I am very excited about APNA’s upcoming Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas and I hope to see you there. Over the years, APNA members consistently identify networking and engagement with fellow psychiatric mental health nurses as factors that help them return home rejuvenated, so please come and share your expertise and innovative ideas! In addition, conference presentations will provide you with valuable information you can incorporate into your practice and share with your colleagues, as well as more than 85 continuing education contact hours you can use toward licensure and/or certification renewal.
This year’s conference will feature a keynote presentation by one of the most influential authors of the last decade, Tom Rath. As a Senior Scientist at Gallup, Rath studies the role of human behavior in health, business, and economics. His publications, including Strengths Based Leadership and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0, span a range of topics from wellbeing to organizational leadership. Tom’s keynote on Thursday morning, October 10th, will address key questions facing us as psychiatric nurses, such as: How can we identify and use the skills we’ve developed as psychiatric nurses in advocating for ourselves and our patients? How can we ensure that our professional strengths are appreciated in the healthcare marketplace and best used to improve mental health care? Tom’s presentation will provide thoughtful suggestions about how to capitalize on our existing strengths, such as nursing’s status as the #1 most trusted profession in America (Gallup, 2012), as leadership assets.
Conference attendees will receive a copy of Tom Rath’s latest book, Eat, Move, Sleep – How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes. This book lays out ways to change our basic daily routines in ways that are easy to do at our own pace, but add up to big improvements in our health. As an added bonus, Tom will be available after his talk to sign books. It is an event you will not want to miss!
You’ll be hearing more from me soon about our other keynote speaker, journalist and advocate for nursing Suzanne Gordon. Suzanne has recently been focusing on team intelligence as a key factor in patient safety. Please join us for the APNA 27th Annual Conference this October 9-12, 2013 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. For more Information, visit www.apna.org/AnnualConference.