N479 Professional Activity Evaluation Form

Your Name: Shelby Case Date of Activity: 11/08-11/12 Faculty name: Mary OConnell

Describe the professional activity you attended or participated:

I had the pleasure of attending a Continuing Medical Education (CME) conference put on

by the Neuroscience Education Institute on psychopharmacology. The purpose of the conference

is to provide mental health clinicians with evidence based, cutting-edge research to help guide

their practice. New information regarding best practice is always coming out; the conference

allows clinicians to improve their standards of care accordingly. Although I am not going into

psych/mental health nursing I still found the conference relevant to my practice. As a future

Trauma ICU nurse, I will be using psychotropic medications to combat ICU delirium and

agitation, working with patients and families after a trauma, a particularly mentally vulnerable

state, and could be treating a patient right after a suicide attempt. Additionally, the conference

was an affirming experience regarding the importance of using evidence-based standards of care

and to always be staying up to date with research. My role in the conference was to listen and

learn to take the information and implement it into my practice and share it will my colleagues.

Where was this held and what was was program/activity length?

The conference was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado at The Broadmoor resort. We

stayed at the resort and the sessions were held in a large conference hall a short walk away from

the main building. The conference was 4 days long with sessions going on from 7am-6pm.

Discuss the value of this experience to you.

 Besides learning information I can apply to my practice, the true value of the conference

was the sense of responsibility I gained towards staying current with evidence-based practice.

Having the best standard of practice takes conscious and persistent effort. Whether it is attending

conferences, or subscribing to research journals, we as nurses must have a way to stay up to date.

The conference helped me realize how important research is and it was inspiring to see so many

professionals eager to enhance their clinical decision-making. The conference was also

extremely inspiring because over half the attendees were nurses, mostly advanced practice. One

of the speakers was even a nurse practitioner. A field once dominated by male doctors is

expanding.

Would you recommend this specific professional experience in the future; why or why not?

I would 100% recommend the professional experience of attending a conference.

Unfortunately, the experience is rather expensive. I was lucky enough to have my grandmother, a

psychiatric NP, pay for me to attend with her. However, many hospitals and companies will pay

for staff members to attend so it should be something all future nurses have in mind. The

experience is educational, inspiring, and extremely fun. I cannot wait to go to my next

conference.