She scrolls through slides, rehearsing her thoughts. She wonders whether her PowerPoint presentation would have made the grade at this morning’s session.
She is smart enough not to judge her performance too soon—someone in an audience once reached out to her a year later—as she knows the impact of a training session is more than the round of applause at its end.
“You hope that you generate a discussion more than the traditional didactics,” she says. “These meetings are meant to start a discussion and, hopefully, create a network and a community where people can continue to [share ideas and learn from each other]. … I hope that along with some of the content that people take away, the bigger thing is those connections that they make.”
—Nasim Afsarmanesh, MD, director, HM quality initiatives, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Dr. Afsarmanesh talks about her poster.
Work Never Ends
It’s 4:30 p.m. and Dr. Afsarmanesh still has a sales pitch to rehearse. This time, it’s self-promotion for her soon-to-begin poster presentation: “The ABCs of Hospitalized Patients: A Multi-Disciplinary Checklist for Improving Quality of Patient Care.”
After umpteen repetitions of her spiel, the presentation doesn’t win a prize, but, once again, she showcases her attention to detail: A stack of 8.5”x 11” versions of her poster are available for handouts, a feature few others in the competition have.
Some 12 hours into her tour of this massive convention center, the day is coming to a close. But not before SHM CEO Larry Wellikson, MD, SFHM, drops by to say hello.
He points out how strong her research is. Unfortunately, he uses a pen in the process.
“Don’t poke a hole in my poster,” she jokes.
Moments later, it’s back to working the line queued up at her poster. “Hi, would you like to hear about my poster?” HM2010
Richard Quinn is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.