Greetings SPN Members!
I hope everyone’s summer is off to a great start, and that you have plenty of time over the next few months to enjoy all that summer brings: long, warm evenings; ice cream cones and fresh fruits & veggies; and time on the beach, at the lake, or in a pool to escape from the heat!
I’ve been an SPN member for long enough now that when I think of summer, I also think of conference abstract submission time! This year’s abstracts are due August 12, with acceptance letters going out in the fall. One of the things I love most about the SPN conference is that we have such a wide variety of tracks within the conference – there is a track for nearly any type of work that you’re doing within your organization, which creates lots of opportunity to showcase your work and ensures that the conference content is diverse and relevant for a wide audience of pediatric nurses. There is also a separate track for pre-licensure nursing students – scholarship is an important part of every phase of our professional careers, so we welcome nursing students to submit their work as well! I am so excited to see the range of amazing presentation topics that these abstracts will represent. This year we also have a new presentation type: 15 min podium sessions. This is a great option for presentations that don’t warrant a full 30 or 60-minute session or if the idea of speaking for 30 or 60 minutes seems too daunting!
In my role supporting professional development at our organization, I work with nurses around the hospital who are involved in exciting improvement projects, research studies, or educational initiatives, all of which could easily make for fantastic conference posters or presentations. Unfortunately, a relatively small number of these nurses take the leap and actually submit an abstract to conferences like SPN. Many nurses are intimidated by the abstract submission process, don’t know how to efficiently describe their project in abstract format, or feel out of practice with professional writing. These challenges are all real – and can be overcome!
To address the intimidation factor of the abstract writing and submission process, the Conference Planning Committee has developed a number of incredibly helpful resources available on the abstract submission website, including an abstract criteria document that gives a description of the different tracks, detailed submission instructions, and the rubrics used to evaluate each of the abstracts. The components of this document, and specifically the rubrics, are incredibly helpful – you’ll know exactly how the abstract is being judged so that you can ensure you’ve included all of the requested information. The website also has an example abstract and a link to a webinar about submitting a successful abstract.
Writing an abstract does take some practice – the word count limits force you to be creative in how you describe your project, study, or initiative, and you often have to trim favorite words or phrases to avoid exceeding the limit. And if it has been a while since you’ve written for an academic or professional audience, you might have to get your ideas down on paper and then rework them a few times to bring it all together into a succinct, impactful representation of your work. This is where it can be helpful to phone a friend! Call on friends and colleagues to review your abstract – they can help figure out where to trim words or help you think of alternate ways to phrase what you’re trying to say. I always build in time to have at least one colleague review the abstracts that I write – and they always help to make them stronger!
If submitting an abstract has been on your professional goals list, I hope you’ll take the leap this year - we want to hear about the fantastic work you’re doing to improve care for our pediatric patients and families and/or to support or develop your nursing colleagues. I hope to see you on the stage or in the poster hall in Disneyland next April!