NHPCO Management & Leadership Conference through Tweeter Eyes

I attended the NHPCO Conference and this year it was different. I’m a committed member of the tweeting subculture inspired by my twitter buddies after reading live commentary from sessions at the recent AAHPM conference in Canada.

I had not planned it before going to the conference but fell into it as I listened to the first session. My initial thoughts…..take notes in the form of tweets that I can review later. But with time and the growing joy in it, I embraced the mission to benefit to the bigger audience and resolved to tweet notes that others could follow, giving credit to the presenters & bringing the message to more people. I felt like a reporter bringing tales from the edge. I reveled at bringing the results of the Moran report to the twitter community, giving insight into the issues affecting the multigenerational hospice workforce, CMS’s recommendations about the Face to Face Visit regulations or bringing eAdvocacy strategies. It changed my conference experience completely. People around me asked what I was doing punching madly on my blackberry and became starry eyed at the thought of stardom in Twitterwood!

A highlight was meeting fellow tweeters. No introductions needed, we already know each other on a different level. I laugh as I approached them in hallways and at the bookstore “Hi!—– EOLnavigator. Great to finally meet you IRL (in real life). My real name —–Niamh!”

So what’s the point of tweeting live from a conference? Our collective mission is to get everybody passionate about end of life care with something to say about it online bringing their expertise to the masses and bringing the conference experience to non-attendees. I won’t miss another AAHPM conference & you can expect tweets on the road, not literally speaking! Read our tweets for the conference at www.tweetchat.com and enter #mlc11 hashtag or follow the #hpm hashtag to meet your online hospice and palliative care brothers and sisters.