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2024 Nursing Conference Grant Winning Essays

The questions for this year’s application cycle were as follows: 

  1. Please describe how you will share what you learn at this conference with colleagues. 

  2. How will you incorporate what you learn from this educational offering into your practice? 

  3. 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.  

 

Melian Johnson

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Essay 1:  The goal of attending this conference is to bring back information that can be shared to assist my organization in moving towards zero harm. The structure at my organization is that I work directly with the Quality Manager, Patient Safety Specialist, Infection Preventionist and Chief Medical Officer. Upon my return from attending the conference, I would be disseminating this information in several routes. First would be through our monthly departmental meetings. I will present information obtained to them and we will work collaboratively to determine which information is most relevant for further dissemination and to whom. Once that is determined, I will integrate information into the provider and nurse orientation as well as general orientation, as appropriate. Information will be shared at the weekly Executive Steering Committee, where all department heads are in attendance. I will also be sharing the information that is received with other Risk Management professionals in other facilities within the DHA in order to ensure that our military members and their families are receiving the same, safe, and quality healthcare that they would receive anywhere else. Finally, I will send out pertinent information to all staff within the facility via e-mail or in person as appropriate to ensure that frontline staff are educated and able to work towards zero harm as well and this information is not retained in a silo.

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Essay 2: Risk Management is a unique specialty in healthcare, where the goal is to protect the healthcare organization through the protection of patients, staff, and visitors. It is not a direct bedside nursing role and so is frequently not seen as meriting the same attention or recognition, but it is key in continued functionality and operation of healthcare organizations. Attending this conference will allow me to network with other Risk Management professionals, obtain the most recent risk management trends impacting healthcare, and learn how to implement new and innovative measures to protect everyone who enters our facility. This knowledge will assist me in performing my day-to-day duties as well as assist me in my goal of obtaining my CPHRM certification within the next year. Patient safety is of the utmost important and several of the lectures offered will have a direct impact on improving patient safety within my organization. Lectures that hold the most interest to me include topics on operating room risk (an area that I have limited experience with), managing risk with integrity, creating a blame-free culture, leadership traits that increase risks, diagnostic errors, and several more. I appreciate the opportunity to apply for this grant and am hopeful that you will consider using these funds for a different kind of conference than is typical.

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Essay 3: Attending this conference will allow me to achieve by short-term career goal of obtaining my Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) certification within the next year. Networking with other professionals who have achieved this goal will allow me to identify and implement their recommendations prior to scheduling a testing date. Speaking with others who have already been in this place and can guide me in how to be successful and provide encouragement would make a significant difference. I believe that everyone should have a mentor in their career. When I was at the bedside, it was easy to identify a mentor as it was the person who was providing stellar patient care and was willing to ensure that I understood how to achieve that as well. Now that I have left the bedside and work in an area of nursing that provides less opportunities to interact with other professionals, attending conferences is the one of the few opportunities that I have where I could interact with others and identify such a mentor. Additionally, understanding the opportunities in professional and educational growth outside of obtaining certification will allow me to determine the next steps after this goal is achieved. I have been contemplating obtaining another degree, but am unsure what that should look like within this specialty. Hearing what others have chosen to do would assist me in choosing how to proceed towards developing a meaningful long-term plan.

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