2024 Nursing Conference Grant Winning Essays
The questions for this year’s application cycle were as follows:
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Please describe how you will share what you learn at this conference with colleagues.
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How will you incorporate what you learn from this educational offering into your practice?
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How will this conference advance your long-term career goals (beyond the attainment of continuing education hour requirements)?
Essays were lightly edited for grammar, flow, and readability.
Kristen Erekson
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Essay 1: I will share what I learn from the conference in a variety of ways. In the College of Nursing where I work, we have a monthly college assembly in which we can disseminate knowledge we have learned from conferences. I will share important take-aways from this conference with my colleagues so that they can also gain practical knowledge related to caring for pediatric patients. I also consider my students to be my future colleagues. I teach a didactic course for nurse practitioner students in which I share content about pediatric diagnoses and principles of management and treatment. This conference will provide practical information that I can integrate into my pediatric didactic lectures. I also oversee undergraduate nursing students in their pediatric clinical rotations. As part of this supervision, I meet with students one-on-one and also as a group to debrief about their experiences during the day and share principles related to caring for children. I can incorporate what I learn from the conference into clinic debriefing sessions. In the clinical setting at the local free clinic where I volunteer as a nurse practitioner, I am one of the primary providers who has experience in pediatrics, and I see many of the children that come to the clinic. Many of my colleagues are not familiar with pediatric guidelines and they consult with me. I will be able to provide them with updated practical guidance as we care for patients.
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Essay 2: One challenge of working in the healthcare field is staying on the cutting edge of knowledge in order to deliver competent, skillful care. I work full-time in an academic setting, where I train future nurses and nurse practitioners. I also volunteer as a nurse practitioner at a local free clinic once a week, where I deliver care to a vulnerable population. This Practical Pediatrics conference is of particular interest to me because I know from previous attendance that it will give me practical knowledge that I can easily share with my students and integrate into my clinical practice. In harmony with the mission of the DAISY foundation, I am interested in providing both compassionate and skillful care to patients. Attending this type of conference will enable me to become more knowledgeable and skillful. I have a reference document that I have kept for many years that includes from conferences such as this one. This document allows me to incorporate what I learn as I refer to it in the clinical setting and in preparation for classroom teaching. I will add notes from this conference that I will use and integrate. As a nurse practitioner, I seek to practice at the top of my nursing license as both a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner. This conference awards continuing education credits through NAPNAP (National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners), which is specific to my advance practice nursing training and in line with my field of expertise in pediatrics.
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Essay 3: One of my career goals is to never become complacent and to continually learn so that I can provide skillful, compassionate care. This quote by Russell M. Nelson (who was a cardiac surgeon) has been a source of inspiration to me: "Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them." Although I am working full-time in academics, as part of my career goals I plan to continue to provide direct patient care in a clinical setting. I want to stay current with topics related to pediatrics so that I can continue to provide good care. Attending this conference will allow me to learn about relevant updates that I can integrate into the clinic and convey to my students. Another career goal that I have is to never become burned out. Burn-out is becoming increasingly common in the field of nursing and it can manifest as indifference and a lack of compassion. I want to provide care to patients and teaching to students that is filled with enthusiasm and compassion and is similar to the way the nurses cared for Patrick Barnes during his hospitalization. I have found that attending conferences is a way to stay enthusiastic and avoid becoming burned out.
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