General Sessions

2022 General Sessions

Join us as we hear from industry leaders who will tackle some of the biggest issues facing nurses today and show you how to adapt and adopt practices leading to better health outcomes for your patients.

Opening General Session: Stepping Up and Saving Lives: Nurses as Leaders in Healthcare Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Description: Inequity is real, and it brings with it a deep, far-reaching impact that shapes lives before they even enter this world. Providers of care are sculpted by their own experiences and journeys along the inclusion and equity continuum and the same is true for those on the receiving end of care. This session will examine and validate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as key factors in health and compel nurses to action in leading progress and change in the health care arena and in society.

Speaker: Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, NPD-BC, FAAN

GS2: The Great (Re)Engagement – Rediscovering Your Passion, Purpose, and Path Forward

New nurses often feel a sense of calling in serving patients and their families during life’s most vulnerable moments. Over time, and especially now, this emotionally demanding work can lead nurses to disengage with that calling.  It is irrefutable that when nurses are (re)engaged and empowered, the patient, employee, and financial outcomes soar.  No matter your role, your engagement matters and it matters a lot.  In this timely general session, Lori uses storytelling, best practices, proven strategies, and humor to help nurses (re)engage with their calling, and rediscover their passion, purpose, and path forward.

Speaker: Lori Armstrong, DNP, RN, NEA-BC

GS3: How I Got My Groove Back: The Nurse Leader’s Guide to Resilience

Health care has faced, managed, and is surviving an unprecedented pandemic which that has resulted in a significant disruption in our work and lives. Nurses and nurse leaders are experiencing burnout and resulting attrition. This session will confront these issues head- on while sharing some strategies to mitigate turnover and improve resilience. During a time when we’re all feeling pushed to the limit, learn how to reclaim your joy and lead with empathy.

Speaker: Rose Horton, MSM, RNC-OB, NEA-BC

GS4: Ability, Not Disability in How You Approach Colleagues, Opportunities, and Challenges

U.S. Association of Blind Athletes CEO Molly Quinn will moderate a panel with USA Goalball Paralympians who represent Team USA on the world’s biggest stage and excel in both sport and life. This panel will focus on-the-court and off-the-court accomplishments of two blind and visually impaired Paralympians. Learn about how, outside of sport, athletes are pursuing careers in the workforce in a wide variety of fields (and the correlation of how working hard in their goalball training translates to their jobs in the workplace).

Panelists: Molly Quinn, CEO U.S. Association for Blind Athletes and two USA Goalball Paralympians

GS5: The Effects of COVID-19 on the Care of Obstetric, Women’s Health, and Neonatal Populations

A multidisciplinary panel will discuss lived experiences in caring for obstetric, women’s health, and neonatal patients with COVID-19 symptoms and complications. Panelists will address a multitude of issues related to COVID-19. There will be ample opportunity for audience engagement with the panelists for lessons learned for application to providing the highest quality of care to acutely ill obstetric, women’s health, and neonatal patients and families.

Panelists: Kayden Coleman, Chloe Jordan, Jeehea Sonya Haw, MD

GS6: Let’s Get It Right! Real Conversations with the Transgender Community – A Panel Discussion

This facilitated discussion will provide accurate information on transgender social issues, misconceptions, and health care needs to support gender inclusion and justice. Panelists will address complex issues in the transgender community to be considered for the development and promotion of coordinated, comprehensive and inclusive health systems.

Panelists: Nicole Hutcheson, MSN, APRN, NNP-BC, CPNP- PC, Jim Jackson, PsyD, Andrea Shields, MD, MS, Andrew Youmans, MSN, CNM

Closing General Session: What Losing the Right to Abortion Means Across the Reproductive Spectrum​

As we write this, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn or fundamentally limit Roe v. Wade, with a decision expected at the end of June. The right to abortion is not the only fundamental right at stake; it is the right of all pregnant people to be free from government control and criminalization. National Advocates for Pregnant Women documents cases around the country in which women are criminalized, or suffer from other rights deprivations, because of their pregnancies and pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, and birth. Dana will discuss what NAPW predicts will be increased criminalization of pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes in a post-Roe America, and what providers can do in this new and unprecedented reality to protect the rights and dignity of their patients.

Speaker: Dana Sussman, JD, MPH