Te Tai Tokerau Nursing conference 2023
Nurses talking to nurses – don’t be shy, we do great mahi, let's spread the word
Ebony Komene is a RN and currently works in the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland. She encourages nurses to submit abstracts for the upcoming Te Tai Tokerau Nursing Conference, due to be held in Whangārei in November. It’s an opportunity for nurses to present and showcase equity focused mahi and research and the ability to articulate our nursing practice and contributions to health outcomes. 
"It's a great way to showcase your mahi, see what others are doing, share knowledge, develop connections, and disseminate your findings."
Over the last 2-3 years, Ebony has been active in seeking opportunities to give visibility to the work that she has led or been involved in. To date, Ebony has presented at different conferences locally however, her most recent abstract submission has provided the chance to attend and present at the Indigenous leaders and health care conference in Vancouver, Canada, in October 2023.
Ebony is passionate about refocusing the narrative for nurses, particularly Māori nurses, to be researchers, and she loves the impact rangahau (research) has on changing the healthcare system.
For our November conference, Ebony plans to share and celebrate some of the rangahau she has in relation to her work in clinical practice and current mahi within workforce development in an oral presentation. At other research symposiums, she has done poster presentations too.
"I've also used infographics which are very similar to posters. PowerPoint is a great tool for making a presentation or a poster, but a quick Google and YouTube search also helps with ideas/tools."
To prepare, she usually reviews her previous abstracts, asks colleagues for their examples, and refers to examples of abstracts within articles, which generally takes around one hour.
"It is essential to align your abstract with the conference theme and use the same keywords and language in your abstract.”
"Also, because abstracts are word limited, every word counts, so it's very important to use plain and simple language and get someone else to have a second read-through." Writing abstracts and presenting are skills that all nurses can learn and with each one, your confidence grows.
Te Whatu Ora nurse educator Mara Woodworth is looking forward to sharing findings from her Master of Nursing research portfolio at the Conference. A previous NorthTec facilitated research showcase that Mara was due to present at was disappointingly cancelled due to COVID-19.
Mara said she decided to make the most of this conference opportunity and give it a go and is fully supported by her line managers.
Her Masters research involves looking at the experiences of new graduate nurses working in Te Tai Tokerau, and she plans to share her findings from this research.
"I'd like to highlight their experiences, particularly as they are our future workforce. The turnover rate for nurses in their first few years of practice is quite high. If I can find out vital information that may help keep them in nursing, that will be useful for the organisation."
She plans to talk through her PowerPoint presentation to keep the audience engaged, but she is still determining how she will write the initial abstract. To prepare, she has looked at existing abstracts and online tips for how to write one.
"It needs to be written in a way that will engage the audience and make them want to read or hear about your work. However, as it is supposed to be a summary of my research, it will be challenging as I am still working on various aspects, and my finalised research portfolio won't be completed until November 2023. But if my abstract is accepted, I should be able to present my full findings by the time the Conference comes around."
She believes it is important that nurses who work and study to achieve higher qualifications share their experiences so others are inspired to study further. She encourages her colleagues to get out of their comfort zone and submit an abstract to help showcase what research is being undertaken throughout the region.
This conference is the first nursing research conference collaboration between Te Whatu Ora Tai Tokerau and Waipapa Taumata Rau/University of Auckland School of Nursing and we intend for this to become a regular event.
Abstract submissions are open now, and we invite nurses to submit an abstract and to attend the 1-day conference. Conference and abstract information can be found here.
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