The fall edition of the National Conference for Nurse Practitioners took place earlier this month in Chicago. It was yet another remarkable conference in a great city. Here’s a look at some highlights from the conference and what I learned.

Words from the Experts

My schedule was full with sessions related to dermatology, pain management, critical care, and more! Here are some of the pearls and tips I learned from the sessions I attended:

“Engage patients. Say ‘What matters to you?’ rather than ‘What is the matter with you?’”
Healing Health Care: The Nurse Practitioner Solution
Tom Bartol, NP, CDE
 
“The two most powerful tips to prevent premature aging are never smoke and limit UV exposure.”
Identifying and Treating Common and Benign Skin Conditions
Victor Czerkasij, MA, MS, FNP-BC
 
“Respiratory failure is all about three things. It’s all about the pump. It’s all about the circulation. It’s all about gas exchange.”
Acute Care: Recognizing and Managing Respiratory Failure
Anne Dabrow Woods, DNP, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC
 
“Things will speak through the skin that have nothing at all to do with the skin.”
Pediatric & Adolescent Skin Issues
Victor Czerkasij, MA, MS, FNP-BC
 
“When initiating opioid therapy, have an exit strategy from the very beginning.”
Opioid Prescribing: Safe Practice, Changing Lives
Barbara St. Marie, PhD
 
“Suboptimal nutrition is a main contributor to postoperative complications.”
Optimizing Outcomes with Pre-Op Evaluation
Monica N. Tombasco, MS, MSNA, FNP-BC, CRNA
 
“There is a strong placebo effect in treatment of IBS. Why? Because symptoms come and go.”
New Concepts in IBS
Christopher Chang, MD, PhD
 
“When evaluating pain treatment, go beyond the number...ask about functionality. ‘What can you do now that you couldn't do before?’”
Chronic Pain Management
Yvonne D’Arcy, MS, CRNP, CNS
 
“The outcome of heart failure is about as severe as most malignancies.”
Comprehensive Management of Heart Failure
Louis Kuritzky, MD
 
“Zika Virus – why now? It's a novel virus introduced to a population with virtually no immunity."
Emerging Infectious Disease Threats: Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, Enterovirus D65, Avian Flu, and Zika Virus
Margaret A. Fitzgerald, DNP, FNP-BC, NP-C, FAANP, CSP, FAAN, DCC

New (to me) Resources

I enjoy when presenters include websites and tools that I can add to my own list of go-to resources. Here are some that I’ve added to my favorites: style type="text/css">ul{margin-left:16px;}

• Recreating Healthcare — an open and interactive site where visitors can share ideas about health care, and read and comment on the ideas of others.
• TheNNT — quick summaries of evidence-based medicine provided by a group of physicians.
• The Collaborative for REMS Education (CO*RE) — tools and resources for safe opioid prescribing.
• Trauma.org — image databank and other resources for professionals in trauma and critical care.

Posters

Poster presentations often pull me in because it’s great to see the work that others are doing. It’s so important to share and learn from one another and presenting one’s work at a national conference, such as NCNP, is impressive! While all of the posters were well done and informative, what struck me were two common themes that emerged; there were multiple posters related to pediatric care and still more about shared medical appointments. You can take a look at a selection of the posters (as well as other pictures from the conference) here in our Facebook photo album.

Technology and sharing

As an attendee myself, I found the conference app helpful to keep track of my sessions and fill out evaluations as part of the process for obtaining my continuing education credit. Other features allowed me to learn about exhibitors and even vote on the poster presentations.

Social media was strong at the conference with attendees, conference staff, and exhibitors using the hashtag, #NCNPconf. Attendees shared what they learned and even posted photos of themselves in our selfie booth! Exhibitors also tweeted and shared information about their products and contest winners.