Disappointed with AACN's NTI 2010 Washington, DC

cb_rn · May 23, 2010

I'm so sorry you didn't find it stimulating ;( Thats a shame.

How do you feel about submitting a poster? If you came away disappointed come up with something to wow other people with at a future NTI. I highly recommend Kathleen Heinrich's book A Nurse's Guide to Presenting and Publishing if you have ever even thought of maybe trying out a project.

Rabid Response · May 23, 2010

Well. Your post actually made me feel better. Since nursing school I have been wanting to attend NTI. It finally looked like this would be the year. Then I checked out the cost of attending and realized that I could fly to Europe and spend a week there for the same amount of money. Just the hotel rooms alone cost a fortune. I couldn't justify the expense. Nobody from my unit went this year because of the cost.

I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience, but at least you didn't have to pay for it yourself. Thanks for making me feel better, anyway!

RN34TX · May 23, 2010

I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience, but at least you didn't have to pay for it yourself. Thanks for making me feel better, anyway!

But that's my point. I didn't have to pay for it so I can only imagine how it feels for those who did and feel as I do....if there is anyone else out there who does feel like I do about it.

It's just too expensive to not get what you want out of it.

Even the hotels were way overpriced through NTI. Both times I've gone to NTI I've gotten my own hotel and got a better rate than NTI's reserved rates. The cheapest hotel in DC through NTI was like $169/night and it was a basic Comfort Inn. The Red roof Inn was $199/night. Can you imagine paying $199/night at a Red Roof Inn?

I got a nice 350 sq. ft. room in Dupont Circle (Very trendy neighborhood in DC for those who don't know DC) for $159/night in a way better neighborhood than Red Roof Inn's Chinatown location.

MERRYWIDOW46 · May 23, 2010

I commuted daily from Baltimore to save money so I can go to ENA in San Antonio in September.

I thought it was me, since this was my FIRST NTI. I belong to several professional organizations and have been to annual meetings before, AACN doesn't have it going on. Other organizations plan better, requesting on registration possible topics you'd attend and plans accordingly for appropiate sized rooms to acommodate everyone. 50-100 seats for an API Cardiomyopathy when 7k nurses attend, come on. That convention center employee was also HOSTILE, can we say WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?????????

Some sessions we great, others mediocre, that's every meeting. MOST national meetings are $385-$475 for 3-5 days. Hotels across the country go for $160-300 for these things, and add in airfare. I usually do better getting a hotel close by and NOT using convention hotels. Cheapest hotel in San Antonio is $189 with 16.75% tax...Hampton is $98.10 for AARP. Just need to plan better to save. I took lunch every day, that saved money. Train was $12 round trip and metro $3.50 round trip, cheaper than driving with parking $15-20/day.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

scoochy · May 23, 2010

When I worked in critical care (1980's) I always wanted to attend one, but the cost was prohibitive. A few of my colleagues attended at that time, and they came away from it very disappointed in the lack of learning opportunities (i.e, they felt most of the programs they attended imparted no new knowledge). Because I valued their opinions to the utmost, I no longer had any desire to attend.

Brian, ASN, RN · May 28, 2010

Sorry to hear that you were disappointed with NTI. We have exhibited the last 3 years, I have not had an opportunity to attend many sessions.

FYI, I moved your thread to the NTI discussion forum.

I agree the cost involved to go to these shows are very expensive, and the hotel prices too high. If it was not for employer subsidies, I am sure most nurses could not attend.

I frequently asked visitors to our exhibit booth what they thought of NTI this year and the overall feedback was very positive and most people said they have been learning a lot and found it very beneficial.

I know the winner of our iPad drawing enjoyed the show :)

Home Health Columnist / Guide · May 28, 2010

RN34TX, I can understand youro point about classess being full and unable to attend. Having attended other nursing conventions as a seasoned RN, I've gotten to the point that I could teach most material. Looking at NTI outline, I see many listings for APN type offerings that I could have takento increase my knowledge base. I've adjusted my thinking that if I could come away with 2 new pieces of info/day, then I'm ahead.

Visiting AN almost daily, we get exposed to so many more ideas/topics that a non-member never gets to see, therefore increasing our knowledge base. Kudos to you for being a solid clinician. Why not stretch and consider being a presenter to impart your knowledge to a newbie...would add to next years fun and add a different set of skills to your repetoire.

:)

OceanGirl2010 · May 31, 2010

am i the only one?
i went to classes 15-30 minutes early only to find them closed off and full. i also sat in on many classes that didn't tell me any more than i already knew.
"toxic work environment" type classes basically told me what i already knew: you can't win with a bullying nurse manager or colleague who has a lot of pull so you basically need to leave your job if you find yourself in such a situation and can't tolerate it anymore.
my employer paid for my attendance but i can only imagine how frustrating it would be for people who paid their own way to find the classes they wanted full and closed off and/or to attend classes that did not provide any new insight or information on a particular topic.
i can not imagine what that lady was even thinking. she came across as most likely the work place bully. you know how you have some people that have worked at a job for so long they feel they can say and do whatever they want. that is how that lady came across, as a basic bully. i paid for three of my nurses to go to nti this year and what we heard was " my manager is a bully and if you dont like it then quit your job". the speaker seemed unprofessional and bully like. one of those kinda nurses that thinks her knowledge base is wide, yet it is shallow. she seemed like the kind of person who revels in another's misfortune, an instigator and she just was not quite right. the slides were excellent, but the speaker is living with barely contained rage against her own nurse manager. so what in the stars was she doing teaching the class? her rantings did not even match the slides at times and the other representative seemed shocked at times.

