As many of my readers here at Cartagena Surgery and my sister sites know – I came to the National Conference to present a poster on “Use of Social Media to Promote Specialty Practice.”

The poster is about how the thoracic surgery website brings together thoracic surgery professionals (surgeons, NPs, PAs, Respiratory therapists) from around the world and how it connects patients with credible but easily understandable information.

While I was there – I got the chance to meet some of the other presenters.

Tulay Cakiner-Egilmez, ANP is an ophthalmology nurse practitioner at the Boston Veteran’s Administration.  She was presenting a poster talking about performing eye exams and screening for glaucoma and other eye conditions.   My poster was next to hers, so we were able to talk in-between visitors. She’s been a nurse practitioner for three years, but has worked in the field of ophthalmology for over 25 years so she has a lot of great experience!

Debbie Kantor, MSN, ARNP and Lt. Sherrin Whiteman, MA from Hero, Inc. had a great presentation so I wanted to be sure to mention them since they may be a good resource for our readers.   They were talking about “Health Education to Reduce Obesity” and their mobile patient / community health education program.

They run a pretty cool program with a nurse practitioner, a fitness instructor and other health educators who travel around to different communities to provide people with information about fitness, exercise, diet and healthy eating to prevent/ reduce obesity and promote wellness.

Dr. Brenda Reed, DNP, FNP-BC, RN is an absolutely delightful nurse practitioner who is on the nursing faculty at Texas Christian University (Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences) presented a wonderful poster on the genetic screening for breast and ovarian cancers.  Not only was the poster visually stunning, but she presented a lot of great information.  I really enjoyed talking to her.  (I’m not sure if they give awards at the end of the conference for ‘best poster presentation’ but my bet is on Dr. Reed.)

I ran into one of my favorite professors from Vanderbilt. Dr. Joan King, PhD, ACNP-BC, RN (almost literally – I was a bit lost in thought at the time).  She was (and is) the director of the acute care nurse practitioner program.  She was lecturing at the conference, and surprisingly, remembered me immediately.  (It’s been more years than I care to admit and the Vanderbilt School of Nursing is a large school so I was very flattered that she recognized me.)

Lastly, I was thrilled to meet Dave Mittman, PA.  He’s the founder of Clinician 1 which is an online website/ community for nurse practitioners and physician assistants.  He’s really down to earth and charming in person, and didn’t seem to mind taking a few moments to talk to me.