This isn’t your typical education session at Emergency Nursing 2024. Instead of sitting back and taking in the information, attendees can expect a heavy dose of laughs and active participation at the Edutainment session, “Toxic Tango: An Hour of Fun, Facts and Fortunate Outcomes” on Sept. 6 from 6:15-7:15 p.m. in Hall A.
The interactive Edutainment session features humorous skits that test attendees’ clinical skills.
This interactive session will feature sketch comedy skits — à la “Saturday Night Live” — that will test attendees’ clinical skills as the action unfolds on stage, helping them hone their decision-making abilities in the emergency department.
Members of the ENA Conference Education Planning Committee will bring a few real-world case studies to life, showcasing complex, dangerous situations emergency nurses don’t encounter regularly. They will act out the parts of patients and staff in a characteristically busy ED. Each skit follows the patients on their journey through the ED as nurses and other medical staff triage, diagnose, treat and discharge them. During the session, the on-stage action will pause intermittently so audience members can discuss what they would do at those various stages and provide solutions.
Attendees should come prepared to think outside the box and consider alternative solutions for each of the challenges presented in the skits, according to ENA Conference Education Planning Committee Co-chairs Renee Cecil, DNP, RN, CEN, TCRN, SANE, NREMT, and Julia Ponder, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, FNP-C, CEN.
Renee Cecil, DNP, RN, CEN, TCRN, SANE, NREMT
“You think that you know what’s going on, and so, you may get tunnel vision,” Cecil said. “We are going to create an environment where you may have many differential diagnoses. So, come with your best detective skills to deduce the best answer.”
The Edutainment session has proven to be popular with attendees since it debuted at Emergency Nursing in 2022. The 2022 and 2023 sessions focused on Debbie, a super-utilizer who often visited the ED while intoxicated. While Debbie’s wild antics and mischief had the audience in stitches, the sessions reinforced the importance of recognizing and mitigating the impact of implicit bias, which can delay much-needed treatment.
Julia Ponder, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, FNP-C, CEN
Delivering education with humor is an effective way to help attendees remember, process and apply the information, according to Cecil and Ponder.
“This is going to be an adventure. It’s an opportunity to have fun and laugh at ourselves and still learn,” Cecil said. “Hopefully, attendees can walk away with valuable insights, but also have some laughs and enjoyable moments.”
“The session will be fast paced, lighthearted and informative,” Ponder said. “Prepare to have fun.”
While Cecil and Ponder promise the Edutainment session will be just as humorous and entertaining as the past two years, they are coy about whether Debbie will play a part in the session at Emergency Nursing 2024. “Will Debbie make an appearance this year? You’ll have to stop by and see for yourself,” Ponder said.