Top 3, Top 3’s from CSM 2013 (Part 2)

Continued from Top 3, Top 3 Lessons from CSM 2013 Part 1

Top 3 Ways to Improve Conference

I was given the opportunity to attend one of the APTA’s focus groups regarding the quality and future improvements of CSM. Here are the top three ways that my group felt the conference could be improved:

1. Speaker content vs. description vs. title congruency – This seemed to be one of the biggest complaints that the title of each sessions, the description, and the actual content consistently did NOT match. Additionally, there were complaints that the “intermediate” courses tended to be too research focused. Introduction and Methodology are all great – but we can read that on our own time. Please blow through the results and conclusion so we can discuss how to apply the research to our practices.

2. WALKING DISTANCE! The walking distance between Hilton hotel and the San Diego Convention Center was atrocious. I clocked the average walking time at 15 minutes depending on the floor you were trying to reach between either building – wasn't there more rooms available in the convention center itself? In any case, we did express this concern.

3. Finally, the meager 2 hours for “uninterrupted” time dedicated to viewing the expo room. We all agreed: that 2 hour slot is TOO short! By the time everyone spent their 15 minutes getting out of the buildings, making way to the San Diego Gaslamp district, grabbed food, paid, and tried to hike it back to the convention center, you’d have MAYBE 45 minutes left to figure out which part of the expo hall you wanted to focus on. If you found something of interest and got into a deep discussion, your ENTIRE 45 minutes we spent right there at that one spot. We also mentioned in the focus group that topic specific and color coded regions of the expo hall would be helpful to add into the CSM program along with visual cues throughout the expo hall itself. 

Top 3, Top 3 Lessons from CSM 2013 – Afterword, Runner up's “Top Three, Threes”:

1. We Need More Board Specialties! A very large theme in just about any discussion I was a part of was that the specialty board needs to open up more specialties! Acute Care PT is the one that is just BLARING out for its own clinical specialty. For just about anyone who attended sessions focusing on vestibular rehabilitation can attest that there is enough room for Vestibular & Balance PT to have its own specialty as well. In fact, more of the special interest groups could stand to benefit from being given their own recognition rather than being lumped into a larger group.

2. Students and Social Media: PT schools are having SPT’s becoming members of APTA, typically as part of their grade for an ethics course or business/administration/legal course. Such should also be the case for Twitter or any other social media outlet. Want an “A” in this course? Make a Twitter account!

3. Social Media Segments: Twitter vs. Facebook vs. Google+ 

• Twitter tends to connect people with new people; forming bonds with a new community – typically one of your peers or an expert you hope to reach out to.
• Facebook is connecting and/or reconnecting with people you’ve already met, with a community you already know - this is a great place to deepen relationships.
• Google+ offers advantages in live-time-media interaction (ie. hangouts); there is a lot of potential and should be explored as it continues development.
• Barrier: TIME. Good grief. I don't know about you, but, I already spend enough time on Twitter as it is! How do we keep up with all of these social media outlets? Oh, right... no one sleeps anymore.

4. Have you been to Nursing Conferences? We have a LOT to work up to! Some of my PT colleagues have attended & spoken at Nursing Conferences; they have really set the bar high. And, again, reinforcing that nurses NEED to be our next target of social media contact, collaboration, and alliance. Nurses have so much power and influence over the direction of healthcare, we'd be foolish to ignore such friends.

Finally: A Special Social Media Shoutout to the following organizations in the Expo who went out of their way to make a special connection with me during #CSM2013!

Clinicient - Great product, awesome teas...

WebPT – one of the largest booths with a great wall; use photo

HomeCEU’s – never get there early enough for prizes… this is GREAT. It means they are connecting!

Therapydia – expansive forward thinking understanding of how to meld rehab and wellness to create a loyal market share through social media.

Sharp Healthcare & Sharp Careers – Local representation from a hard working health system gunning to be the “Best Place to Work” in the universe!

CSM2013 was a definite energizer – a builder of the mountain high experience. The danger of mountain high experiences is that once you hit the valley, it’s all over. We need to use social media to encourage each other in the many cases where we aren't physically in person to support each other. Healthcare professionals using social media are already the cream of the crop – it’s a lot of extra time and effort to promote each other and promote best practices for our patients.

In fact, you are reading this blog, you are already part of the solution and I’m preaching to the choir. The struggle is not just to be motivated. The struggle is not even to stay motivated. The struggle is to motivate others and inspire change in the systems and concomitant barriers to cause improvement.

I encourage all of you to bring another healthcare professional – particularly that of a NON-PT discipline – to join the discussions in social media venues, and, join the #solvePT movement (along with all the other PT hashtags out there). And, of course, that means we need to join up to other healthcare hashtags, too... right?


So! Thanks for reading this MUCH belated post about CSM 2013; I have another two part post coming up:
Consumer Awareness & Access to Physical Therapists - Part 1 & Part 2. Stay tuned!!!