National Conference of Nurse Practitioners (NCNP) 2016

The fall edition of the National Conference for Nurse Practitioners was held earlier this month in Chicago. It was one other extraordinary conference in an enormous city. Here are some highlights from the conference and what I learned.

Words of Experts

My schedule was stuffed with sessions related to dermatology, pain management, critical care, and more! Here are some gems and suggestions I learned from the sessions I attended:

“Engage patients. Say, “What is important to you?” as a substitute of: “What’s wrong with you?”

“The two most effective tips for preventing premature aging are to never smoke and limit exposure to UV radiation.”

“Respiratory failure results from three things. It all depends upon the pump. It all depends upon circulation. It’s about gas exchange.”

“Things that have nothing to do with the skin will speak through the skin.”

“When starting opioid therapy, you need to have an exit strategy from the very beginning.”

“Suboptimal nutrition is a major cause of postoperative complications.”

“There is a strong placebo effect in the treatment of IBS. Why? Because symptoms come and go.”

“When evaluating pain management, go beyond the numbers…ask about functionality. “What can you do now that you couldn’t do before?”

“The effects of heart failure are about as severe as those of most malignancies.”

“Zika virus – why now? This is a new virus introduced into a population with virtually no immunity.”

New (for me) resources

I prefer it when presenters share web sites and tools that I can add to my very own list of favorite resources. Here are a number of I’ve added to my favorites: style type=”text/css”>ul{margin-left:16px;}

• Healthcare recovery — An open and interactive site where visitors can share ideas about health care and browse and comment on the ideas of others.
• NNT — quick summaries of evidence-based medicine from a gaggle of doctors.
• Collaboration for REMS Education (CO*RE) — tools and resources for secure opioid prescribing.
• Trauma.org — image data bank and other resources for trauma and important care professionals.

Posters

I’m often drawn to poster presentations since it’s great to see the work others have done. It’s incredibly necessary to share and learn from one another, and presenting your work at a national conference like NCNP is impressive! While all of the posters were well done and informative, I used to be struck by two common themes that emerged; there have been many posters related to pediatric care, and much more related to shared doctor visits. Selected posters (in addition to other photos from the conference) could be viewed in our section Photo album on Facebook.

Technology and sharing

As a conference attendee, I discovered the conference app useful for tracking my sessions and completing assessments as a part of the continuing education credit process. Other features allowed me to fulfill exhibitors and even vote on poster presentations.

social media was strong on the conference, with attendees, conference staff and exhibitors using the hashtag #NCNPconf. Participants shared what they learned and even posted their photos in our selfie booth! Exhibitors also posted on Twitter and shared details about their products and competition winners.