I’m writing this blog post as I sit in a hotel in New Orleans. I’m looking out over the Mississippi River and contemplating getting dressed for the early morning lecture or spending this time with you. This won’t be your run of the mill discussion about medical conferences. I intend to share with you the good, the bad, and the ho hum ways a conference can contribute to your knowledge base and suggest the many ways you can utilize this precious resource to elevate your practice.

Continuing Medical Education. Hopefully your institution provides you a robust stipend to maintain your cutting edge insight into industry standard. It serves everyone well - the patients, the facility you work for, and lastly you. Traditionally employees choose to attend a medical conference in their specialty or in a complimentary service line. This can be in person or virtual. I like in person because I’m that type of learner. I need peer pressure, the ability to raise my hand, and networking opportunities to obtain maximal benefit. It doesn’t hurt if the conference is in a city I want to visit. There is some down time which allows for city exploration in the evenings typically. Obviously the drawback to this is expense. There are all types of conferences of varying price ranges so you have to find one that fits in your allowance or is one you don’t mind funding yourself. Here are the variables I consider before looking at an in person attendance:

Conferences

• Subject

  • Clinical specific. Do I want to learn something in particular. Echo - look into US courses. ECMO - look into ELSO. Cardiac focus, critical care as a broad topic, or a complimentary subject like emergency medicine. Narrow down what your learning priority is then find a conference that checks the boxes below. Consider that you need 25 hours of pharmacy specific material for re-certification. Look at how many hours of pharm specific credit you will receive.

    • Favorites of mine: Society of Chest, Northwest (half day classes so you can sight see part of your trip), Harvard, Emory puts on a fabulous 2 day critical care conference every fall.

  • Professional growth. Do I want instead to focus on growing my career. Leadership, new specialty development like aesthetics or starting your own practice (have to make sure your company will actually pay for something like that), Quality, Research, etc. I even lump professional organization conferences in here. AANP for example, this is a massive conference with ~ 3K NPs in attendance. This type of event is more ideal for networking, becoming up to date with nurse practitioner legislation, and for absorbing inspiration from others in your chosen profession. While there are clinical lectures of all sorts, they may not be as specific as your field requires.

• Location

  • I love to pick a city that I’ve never been to and use this as a perk of employment. I get to maintain my license, improve the quality of pt care I provide, AND see some new places - win-win.win.

  • Consider the regional costs when looking into them before booking. They vary greatly.

• Virtual option

  • Great option for those who learn well online. If you are this person you could feasibly attend multiple conferences each year.

• Lecturers

  • Matters. A lot. The most enticing subjects in the world can be a waste of time if the presenter is poor. I went to one recently and actually left halfway through, which is something this polite southerner despises. I just couldn’t take it. She had a tough subject, was overly ambitious about how much she could cover in a one hour lecture and therefore just sped read off the power point. Kill. me. now.

  • Now, some events will have presenters you know, but most will be people you don’t know. So there isn’t really a ton you’re going to be able to cull from the list of potential conferences just by looking at names. But I still do this every time I can. If it’s one I’ve been to before that I didn’t love I don’t return. If there is a big or well known name on the list that I admire I’m much more likely to put it at the top of the list. A ho-hum subject with a stellar presenter trumps the inverse every single time.

• Cost

  • While the registration fee may be fairly average (from what I’ve seen ~ $700-1000), the cost of travel is not so average. Here’s a real world example. I went to a Northwest ER conference in Brooklyn and was able to fit all costs into my annual budget of $2500. The same conference in Whitefish Montana was going to cost about 3K out of pocket beyond what the hospital will reimburse. Consider the regional as well as logistical costs when looking into them before booking. If you need to rent a car that exponentially increases your cost. Is your lodging at the same hotel as the conference or within walking distance?

• Dates

  • I find this to be the biggest barrier. Gotta find dates that align with your work and your life. I’ve passed on plenty of phenomenal opportunities because they overlapped with a kid’s birthday or some other personal issue.

Other Reimbursable Expenses

Most institutions allow for other formats of CME usage. Obviously, you’ll need to check with your institution about their specifics. Now, some of these are simultaneously irritating and ingratiating. I love that fees like DEA and such are reimbursable but to me, how does this support my need to maintain professional education? In an ideal world, you negotiated this stuff outside of the CME bucket and can get them paid for while still having plenty of budget to attend a conference.

• Ipad

• Phone or phone payment

• Computer/Laptop

• License renewal fee

• DEA registration fee

• Certification renewal fee

• Stethoscope

• Scrubs or other clothing/gear

• Online courses (will need to provide CE hours) like AHA or independent sources like other NPs, etc.

• Books (If I have money left over I buy books I already have and use this as a gift for new hires or students)

• Subscriptions to journals, clubs, etc

There are some shady companies out there. Ones that will take your money and then provide you online “modules” with CE hours and offer you a high dollar gift card. Think 1K to Amazon or similar. I personally find this unethical, and my organization has banned these, but I do know that some people take advantage of this. I don’t advise this. Use this highly valuable resource to truly enhance your practice.

Reminder about the upcoming inaugural live lecture which will be a part of the Acute Care Lab Membership.