RN34TX · May 31, 2010

Sorry to hear that you were disappointed with NTI. We have exhibited the last 3 years, I have not had an opportunity to attend many sessions.
FYI, I moved your thread to the NTI discussion forum.
I agree the cost involved to go to these shows are very expensive, and the hotel prices too high. If it was not for employer subsidies, I am sure most nurses could not attend.
I frequently asked visitors to our exhibit booth what they thought of NTI this year and the overall feedback was very positive and most people said they have been learning a lot and found it very beneficial.
I know the winner of our iPad drawing enjoyed the show :)

I've visited your booth during your first time in Chicago in 2008 and again this year in DC.

I skipped New Orleans last year because it's so close and I've been there so many times that it's not much of an adventure to us Southeast Texans.

When people at the booths asked me how NTI was going, yes, I too said it was great because the time spent visiting the exhibits was fun and great. And the fact that I won a $100 visa gift card helped as well.

I realize that you now regularly exhibit at NTI so perhaps it may not be so cool for me to be saying that NTI was not as great as people hyped it up to be right on your forum, but I think that people who have been to it should be able to honestly evaluate it for those in the future who are contemplating it.

My first time in Chicago in 2008 I signed up for full day pre-conference classes and it was so new to me that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't remember the classes being so full and inaccessible like this year in DC.

It also didn't help that in DC they turned the most centrally located (classroom, not exhibit area) men's restrooms into women's rest rooms leaving men to walk a mile to get to one but that's another topic.

And supposedly according to AACN's figures, Chicago 2008 was their biggest turnout to date.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't attend again in the future, I just won't have the expectation of learning a lot of new material.

RN34TX · May 31, 2010

RN34TX, I can understand youro point about classess being full and unable to attend. Having attended other nursing conventions as a seasoned RN, I've gotten to the point that I could teach most material. Looking at NTI outline, I see many listings for APN type offerings that I could have takento increase my knowledge base. I've adjusted my thinking that if I could come away with 2 new pieces of info/day, then I'm ahead.
Visiting AN almost daily, we get exposed to so many more ideas/topics that a non-member never gets to see, therefore increasing our knowledge base. Kudos to you for being a solid clinician. Why not stretch and consider being a presenter to impart your knowledge to a newbie...would add to next years fun and add a different set of skills to your repetoire.
:)

Thanks for giving me an upside to the situation. I'll give your comments some thought.

But I wasn't trying to say that I'm such a "solid clinician" that I can't be taught anything new by these critical care experts. Did my post come off that way?

God do not ever let me be the nurse who thinks that no one can teach them anything new!

Now the anatomy cadaver lab was new and I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot from the instructor there who was a flight nurse in daily life. I hope NTI continues that one in future years because I think that every nurse should attend it regardless of practice setting/experience/specialty/education level.

I guess I need to give credit where it's due if I'm going to complain about the parts of the conference that I didn't like.

OceanGirl2010 · Jun 1, 2010

There were alot of great things at NTI. I loved the cadaver lab, the sepsis one and the Trauma Cycle one. We actually acquired new information in those seminars. All of them were fairly well prepared and provided information that were great for new nurses. So, all in all I am glad we attended. Even with the Toxic Work Env seminar the power point was excellent, but the speaker really was so negative about the profession and her current employer it distracted all of us from the great information on the power point. The speaker did not follow her power point presentation , which was well prepared. I do have to say what bothers me the most is the photos my nurses took during that seminar. Her assistant's facial expression appears to range between shock and horror during the seminar as the speaker ranted on and on about not recommending nursing as a preferred career choice, her current management team etc. At that point in the seminar we have a photo of her assistant closing her eyes and shaking her head. So while I do agree with the OP, I really do feel that the speaker would have perhaps been more beneficial if she had been controlling the slides and her assistant would have been the speaker. Wonderful information was on the power point presentation , but the speaker elected to not expand on it. As I look at the photos in hand it is evident from her assistant's facial expression she did not concur with the speaker's opinion on many aspects. I will be attending next year and want to attend this seminar again. I think it will be very interesting to see how different it will be if the roles are reversed. This seminar is a MUST SEE on our list next year, hopefully with the assistant presenting the material and the speaker silently controlling the power point slides.

I did like the Every Nurse is a Leader seminar, and am in hopes they too will be back next year and be able to expand on that topic more than they did this year. The Strategic Ventilation was great and my nurses are now routinely looking at those P/F ratios.

All in all , I am very happy we attended. All the information was wonderful, some of the speakers distracted from the material though.