Nursing Informatics: Blazing the HIT Trail was the theme of the latest ANIA-CARING Annual Conference, held in Las Vegas, NV May 12 - 14, 2011. The ANIA-CARING Conference Planning team led by James J. Finley, MBA, BSN, RN-BC and Lisa Anne Bove, MSN, RN-BC engaged excellent speakers and attracted a record number of exhibitors and attendees. Thanks go to the ANIA-CARING Board and especially the Conference Planning Committee members: Victoria Bradley, DNP, RN, FHIMSS, Daniel Gracie, MSN, RN, Diane Humbrecht, MSN, RNC, Rhonda Struck, MS, BSN, RN, Vicki Vallejos, BSN, RN-BC, Bobbi Crann, MSN, RN-BC, Rosemarie Marmion, MSN, RN-BC, NE-BC.
We started the conference with pre-conference sessions and this year we offered six half day preconferences. Morning sessions included Designing Effective Training for HIT Implementations by Brenda Kulhanek, PhD(c), MSN, RN, CPHIMS and Mark Kulhanek, MA; Best Practice in Clinical Informatics by Victoria Bradley, DNP, RN, CPHIMS, FHIMSS; Cheryl Parker, PhD, MSN, RN, and Patricia Sengstack, DNP, RN-BC, CPHIMSS; and Project Management: The Next Level - Managing Scope, Risks, and Issues by Lisa Anne Bove, MSN, RN-BC; Susan M. Houston, MBA, RN-BC, PMP, CPHIMS. Afternoon sessions included Teamwork for Clinical Implementation Success by Marina Douglas, MS; Marian Celli, MS, RN-BC, FHIMSS; Nursing Informatics and Health Care Policy a panel including Kathleen McCormick, PhD, RN (Moderator); Amy Walker, MS, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, CPHQ; Joyce Sensmeier, MS, RN-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, and Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS (Panelists); and a new offering presented with the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) called One Small Step for IT, One Giant Leap for Perioperative Nursing by Denise Maxwell-Downing, MS, BSN, RN; Sharon Giarrizzo-Wilson, MS, BSN, RN, CNOR; Jessica Bianco, MS, BSN, RN, CNOR.
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The main conference kicked off on Thursday evening with our second Regional Meeting and Dessert Reception. The four Regional Directors met with members in each region to network on options for education and networking at the regional level. This reception gave everyone an opportunity to network, get re-acquainted with colleagues and friends, and meet new friends in the Region where they worked and/ or live.
Friday mornings's opening keynote speaker was Pamela F Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN who presented a look at Nurses as Meaningful Users of HIS: Blazing the Trail. Dr. Cipriano addressed how nursing leaders must emphasize the importance of nurses as partners in meaningful use and gain recognition of the critical role nurses play in using health information to improve care.
After the opening keynote, participants were invited to browse the exhibit hall and view posters. There were 28 posters available for review and the poster presenters shared information about their processes and findings. Healthcare vendors who supported the conference included American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), Clinical Computer Systems, Inc., Code Corporation, Covenant Health, Elsevier - CPM Resource Center, ESD, Grand Canyon University, Harrison Medical Center, Hospira, Howard Medical, ICWUSA.com, Inc., Indiana University Health, Innovative Consulting Group, Jaco, Inc., Jacobus Consulting, Man & Machine, MEDITECH, Metro/Intermetro, PEPID, SimEMR, Stinger Medical, SynaptiCore, Vanderbilt Univ. School of Nursing, Zebra Technologies, and Zynx Health. The rest of the day included breakouts following four tracks including Education and Career Development (ECD), System Implementations (ISI), Patient Care Outcomes (CPC), Innovations (INI), and Leadership (LD). Speakers came from all over the US and presented topics education at the staff nurse, innovative ideas from many on implementations in many units and facilities, physician and higher education level, as well as informatics nurses.
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All participants were invited to join the ANIA - CARING Board of Directors for our anual business meeting luncheon. During the meeting, President Victoria M. Bradley, DNP, RN, FHIMSS introduced the current board. Membership, Financial, Education and Region Director reports followed. Victoria then thanked outgoing board members James J. Finley, MBA, BSN, RN-BC and Patrick Shannon, MS, RN, CPHIMS and passed the gavel to incoming president Curtis N. Dikes, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC, CLNC, NEA-BC. New board members Karen Zorn, MSN, ONC, RN and Charles Boicey, MS, RN-BC, PMP were also introduced.
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Saturday started with Liz Johnson, MS, RN-C, FHIMSS, CPHIMS one of the healthcare industry's most accomplished executive nurse informaticists and a member of the Federal HIT Standards Committee. Liz's session titled The Growing Roles of Nurse Informaticists as Change Agents in the U.S. Health Care Reform demonstrated first-hand how today's nurses can grow, innovate, and help build stronger health care reform outcomes for their hospitals and communities through careers in nursing informatics. Participants then spent the rest of the day in a variety of breakout sessions, and another chance to visit posters and the vendors.
We closed the session with Barbara Wadsworth, MSN, RN, MBA, NEA-BC who helped to tie the conference together with her session titled Team Roundup: Tales from a CNO Blazing a Trail Worth Following. Barbara discussed key ways to create a herd of engaged staff able to overcome obstacles and implement successfully with innovation.
The poster presentation section of the conference continued to be one of the more popular and engaging activities. The range of topics extended from education to practice, research and implementation work. This year's winners of the 'People's Choice Award' for posters were Susan Young, BSN, RN and Susan G. Stanley, MSN, RN from the Children's National Medical Center. They took home the top prize and a complimentary registration to the 2012 ANIA-CARING conference for their posted titled 'An Electronic Nursing Handoff Tool using the SBAR Format.'
We had over 450 attendees at this year's event - a record number. Most of the presentations were available to attendees on a flash drive distributed at the conference. Attendees could obtain up to 19.75 contact hours for participating. Evaluations indicated that most attendees received value from attending the conference. A special thank you to our sponsors - ESD, Indiana University Health, and Zynx Health and our 25 exhibitors.
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Next year's conference is scheduled for ANIA-CARING 2012 Conference April 12-14, 2012 Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld Orlando, FL. The call for abstracts for posters and presentations is July 5 - August 19, 2011. Please consider submitting an abstract for a poster and/or a presentation. We look forward seeing many of you next year!
Lisa Anne Bove, MSN, RN-BC and James J. Finley, MBA, BSN, RN-BC
