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The 2008 Great Plains Conference on Respiratory Care-“RT’s Blazing New Trails” was held May 14-16 in Norfolk, Nebraska at Divot’s Conference Center. The conference kicked off with a Board of Directors meeting. The Board welcomed new members: Jeff Shelton-President- Elect, Charlotte Pasco-Vice President-Elect, Linda Nelson-Secretary, John Jarosz-Delegate A, and Nancy Nathenson-Director Lincoln Area. (See the NSRC website for a complete listing of the current 2008 NSRC Board of Directors and Committee Chair positions.) A short business meeting was also conducted at this time. A golf outing sponsored by Lincare was enjoyed at Eldorado Hills golf course in Norfolk on Wednesday the 14th.
About 200 Respiratory Therapists attended lectures on Thursday and Friday. Cheryl West, Director of Government Affairs for the AARC, was the keynote speaker for the conference titled “RT’s Blazing New Trails”. Judith Tietsort from Mediserve also spoke to the group. Judy is a well known speaker and clinician on protocols and automation. Dr. Thomas Brandt, a Cardiothoracic surgeon from Faith Regional in Norfolk, gave an informative and entertaining talk to round out the lectures on Thursday. Truly RT’s are blazing new trails with topics related to NAVA (Neurally AdjustedVentilatory Assist), Capnography and its clinical applications, Smoking Cessation, Interventional Pulmonology, and a breakout session focusing on Polysomnography.
The awards banquet on Thursday honored Darcy O’Brien Genrich as the Therapist of the year for 2007-2008. Student scholarship winners were also recognized from each Respiratory program in the state. Scholarship winners were: Metropolitan Community College-Kristy Guffey and Karla Erickson, Southeast Community College- Karla Stevens, Alegent Health Immanuel-Yarden Medeiros, and Methodist College-Cody Goodrich. Bruce Campbell was also honored as this past year’s NSRC President.
The annual sputum bowl competition was also held, with Metropolitan Community College taking top honors for their student sputum bowl team. The Metropolitan Community College Sputum Bowl winners are: Tesnim Hassan, Melanie Doucette, Krista Bridges, and Kristy Guffey.
Attendees also spent time in the vendor hall visiting the over 40 vendor booths. The conference was very well received and feedback was positive. The NSRC BOD looks forward to seeing even more folks attend the conference in 2009. The dates are already booked for Kearney (May 6th-8th, 2009) so make plans now to attend. If you have topics or ideas for the state meeting we welcome your suggestions and can send suggestions to Jill Sand at
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Submitted by: Candy Ryan, MHA, RRT, AE-C 2007-2008 NSRC-Vice President |
