by Krystal Bradford, CIP, Research Compliance Specialist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Now that we have settled back into our daily lives, and the frantic time constraints of the holidays are over, I’ve started to reflect on the 2014 AER Conference. I asked myself ‘What did I learn that I want to start incorporating into my work processes?’ And here is the funny and sad, but true, answer: ‘I don’t remember!’ Uh oh. Really?? Then anxiety started to set in, ‘How do I not remember?’ Looking back to the first line of this paragraph, I realize the answer: everyday life got in the way.
How many of us are so consumed by balancing our personal and professional obligations that some of the fundamental, impression-filled, and awe-inspiring moments seem to escape us? We have every good intention of coming back and applying every little thing to enhance our professional work experience, but by the time we get around to it, we end up drawing a blank and remembering nothing.
Luckily, one thing that I was happy to have was my AER14 app on my iPad. I used it to download all of my conference materials and was able to go back and review where I made notes on ideas I was interested in pursuing. Plus, now videos from several of the sessions are available on the conference proceedings.*
Now I am going back through my conference notes, making a list of all the interesting strategies that could benefit my institution and my performance. I am assigning a level of importance to these items and setting up a plan to implement them. As I have gone over my notes, presentation slides, and videos, I was filled with the spirit of the conference, and am excited to incorporate what I learned! I’ll have an update in my next post about my efforts. Until then, tell me and Ampersand’s readers what you’ve done to manage what you learned at the conference. Have you implemented any changes? Are you planning to? What left a lasting impression? These are all things that I am still pondering! Tell me what you’re doing in the comments below.
*To access session materials and recorded videos from the conference, you will need to access the conference proceedings with the conference access key. If you attended the conference, this access key was emailed to you and was also on the back of your conference name badge. If you are unable to locate it, please call the PRIM&R office at 617.423.4112, ext. 0. If you did not attend the conference, please download the proceedings order form to purchase access.