Thank you for an impactful 50th ASHHRA Annual Conference & Exposition. We may have experienced troubles getting to Chicago, but it was inspiring to see the lengths attendees went through to get to the conference. And despite this year’s bad travel luck, 77 percent of attendees said they plan to attend the 2015 annual conference. 

It’s nearly a month after you left Chicago, and we’re here to spark some action. One of the main reasons to attend conference each year is to acquire new ideas and ways of thinking, and then to bring those ideas back to your organizations, make a plan and put it into action. 

Below we offer some advice for making the most of your experience—but before you move, make sure you have the proper plan in place. 

Thank you to the attendees who went great lengths to travel to the ASHHRA 50th Conference.

 

We hosted those from Bermuda, Brazil and Thailand, and we can’t thank them enough for their dedication to ASHHRA and being a part of this year’s event. 

You won’t maximize your experience if you don’t put what you learned into motion after conference. You can come and learn, but until you act as a change agent in your organization, you won’t reap the benefits of what the ASHHRA conference is all about. So be sure to follow through. Implement change and motivate yourself and others to be the change agent that your organization needs.

To inspire some ideas, here’s what we heard that others are implementing and focusing on after returning home:

 

▪ Alignment of goals and HCAHPS survey

▪ Bullying avoidance
▪ Leadership assessments
▪ Mentorship program for women in health care
▪ New recruitment and compensation strategies
▪ NLRB decisions and application to non-union hospitals
▪ Recruiting through social networks
▪ Strategic role of HR related to population health
▪ Succession planning initiatives

1	Don’t delete that conference app! The ASHHRA conference app is live and active until next year’s conference, so use it as a resource to continue to make connections and share ideas. Challenge each other to implement change.
2	Access learning session slides. Did you know that PowerPoint slides/presentations from most learning sessions are available on the app? Open the presentations in your browser, where you can then save them as PDFs and email them to yourself. Then use these as road maps to create your plan, and be sure to download the slides to the sessions you couldn’t attend.
3	Type up your notes. Remember those great notes you took in your ASHHRA Journal? Be sure to take the extra step to type up your notes. Typing handwritten notes allows you to further commit ideas and concepts to memory and allows them to be easily shared with colleagues. Once you’ve typed them up, commit to bringing them to staff meetings and sharing them with others who may have not been able to attend the conference and/or the specific session.
4	Send a couple emails. Do not forget or put off reconnecting with those you met. Send an encouraging email, drop a line to say hello, encourage the sharing of ideas, say ‘thank you’ to someone—nurture the relationships that you created. You’ll see an immense return on your efforts.
5	Connect with others via social media. Set aside time to find colleagues on LinkedIn and Twitter. Reach out, send a message and establish the connection. This is an easy way to stay constantly connected and doesn’t require a lot of time do make it happen.
6	Fulfill any promises. Remember telling someone that you’d do something for them or connect with them about something after the conference? Don’t forget to follow up, follow through and hold yourself accountable.
7	Create your plan. After reviewing notes and the available slides, create a plan of action that puts what you took away from conference in action. Start with just one idea that would be easy to implement. Pick one thing, or decide to make just one change, and make it happen. After that small victory, you’ll be more motivated to continue down the path to change.

 

One session where I had an epiphany, so to speak, was about improving HCAHPS. That session really showed me that Bon Secours is headed in the right direction —  especially around cascading goals. The session was really informative with best practices in order to improve hospital outcomes, which in turn affects the company’s bottom line. 

I attended a session on coaching to the full potential. I was sitting in that session and I said to myself, "I need to begin to meet with my nurse managers." I need to implement the coaching strategies taught during the session, to help them understand they have to be able to manage people according to where they are and understand their potential. With the nurse managers actively coaching, I think it will improve engagement among our employees. 

First of all, go for the sun! Honestly, though, ASHHRA has put together a well-thought out conference that has a variety of sessions that all relate back to the specifics of health care. If you’ve never been to an ASHHRA conference, I encourage you to attend. Come and network. It’s an amazing opportunity to learn and grow. My hat is off to ASHHRA for allowing me to come and be a part of such a great event. I can now take tools back to my organization so we can continue to be a world-class organization.