2024 Nursing Conference Grant Winning Essays

The questions for this year’s application cycle were as follows:

Please describe how you will share what you learn at this conference with colleagues.
How will you incorporate what you learn from this educational offering into your practice?
How will this conference advance your long-term career goals (beyond the attainment of continuing education hour requirements)?

Essays were lightly edited for grammar, flow, and readability.

McKenna Volquardsen

Essay 1: If I were awarded this grant, I would want to share anything and everything possible with my coworkers. As a unit, we strive to better ourselves and the nursing care that we provide. Attending a conference with this grant will allow myself and all of my coworkers to become better at what we do. If given the opportunity, I will share what I learn with my coworkers by developing a summary presentation for them. In the past, individuals who have attended conferences such as NTI have created a presentation regarding what they learned and experienced. I would like to do the same, but I would like to take it a step further and allow them the opportunity to pick something that I discuss to help cultivate a change on our unit. By doing so we will come up with ideas on how to improve our unit and hospital together. Our project could be that be a change in policy, quality improvement project, or something that will simply help the work-flow. This opportunity would impact me, my team, and the patients we care for on a daily basis. The broad variety of topics at NTI guarantee we will find something worth pursuing. Attending NTI in 2025 would allow me the honor of collaborating with my coworkers to cultivate a change.

Essay 2: In 2024, I attended my first AACN NTI. The knowledge that I gained while attending this conference was staggering. Not only did I learn many amazing things applicable to my practice as an ICU charge nurse, but I learned so much about the community that AACN provides as well. The first time I entered the conference center and found myself surrounded by roughly six thousand nurses was simply incredible, and I will never forget it. I walked away from that conference feeling inspired and motivated to bring about change on my specific unit and in my hospital. The hospital I work at is currently seeking our fifth magnet designation and they?re always looking for new ideas for quality improvement. After NTI my manager and I have already discussed the wide variety for options for quality improvement projects on our unit. These ideas include: developing a targeted temperature management protocol that aligns with best practices, treatment of alcohol withdrawal and what assessment tools to use , and overcoming the numerous communication barriers that occur with our ICU patients. If awarded this grant, I will bring what I learn back to my unit just as I have this year and facilitate quality improvement projects that will improve the holistic care we aim to provide for our patients.

Essay 3: Attending NTI in the year 2025 will help me grow in ways I cannot begin to describe. The wealth of knowledge that I was able to experience at NTI 2024 was incredible. I currently work at the bedside and often find myself wondering where I will be in the future. Will I continue on as a bedside nurse? Will I return back to school and pursue a higher education? I may not know the answers to these specific questions, but I do know for certain that attending NTI in 2025 will present me with the opportunity to continue to explore this field of nursing. There are so many different specialties and subspecialties! Many of which I know nothing about. Attending NTI next year would allow me to explore all the opportunities that nursing provides and help me find my specific niche. It will also provide me the opportunity to network with thousands of different nurses! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all the things they experienced and what lessons they have to teach to the younger generation, especially considering that many of them had been practicing before I was even born. To put it simply, attending NTI in 2025 would help me to excel as a person, daughter, spouse, RN, and CCRN. I would forever be grateful for the opportunity to grow in these ways if granted this award.

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