Tri-Service Military SIG Pre-Conference a Success!

Building on the success of last year, this year's Tri-Service Military pre-conference session was a huge success. The session, entitled "Military Contributions: Charting a New Course in Ambulatory Care," was held during AAACN's 30th Anniversary Conference, "Charting a New Course in Ambulatory Care," held in San Diego, CA, in April. Arriving from as far way as Iceland and Japan, the 125 attendees were treated to a variety of military-focused ambulatory care topics ranging from sexual assault to management of in-theater medavacs from Iraq.

A representative from both the Navy and Air Force Corps Chiefs were on hand to share information on ambulatory care within their respective services. The day-long conference offered a variety of presentations and discussions addressing both challenges and success stories unique to ambulatory care nursing practice within the military health care system. Although the Army Nurse Corps chief could not attend, Capt. Barbara Dischner, Deputy to the Director Navy Nurse Corps, and Col(s). Nancy Dezell, Deputy Director of Air Force Nursing Services both provided meaningful information concerning the direction of ambulatory care within the military.

The broad scope of topics covered at this year's conference included military roles and responsibilities in sexual assault management, establishing open access within a Military Treatment Facility, research on post-partum women's perception about smoking, a clinic-based initiative to proactively manage post-ER-visit patients, creating a portable standardized competency assessment, and Aerovac management within a war-time theater.

Eight scholarly poster presentations were available for viewing throughout the conference. The outstanding poster displays generated much interest and discussion among conference attendees. The success of this year's poster presentations ensures they will continue to be an important part of future TriService Military SIG conferences.

This year's conference was rated as outstanding by attendees on their evaluation forms. The combination of lectures, discussions, and poster presentations proved to be a winning combination for attendees. The aim as always for the conference planners was to provide useful and focal tools for attendees to take back to their units.

We want to extend our sincere appreciation to the speakers and poster presenters as well as the following planning committee members for making this year's conference a success: Col. Monica Secula, ANC; Col. Ramona Decker, ANC; Lt. Col. Corinne Naughton, USAF, NC; Cdr. Harry Foster Smith, NC; Lcdr. Sarah Shea, USN, NC; Maj. Deona Eickhoff, USAF, NC; USN, NC; Lcdr. Michael Allanson, USN, NC; Capt. Cindi Willis, USAF, NC; and Maj. Christine Taylor, USAF, NC. Embracing the spirit of volunteerism, our military "wave runners" performed innumerable tasks supporting registration, CE certificates, and all the behind-the-scenes tasks that contributed to the conference's huge success.

The newly elected 2004-2005 Tri-Service Military SIC committee members are:

Army Co-Chair: Col. Ramona Decker, NC, UA

Air Force Co-Chair: Lt. Col. Corinne Naughton, USAF, NC (until Oct 05)

Maj. Christine Lowery, USAF, NC (deployed Oct 05)

Navy Co-Chair: LCDR, Michael Allanson, NC, USN

Treasurer: Capt. Cindi Willis, USAF, NC

Webmaster: Maj. Christine Taylor, USAF, NC

2006 AAACN Planning Committee Liaison: Capt. Sara Marks, NC, US

The new committee members are already busy planning for next year's Tri-Service Military SIG Conference, scheduled for March 21, 2006, in Atlanta, GA. The theme for next year's Tri-Service Conference is "Leading in a Culture of Change." We highly encourage anyone interested in participating as either a speaker or poster presenter to submit an abstract to the Army, Air Force, or Navy 2005-2006 Co-chairs. Our networking group is always looking for motivated leaders to participate as part of the planning committee.

In closing, we want to salute our Army, Air Force, and Navy colleagues currently deployed in harm's way and wish each of them a quick and safe journey home.

We look forward to seeing everyone at next year's conference in Atlanta, GA!

Copyright American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing May/Jun 2005
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