16-19 March 2015, Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas, NV

2015 Symposium Contact Hour Certificates

You can print your own certificate by going to www.mtsreport.com/nant/15 Enter your last name as it appears on your badge (including any suffixes) and the four digit number on your badge.  You can look up your name to get your four digit number here.

2015 Symposium Presentations

Presentions from the 2015 Symposium will be posted below as received by speakers.  Please feel free to download these presentations to use for in-service training in your dialysis facility.

• AmeriWater Water Treatment
• B. Braun Water Treatment
• Bed Bugs, Lawrence K. Park, MSPH, CHCM, CPEA, CWCP, CNCI, RPIH
• Beware the Biofilm, Jim Curtis
• Current Survey Citations and How to Avoid Them, Joan Travis, RN
• Dialyzer Dyamics - Testing Your Understanding, John Sweeny
• Effects of Na and K on the Body, Jenny Pedersen, RN, MSN
• Electrical Safety, Paul Haggarty
• ESRD Core Survey and Culture of Safety, Denise VanValkenburgh, RN 
• Fears & Tears, Terri Cally, LMSW (please contact the NANT office for a copy)
• Hemodialysis Machines - Testing Your Understanding, John Sweeny
• Keeping in Bounds - OSHA Compliance, Lawrence K. Park, MSPH, CHCM, CPEA, CWCP, CNCI, RPIH
• Kidney Transplantation:  The Difficulties- Real and Perceived, Alexander J. Gilbert, MD
• Moving Forward, John Sweeny
• NNCC Certification

2015 Program Highlights

• Click here for the 2015 Schedule-at-a-Glance (152 KB PDF)
• Click here to download the 2015 Symposium Brochure (483 KB PDF)
• Click here for 2015 Symposium registration 

Exhibitor Information

• Click here for the Exhibitor Prospectus for 2015 NANT Symposium (66 KB PDF)
• Click here for the Exhibitor Contract (746 KB PDF form)

Session Information

Workshops | General Sessions | Concurrent Session Tracks

Click on the symbol next to each session below in order to download the event to the calendar on your device.

2015 Workshops

Workshops provide opportunities for technicians to gain in-depth knowledge in three areas. Workshop fees include refreshment breaks (but not lunch). To ensure your participation, you must register in advance. Workshops begin at 8:30 am and end by 4:00 pm, with a break for lunch. All workshops offer a full day of education and 7.2 contact hours. Space is limited – register NOW!

• Are You in Compliance? ($75 member/$95 non-member)
  • There is an alphabet soup of organizations that dialysis units must be in compliance with: OSHA, Joint Commission, CMS, CDC and more. This six hour workshop features Larry Park, MSPH, CHCM, CPEA, Fresenius Medical Care NA; Danilo Concepcion, CBNT, CCHT-A, FNKF, Operations Manager, Renal Services, St. Joseph Hospital and Denise VanValkenburgh, RN, BA, consultant. If your dialysis unit is scheduled for an audit by any of these organizations, you don’t want to miss this workshop!
• Water Treatment For Dialysis Workshop($75 member/$95 non-member)
  • Participants will receive a copy of the newly published Water Treatment for Dialysis (a $50 member/$75 non-member value).
  • This workshop will feature authors of chapters of the newest book on water treatment for dialysis as well as an overview by AmeriWater, B. Braun and MarCor on their water treatment products. This workshop is a must for every biomedical technician!
• Machine Troubleshooting ($15 member/$25 non-member)
  • This workshop will provide insight into how to troubleshoot the Fresenius dialysis machines and review of common problems and how to avoid having them happen.

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General Sessions

Tuesday

• Become the Expert on Bedbugs in One Hour! – Larry Park, MSPH, CHCM, CPEA
  • The saying, “Sleep tight! Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Is sometimes a reality for dialysis units. This session is guaranteed to give you useful information about how to deal with bedbug infestations. Larry Park is an energetic, engaging speaker who will give you specific tools and tips of how to deal with this pesky bug.
• The A & P Quiz Show – Amelia Bell Hawkins, MSN, RN, APRN-BC, CRNP-F
  • Anatomy and Physiology are the basics of dialysis. This interactive session will help you gauge your knowledge. How good will your score be?
• Fears and Tears: A New Way of Looking at Emotions in Dialysis Patients – Terri Cally, LMSW Education and Community Outreach Director, MARC Network 5
  • This session deals with biological and evolutional purposes of tears and our Fight or Flight response, and uses other evolutionary examples of adapted animals and human skin colors to illustrate biological realities in our patients.
• Facility Culture – Denise VanValkenburgh, RN, BA, Consultant
  • Since 2013, the dialysis community seems to have bought into the Culture of Safety concept. This session will explore the three levels of human behavior: inadvertent, at risk, and negligent as related to dialysis and the technicians’ role.
• Certification: Future Trends, Recertification Requirements – BONENT, NNCC and NNCO
  • With new certifications being introduced for dialysis technicians and the continuing need for recertification to maintain your dialysis position, certification is now front and center for technicians. Come prepared to learn the latest in dialysis technician certification.
• Baseline Patient Empowerment Project – Shad Ireland
  • Shad Ireland was born with healthy kidneys in May, 1972. Almost exactly eleven years later, in May, 1983, he and his mother got the news that those kidneys were now diseased and he would have to be on dialysis while awaiting a kidney transplant. Shad eventually underwent two transplant operations. The first kidney transplant, at age 18, lasted for three years. The second transplant was unsuccessful. Facing a life of illness and having been told he would probably only live until he was 25, Shad decided to cram as much living on the edge into his life as he could. To him, that meant partying and having a good time even as he endured regular dialysis. He had no real goals beyond making sure what happened in the next 24 hours was based on having fun.
  • Then one day in 1993, weighing just 75 pounds and recovering very slowly from the rejection of his first transplanted kidney, Shad was resting and watching television. Flipping between channels, he saw a race he’d not seen before – a triathlon. He was captivated by the strength and determination the contestants in this difficult race exhibited and told his mother he would some day compete in that race. The road to meeting that goal wasn’t straight or easy, but in 2004, Shad finished his first triathlon – the world famous Ironman – in Lake Placid, New York. He was the first dialysis patient to ever do so. By beating the astronomical odds against him through sheer guts and perseverance, he became a swimming, biking and running symbol of courage and hope in the face of a killer disease.

