New Graduate to Convention?

[kristenallene40]

I'm graduating in May and will be working in Med-Adult ICU where I did a student externship. I recieved negative comments from a fellow critical care nurse when I voiced that I might want to go to the convention. Basicaly, she thought that I didn't have enough experience to benefit from the convention. I'm very involved in keeping up with new trends and "best practice" issues. Plus, my goals for the future include becoming CCRN and other certifications. What do ya'll think? Would I benefit or should stay put and wait till next year for convention?

[CraigB-RN, MSN, RN]

There might be a better use for your $$ at this stage, but if you've got the $$ ad the time, I'd say go for it. Education is never a waste.

[QT3.14RNinCA]

Congratulations on graduating and working in the ICU. I hope you love it as much as I do! As far as the Conference goes, I agree with the prior post. Education is never a waste of time, but you may not be able to apply the all the information to clinical practice. (Of course, just knowing is an awesome thing!) I'm guessing you'll be going through a New Grad program with formal classes that will help you with the basics. Focus on that.

Plan on going next year when the information may be more meaningful to you. FYI: There is a minimum clinical hour required in order to sit for the CCRN. If you have those hours by next year then I suggest also attending the pre-Conference where they have the CCRN review class.

I hope you never loose sight of the optimism & motivation you feel as you begin your new career!

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

convention and iseminar junkie here....

nti has topics for beginners to expert practice: educational program

look at concurrent sessions --can search for beginner presentations to see if program interests you before you sign up. knowledge is never a waste!

i've found this conference and treads in philadelphia as two best conferences out there for critical care nursing practice when i worked resp icu/telemetry

[heebes743]

Hi! I'm a student still (graduate August 1) and went last year before my accelerated program even started! My mother has been an ICU nurse for over 35 years, and she thought it would be a great learning experience for me to attend. I did so and really felt as though I gained a lot from going. I am going again this year with a classmate who wants to be an ICU nurse. I don't even want to be, I'm Med-Surg all the way, but honestly there are so many parallels between the floor and unit patients now, you can pick the concurrent sessions you feel will most supplement your learning and go from there! Plus the exhibits are AWESOME!!!

Hope to see you there if you decide to go! It's such a great opportunity for a nurse at any level!

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Although the organization that presents NTI is the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the conference is aimed at both critical care and acute care nurses. After all, every acute care patient has the potential to become a critical care patient... often with seemingly no warning. Think how much more effective your care could be if you knew more about critical care issues and how they're managed! If you can recognize those subtle changes that signal impending doom and intervene before the spiral gets out of control, you could save your patient an ICU admission (and yourself a great deal of extra work ). And while it's true that experience does improve understanding of complex concepts, there is so much to learn at NTI that virtually anyone can get their money's worth. See you there!

[CraigB-RN, MSN, RN]

Plus it's a good way to start networking and learning how to connect with people. This will help you in your job search inteh future and give you people who you can talk to when you have questions. I still have the email and phone number of someone I met 10 yeras ago. Althought at first I asked the questions, but now it's a two way street.