2025 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.  

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Jamie Reed

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Essay 1:  I plan to share my learnings in one of our monthly staff meetings when I return. Additionally, our ICU has a weekly memo we call 'Friday Notes' that is sent out every Friday via email to all ICU staff. I also plan on reaching out to management to see if I can insert an excerpt of my learnings from the conference. I am hoping that by speaking of my conference in our staff meeting, and providing a brief write up in our 'Friday Notes' it will help to inform others of key topics, and also encourage them to attend a conference of their own. I addition to being a bedside nurse, I am also a nursing instructor and teach for Santa Rosa Junior College. I teach third-semester Medical-Surgical clinical every Wednesday. Our clinical shifts are 0645-1915. From about 1300-1500 we hold 'Mid-Conference' where we discuss important topics as they relate to clinical and lecture. Over my years of being a nurse, I never really had anyone speak to me about the benefits of attending nursing conferences. My plan will also be to discuss my conference with my students and encourage them to attend conferences themselves as they continue throughout their nursing careers.

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Essay 2: The conference I will be attending is Critical Care: The Team Approach. Itwill focus on topics in critical care nursing. I currently work in a mixed ICU as a critical care nurse at a level II trauma hospital in Sonoma County, California. Working at a hospital that has a mixed ICU, we see a variety of patients every day. I am lucky to have a very broad skill set that comes from working in a mixed ICU. This conference focuses on a wide variety of critical care-related topics, and the education provided at this conference will be a nice add-on to what I already know from working as an ICU nurse. I am always striving to be a better, more well-rounded nurse. While topics such as sepsis, head trauma, and heart dysfunctions are important, the conference also focuses on topics that I think often go unaddressed in a critical care setting. A few topics that I am looking forward to hearing about are those about difficult conversations and difficult cases within critical care. These are just as important as the other topics, and I think these topics are specifically important to learn more about. I look forward to thoroughly being present and taking notes during the conference so I can be prepared to come back home with new learnings that I can implement into my practice.

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Essay 3: I am currently a student at Grand Canyon University and will graduate next year with a Master's degree in Nursing Education. Additionally, after obtaining my degree from Grand Canyon University, I plan to apply and hopefully attend Sonoma State University's MSN FNP program in spring 2027. This conference will help to provide me with updated best nursing practices as they relate to critical care. Though I will continue to learn about proper best nursing practices within my MSN program, I think it is always important to reinforce education. I think this conference would be greatly beneficial to me as I work on furthering my education and learn more skills as a nurse and NP student.

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