nursing|0 Comments
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‘Guided by Why’: Notes from the 2017 AACN Conference

Clareen Wiencek, left, and Christine Schulman

AJN‘s clinical editor Betsy Todd recently had a chance to speak with outgoing AACN president Clareen Wiencek and president-elect Christine Schulman about their plans and accomplishments. This post includes her podcast conversation with the two critical care nurse leaders, as well as a summary of highlights from the annual conference. For other updates from recent nursing and heath care conferences, visit our On the Road page.

As always, this year’s National Training Institute and Critical Care Exposition (“NTI”), the annual meeting of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), offered hundreds of educational sessions along with thought-provoking “supersession” addresses. Five “visionary leaders” were honored on the opening day: […]

2017-06-07T12:21:23-04:00June 7th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
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The Buzz at Nursing Conferences about Quality and Healthy Work Environments

“I was struck by the preponderance of sessions dealing specifically with incivility and bullying (in both academia and practice settings).”

Recent back-to-back nursing meetings gave me a lot of food for thought. After attending conferences, I like to find the overall theme—not just from the scheduled topics, but from the posters and the exhibits and the general “buzz” from conversations. Here’s my take on the two meetings I attended this month.

ANA’s 2017 Translating Quality into Practice Conference

This conference started with an opening session focused on quality from a consumer point of view. Keynote speaker Harry Greenspun asserted that today “it’s the patient or family’s responsibility that the right thing happens at the right time by the right person.” Nurses, he said, are the group that needs to engage and empower consumers (who, he said, should only be called patients when they are receiving care) in improving care.

ANA president Pam Cipriano added that “nurses are the ones doing the work on quality—all the projects and quality improvement is being done on the backs of nurses.”

While some sessions focused on specific clinical practices (reducing hospital-acquired infections or falls, for example), many focused on broader aspects of quality improvement—how systems can support QI change and integrate new technology (mobile apps, simulation).

There was also discussion relating to staffing strategies and teams (though the cynic in me feels that much of the […]

2017-03-29T13:31:16-04:00March 29th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
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How to Create a Poster that Attracts an Audience: New Research Yields Clues

Have you ever designed a poster to present at a nursing conference?

If so, how did you know what to do?

Today, digital design and printing capabilities present many options for professional-looking posters. But how can you increase the chances that nurses at a conference will actually read what you’ve gone to so much trouble to share?

In this month’s AJN, Sandra Siedlecki, PhD, RN, CNS, senior nurse scientist at the Cleveland Clinic, discusses the attributes of a good poster in an original research article: “How to Create a Poster That Attracts an Audience.”

Past articles in the nursing literature have described how to create a “winning poster,” but Siedlecki could find no actual evidence-based recommendations about poster design. So she set out to learn what attracts nurses to specific posters by surveying attendees at a nursing conference.

What captures the attention of conference attendees?

In addition to asking nurses to rate the importance of various poster design elements on a scale of zero to 10, Siedlecki also asked attendees these open-ended questions:

2017-03-13T10:13:59-04:00March 10th, 2017|Nursing, nursing research|0 Comments
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Hitting the Nursing Conference Trail: Many Miles, But Much to Inspire

“Nurses are doing such interesting and important work.”

A big part of what we do at AJN is seek out the latest information and compelling stories to bring to readers each month. That often means a lot of traveling. While sometimes it does get a bit much (conferences are mostly clustered in the spring and the fall), I’ve come to enjoy traveling—nurses are doing such interesting and important work!

Here’s a recap of some recent travels:

Nursing Research

2016-11-21T13:00:52-05:00November 2nd, 2016|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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