Mark your Calendars for the 22nd Annual Scientific Assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) and Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) Annual Collaborative Educational Endeavor.

The 2009 event will take place from January 13-17 at the beautiful Disney Yacht & Beach Club Resort in Orlando, Florida! Check out www.east.org for additional meeting information and on-line registration.

This year the STN will offer a two-part Pre-Conference Performance Improvement Workshop on Tuesday, January 13th. The morning session will be directed at practical performance improvement for new trauma programs. The afternoon session will be geared at taking your trauma program to the next level.

This course is designed to provide a better understanding of the Performance Improvement process in trauma care. It will focus on basic principles of PI, suggested PI indicators, organizing trauma peer review committees, looking for PI opportunities, reporting data, and will include relative case scenarios.

Both courses will present cutting edge information presented by well respected practitioners in the realm of trauma performance improvement. The course is appropriate for trauma directors, trauma program managers, and performance improvement staff.

You won’t want to miss the additional STN sunrise sessions covering current topics in trauma care including: Bariatrics, service line operations, ethics and clinically challenging trauma cases.

You are all welcome to visit with your trauma colleagues at the Annual STN Networking reception on Thursday evening, January 15th. Don’t forget to check out the annual EAST Foundation Dodgeball tournament and consider entering your team in the 2009 event. It is sure to be a lot of fun!

If you are not a member of  the STN or EAST, there is no better time than right now to join our organizations! STN members are nurse leaders in trauma care in clinical, research, administrative and education. EAST is dedicated to nurturing young trauma surgeons through mentorship with junior and senior leaders in trauma care. EAST offers an associate membership to nurses and paramedics. EAST and STN is the perfect partnership for furthering your trauma networking abilities.

To learn more and to registration for the conference visit www.east.org and click on Annual Scientific Assembly.