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| Home > Newsletter > NHAWHONN Regional Conference Summary |
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Lisa Miller Wows a Sell-out Crowd
at NHAWHONN Regional Conference
By Lisa McNerney, RN, BSJ, MA, Newsletter Editor
Okay, I have a confession to make. When NHAWHONN Education Coordinator Paula Nelson recommended hiring one speaker for 16 hours over two days, I was skeptical. Especially when the audience was going to be made up essentially of nurses, people who generally don't sit well.
And when the registrations began only trickling in, I was frankly worried. By the week before Day 1, however, the trickle had become a rush, and word quickly spread among the Coordinating Team that we were expecting upwards of 190 for the first day, 170 the second. And then there were walk-ins. And then there were people who had not intended to return for Day 2, but who begged to come back.
The speaker, Lisa Miller, CNM, JD, had the audience eating out of her hand before their seats were warm, and that did not let up until the conference closed the next afternoon. She was wonderful, funny, passionate, committed to OB patient safety and what it takes to achieve it. The conference center was state-of-the-art, with a super staff and food to go off Weight Watchers for. I ate some crow -- although I hope the rest of the Coordinating Team members don't realize this until now -- and I am looking forward already to our next regional conference, for which Coordinating Team member and Exhibitors Coordinator Cindy Poore was already looking at dates before the end of Day 1.
Participants came from all over New England, New York, New Jersey, and Canada -- and forgive me if I've left out a state or province! They were an enthusiastic crowd who went away with Lisa's guarantee that if they didn't leave with at least three new nuggets of information, she would personally refund their money. "But you have to be intellectually honest with yourself and admit that if you missed them, you were sleeping," she said dryly.
Lisa-the-lawyer began the two-day event, titled "Critical Situations and Challenges in Obstetrics," with this: "'What's my liability if...?' is a stupid question. Rather, you should be saying 'What should I do under these circumstances with the resources that I have?'" Then Lisa-the-midwife asked the group to consider that the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Nomenclature to be the common language that, she said, would allow us in obstetrics to communicate effectively, even though it's been a 10-year battle to get the nomenclature adopted.
"How does it look when all of us are giving different answers? That doesn't happen in, say, cardiology, where the language is standardized."
Referring to electronic fetal monitoring as the most common procedure in the US, Lisa talked a lot about how to read strips, including having the group, made up largely of seasoned nurses, put their knowledge to the test in a lively strip review. "Ask yourself this question here," she said. "What will happen first? A vaginal delivery or fetal metabolic acidemia," which, she pointed out, is linked to poor outcome.
Quoting her late father, who, she said, got smarter as she got older, she reminded the audience that "prior planning prevents poor performance," and said that patient safety depends on multidisciplinary teams coming together to decide how to work together and communicate effectively.
That said, "there is no universally accepted definition of uterine hyperstimulation. We need to come up with a definition we can all live with," she said.
"We also need '3 C's' -- Clinical comprehension: what's our knowledge base, what information do we have, what do we need; Communication-the use of SBAR as a tool, combined with listening skills; and Collaboration-developing and instituting a clear plan of care that includes all team members."
Through the use of her own often very funny stories, Lisa illustrated the importance of 'situational awareness' and the recognition that the most "situationally aware" person in the room may be the "newbie," who needs to be encouraged to speak up. "And while that can be difficult for the more 'experienced' people," she said, "you have to be willing to listen to 'the other,' the 'not you' -- because it could mean the difference between a good outcome and a bad one."
In the end, she said, "You can tell how empowered nurses are by how they treat their patients," Lisa said.
I think it's safe to say that no one, except maybe a baby or two in the audience, slept through a moment of Lisa's talk, and everyone walked away not only with at least three new pieces of information, but also went away feeling a little more empowered as providers of our very special kind of health care.
Thanks, Lisa, thanks, Coordinating Team, thanks, participants -- you were great! |
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