Improving the Quality of Dissemination Efforts at a Regional Nursing Leadership Conference

Dissemination of member work including projects and studies is a common component of professional nursing organization conferences. Members typically submit an abstract and are selected as presenters through a peer reviewed process. Presenters may have the option of a podium or poster presentation, and conference planners provide requirements such as length of podium presentations or size of posters. The purpose of this article is to describe an initiative by a state nursing leadership organization, Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL), to improve the alignment of abstracts with organizational strategic priorities, and the quality of posters at the annual conference. Conference planners set improvement goals, revised the call for abstract and selection criteria, offered poster development webinars, and evaluated posters for key design elements. This article will describe goals, abstract criteria, webinar content, evaluation method, and outcomes including improvement data for two years. The methods described in this article may be duplicated by organizations wishing to establish or improve the quality of conference dissemination.