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Thursday

• What’s Wrong with This Picture? – Clarica Douglas, CHT
  
  • Pictures of dialysis units form the basis of this interactive session. What’s wrong in the picture? What’s right? This engaging session will help you go back to your dialysis unit with a fresh eye for what needs to be changed.
• End of Life Issues – Jeff Lux, DaVita
  • It’s a fact of dialysis – technicians are often helping their patients deal with end of life issues. This session will provide useful ideas of how to make things easier for your patients.
• Moving Forward – John Sweeny, BS, CHT
  • You’ve just finished this great boot camp… what’s next? NANT’s favorite speaker, John Sweeny, will give you concrete suggestions of how to take what you have learned back to your dialysis unit and how to share this information in a way that will impress your supervisor and ensure that you will be selected to attend the next great educational program that NANT has to offer.

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Concurrent Session Tracks

Clinical

• Fluid Management and Physiological Effects on the Body – Jennifer Pederson, RN, MSN, DaVita; Amelia Bell Hawkins, MSN, RN, APRN-BC, CRNP-F
  • This three part session will provide an overview on fluid management with a focus on sodium/potassium and phosphorous/calcium.
• Dialyzer Dynamics: Testing Your Understanding – John Sweeny, BS, CHT
  • Do you understand what is actually happening in the dialyzer during a treatment? Keep in mind that you can’t see fluid movement, watch molecules diffuse across a membrane, or even barely see the fibers inside, so what is really happening? This lecture will give you a chance to see if what you believe is correct through a series of questions and answers. Keep your own score and find out if your personal “picture” is correct.
• Transplantation Difficulties – Alexander J. Gilbert, MD, Transplant Nephrologist, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
  • How can you help your dialysis patient get ready for a kidney transplant? This session will discuss the process your patient will go through from the day their name is put on the list through post recovery.
• Hands-on Session: Vascular Access
  • This session will include three stations that small groups will visit for hands-on practice: All about Buttonholes, Access Assessment, and Access Bingo.

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Biomedical

• Life Safety Codes – Danilo Concepcion, CBNT, CCHT-A, FNKF, Operations Manager, Renal Services, St. Joseph Hospital
  • Often biomed technicians are responsible for general facility management. Maintaining the dialysis facility is just as important as maintaining the dialysis machines. Preventive maintenance can forestall significant problems that can be detrimental to the health of dialysis patients and staff alike.
• Hemodialysis Machines: Testing Your Understanding – John Sweeny, BS, CHT
  • What is really happening in the dialysis machine during a treatment? You can’t see inside it – but the more you understand what is happening, the better you can keep it going. This lecture will give you a chance to see if what you believe is correct through a series of questions and answers. Keep your own score and find out if your personal “picture” is correct.
• Electrical Safety – Paul Haggarty, MarCor
  • Fluids and electricity don’t mix! But, that’s exactly what happens in a hemodialysis machine. This session is designed to review electrical safety that might result saving someone’s life… maybe even your own!
• Current Survey Citations and How to Avoid Them – Denise VanValkenburgh, RN, BA
  
  • Your unit is being surveyed next week – are you ready? This session will explore the most common survey citations and provide tips and techniques of how you can avoid being cited.
• Managing Your Team for Success! – Kevin Burns, Satellite Healthcare and Fran Rickenbach, CAE, IOM 
  • Getting all your team all moving in the same direction can be a challenge – but one you must meet if you want to climb your personal career ladder. This session will provide specific tips and tricks designed for biomedical technicians as well as a hands-on exercise which will give you a different view of how to build consensus.
• Hands-on Session: Techniques for Biomeds
  • This session will include three stations that small groups will visit for handy techniques.

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(Page last updated on 02/27/15)