Holly D. Swensen, MSN, RN-BC, APRN, NP-C, is a Nurse Practitioner at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, ID. She and Angela Pettigrew, BSN, RN, Clinical Care Coordinator at the University of Alabama, in Birmingham, AL are the program co-chairs for the 18th American Society for Pain Management Nursing Conference, September 3-6, 2008 in Tucson, AZ.

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Questions

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Evelyn Corsini:

How did you become involved in the ASPMN?

Holly D. Swensen, MSN, RN-BC, APRN, NP-C: Like many other nurses, I have become more involved and knowledgeable about pain management through my clinical practice. In the course of my career I worked in a hospice program. After 25 years in nursing I went back to school to become a family nurse practitioner. I took a job as a Nurse Practitioner in a relatively new and innovative Inpatient Pain Service at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. The service was formed in response to Joint Commission guidelines about pain assessment and pain management.

Idaho is primarily a rural state that like many other states, grants Nurse Practitioners independent prescriptive authority. Our consult service has three nurse practitioners who are available 24-7 to consult on any hospital inpatients. Those patients consulted on frequently have the NP manage the pain portion of their care until they are managed on an appropriate discharge regime. We have an outpatient pain program as well, so there is a place to refer patients after discharge, if needed.

I think maturity and a background in nursing helped prepare me for my job in the Pain Service. The pain experience is influenced by many factors. I was fortunate to work with another nurse practitioner who had trained in a pain program. However I have learned a great deal relating to my practice by being a member of ASPMN. Having attended six of the annual conferences, I always brought new treatment strategies back to my practice. I felt it was important to “pay back” the organization for all I learned, by getting involved in the Conference Planning Committee and taking on the responsibility to plan this year’s conference with Angela Pettigrew.

EC: How did you go about selecting the curriculum for this year’s conference?

HS: I believe ASPMN does a great job listening to their members by trying to provide them with education that meets their expressed needs. We read post-conference evaluation forms and use that information as a way to help us with planning. This extends to the members expressing a desire for a change in the time of year of the conference, hence the change from spring to fall this year. This is the first time it will be held in September.

Members also told us that they wanted a broader diversity of topics, and since their expertise in pain management has grown as the organization has grown, we have needed to provide higher level more complex information to meet those needs. Throughout the conference brochure, each session is labeled as either basic or advanced. This allows participants to make a better decisions about what they want to attend. The definitions of “basic” and “advanced” that we are using are:

• Basic sessions are designed for the less experienced nurse, regardless of educational degree, providing information for entry into or a beginning level of pain management nursing. This does not imply that the information may not be appropriate for a wide variety of interest levels.
• Advanced sessions contain information on topics that may be considered advanced as the content is from a specialty area, deals with complex information and/or reflects content for the more experienced nurse. This does not imply that these sessions are for advanced practice nurses only and may be suitable for a wide variety of interest levels.

EC: What are some of the conference highlights?

HS: We have a great variety of content on the program this year, and we were fortunate to have many more abstracts submitted from which to select. We are delighted that Chester ‘Trip’ Buckenmaier III, MD, will give a keynote address. He is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, at the Uniformed Services University, and Chief, Army Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management Initiative. One other keynote speaker is Chris Pasero, MSN, RN-BC, FAAN. She was one of the founders of ASPMN back in 1990. Chris, and our Special Honoree, Margo McCaffrey, RN, MS, FAAN, are both pioneers in our field. They have individually and together co-authored several articles and books which have contributed significantly to the treatment of pain. Both have contributed to the Core Curriculum for Pain Management Nursing.

Another excellent speaker this year is Judith A. Paice, Ph.D., RN, FAAN. She will present an advanced session on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, a topic that our membership previously requested. Among the many sessions offered will be topics such as patient-controlled analgesia, pain management in the chemically dependent patient, and sessions focused on both the elderly and pediatric patients.

EC: How many participants do you expect will attend and what is the composition of your audience?

HS: We hope that over 500 participants will attend the conference. This kind of national conference gives participants many educational and network opportunities where the exchange of ideas often “plant the seeds” for exciting new projects. Participants have a variety of backgrounds and experience. Many are leaders in pain management in their own institutions or communities, or have major responsibility for pain management education and consultation. Many participants who want to learn how to improve their own clinical practice and bring new information back to their organizations, come to meet those goals.

More details about the conference and registration are available on the American Society for Pain Management Nursing website, www.aspmn.org.