President’s Message: Fall 2018

Fall 2018

Look at How BONENT is Helping You Achieve Your Recertification

The 2019 Certification Amnesty Program

So, how else can you be involved in BONENT?

As you see this letter has a special focus – Recertification and the recently approved Certification Amnesty Program. 2019 is the only year that this program will be available, if you are lapsed or expired. See all the details in our newsletter on page 1 and 3, with the new application on page 4.

After 20 Regional Seminars, What Have we Learned?

After a successful BONENT Regional Education Seminar in Newark, we completed another year of with three regional seminars. So now, that is 6 years and 20 seminars! And they are getting better and better.

I would like to thank BONENT Vice-President, Lyle Smith and his Continuing Education Committee, especially John Larson CHT who has organized our Midwest Seminars for the past 3 years. They are always looking for more BONENT members to help. If you have ideas of what topics should be in the 2019 Seminars, please volunteer by contacting Lyle at lyle_bonent@msn.com.

So, what did we learn this year?

Western Regional Seminar

In San Jose at our Western Seminar, we had excellent speakers on a number of important topics. Ann Diroll presented on one of the most important topics to our patients - End Organ Stunning. This is a new area of focus for CMS. You will be hearing more about this. Jane Wilson spoke on Infection Prevention - another area of focus for State Inspectors. Lisa Hall from Network 16 and KCER told us How to Prepare for Emergencies.

We thank Joe Sala, who presented at all 3 of our seminars on Professionalism and the Role of the Technician. From personal experience Joe shared the potential for all dialysis professionals. Joe started his career as a patient care technician and now is the administrator of ambulatory care clinics (including a number of dialysis clinics) for a New York hospital group.

MidWest Regional Seminar

In Chicago at our MidWest Seminar, we also had a great line up. The Keynote speaker was Dr. Sanjay Mohindra. He taught us now that we have AVF’s in our patients, how do we optimally manage them - another message that we can use every day.

James Murphy from FKC, spoke on the Principles of Fluid Management. This relates to what we heard in San Jose about End Organ Stunning. Marion Shuck, Community Affairs Manager from Gift of Hope, gave a great presentation on Organ Recovery and how important that is to our patients.

Northeast Regional Seminar

In Newark, NJ at our Northeast Seminar, we had our largest crowd of the year – over 200 attendees! The Keynote speaker was Lynda Ball, President of ANNA. She told us about all the new access options that are now available and also the one that are in development. Dori Schatell from Medical Education Institute presented on Sexuality and the Dialysis Patient. This topic is so important to our patients and so seldom discussed with them. MEI is the organization that brings us the Core Curriculum for Dialysis Technicians, the best book to study to study for the BONENT and the other exams. It is available at www.MEIresearch.org.

What Do Our Regional Seminars Lack?

Now you might ask, with all these great speakers, what do the BONENT Regional Education Seminars lack?

YOU!!!

If you didn’t attend any of these Regional Seminars, look at what you’ve missed, as well as not receiving 8 continuing education credits for each seminar. Hopefully, we’ll see you at one of our 2019 seminars.

Click here to read previous Letters from the President.