PHN Conference

Friday before the conference, we collated handouts, verified that we had the flip chart paper, and double checked the supplies box. Then we loaded those boxes into my car. On Monday morning, we gathered at the hotel and began to sort out what would go where. I felt calm, ready, confident that I had done the best that I could to make the conference a success.

As old friends arrived, I greeted them with warm hugs. As new friends arrived, I extended my hand in a jesture of welcome. Both of my Deans (School of Public Health and College of Nursing) were there to extend their welcomes to the audience. The audience of 50 invitted speakers and participants came mostly from nursing, but also from public health and from economics. Yes, there was a lot of grey hair, but we also had doctoral students participating.

Monday afternoon included an overview by Kris Gebbie of why the conference was important. Pam Mitchell give a nice history of the development of nursing sensitive indicators for acute care. The panel pattern was to address theory, methods and practice issues. We then broke into small groups for discussions. This pattern was repeated on Tuesday morning and early afternoon. On Wednesday, with the guidance of the facilitator, we generated a draft list of reserach themes for public health nursing.

I count the success as having several individuals volunteer to take actions after the conference.The other marker of a success was the several thank you emails that I received afterwards.  Yes, we will present the draft findings at APHA, and yes, we will be writing manuscripts. But, the energy and enthusiasm generated was definitely the most important. 

For those interested in the conference, I have created the PHN page at this blog. We can use it to continue the conversation.