On October 19-21, Parkview Health will host the 45th annual National Conference on Professional Nursing Education and Development (PNEG). Susan Chubinski, educator, Professional Development & Clinical Care, shares a bit more about this important event, and what it means for our community.
What is PNEG?
Professional Nurse Educators Group (PNEG) is an outgrowth of the American Nurses Association’s Council on Continuing Education (later Professional Development) that was disbanded in 1999 when ANA formed a constituent membership structure. Every year the Council held an annual conference that was sponsored or cosponsored by ANA.
In 2000, the first “unofficial” professional nurse educators conference was held in order to meet the networking and educational needs of the previous council members. PNEG as an organization was formed at a meeting of educators during the annual CE conference held in Chicago.
What role is Parkview playing in the event?
Each year, an organization, such as Parkview, acts as a host to the annual education conference. This year we are the host and the staff from the Nursing Education and Clinical Excellence Department (NECE) are the Steering and Organizing committees that are creating and coordinating the national education conference.
Why is this partnership powerful?
PNEG provides the opportunity, access to nurses and nurse educators across the globe, and sets the standards for the annual conference. The host, in this case, Parkview Health, then has the opportunity to determine the theme of that year’s conference and select the national and local experts to provide current and cutting edge topics. It gives Parkview an opportunity to showcase our experts, nursing research and cutting edge interventions.
Why is this event so beneficial for Parkview caregivers?
The Parkview staff, nurses, educators, patient care staff and interested coworkers have the opportunity to learn from national speakers such as Lourdes Lorenz-Miller, Kay Clevenger and Dr. Robert Gaunt, and our own local experts such as Michael Mirro, MD, but at an incredibly affordable rate without the cost of a flight and hotel. This conference is another source of information to help Parkview staff grow and change and improve patient outcomes.
How do patients benefit from nurses’ participation?
As nurses learn about the latest research, strategies and newest theories, they can take that information right to the bedside and improve care and outcomes for patients immediately and in their planning for future patients.
What to expect
We are really excited about the variety we’re offering at the conference. A person can come for just one theme of the conference, like self-care, and attend only those sessions or attend a variety of sessions. We have presentations on self-care, holistic nursing, nursing research, innovation, social issues and academic and clinical challenges. We have a preconference day for nurses who want to be educators featuring two national experts who have published on this very topic. If a nurse or patient care staff wants to get an introduction to holistic care, they can do that during Thursday’s preconference.
Participants can expect:
- A group of pharmacists who are going to talk about Pharmacogenomics, a cutting edge change that’s coming, and how medications will be prescribed using gene mapping to tailor the medication choice and the dose to the individual patient.
- A CNS who is reporting on how her unit reduced patient skin injuries to zero with a new foam positioning device.
- Educators who are presenting their successful education and research strategies to help other educators.
- A local expert on the refugee situation who will talk about what his visits to the camps were like.
- Exhibitors and poster presenters.
- Evening activities along with holistic activities each morning, like drop in yoga.
These wonderful activities in addition to the speakers allow participants to feel personally and professionally rejuvenated. For more, visit www.pneg.org or email susan.chubinski@parkview.com.
