I was very privileged to receive one of the scholarships through NSH to attend the Symposium/Convention in New Orleans last week. It was such a great opportunity to attend. I have been to the NSH symposium/convention years ago, but haven’t attended for probably around 15 years, it was very interesting to see the changes. This year they did the classes and the registration differently, I really liked the changes. The 1 hour classes made it so you could attend more and get a taste for more subjects. I liked the idea of having to sign up for your lectures beforehand and getting your tickets for each of them. Things were well organized and easy to follow.
I had the opportunity to attend several of the more management type lectures and learned a lot from them. I particularly enjoyed the personality testing and the conflict in the workplace lecture. I learned quite a bit about myself and also had time to reflect on some of my coworkers and how we work together. I am trying to change a few things in my workplace because of it and hope to a better job of working with all of the different personality types here.
I also really enjoyed going to the strategic planning meeting and the House of Delegates meeting. It was a real eye opener to me how much work goes into making this association run smoothly and how much work the team really does for all of us. I had never attended a meeting like the House of Delegates and found it very interesting how it all worked. I truly came back with a new appreciation for all of the volunteers that put so many hours into making a great association for all of us. They really do care about what happens.
The formal dinner/awards ceremony was an absolute delight. It was so tastefully done. Sitting with other members and learning about what they do, where they work, and what they deal with on a day to day basis was very enlightening. The dinner was wonderful. I very much enjoyed the evening. It’s not very often that we get to dress up like that.
The networking reception was also a very good place to meet new people, get contacts, troubleshoot. It’s so interesting to find out what other people deal with on a day to day basis. I loved learning about different places that other Histotechnicians work. There are so many different aspects of Histology and so many different places to work. So many of us have come to this profession in so many different ways and have such a wide range of experience. I am excited to hear and learn more about other jobs that I haven’t learned about yet. When I got home I talked to our pathologists about getting more involved and letting the association know more about what we do and our side of Histology and pathology. I think they are on board and I’m excited to get more involved that way. They are willing to help me put together slides and information to possibly speak at one of the meetings. I have worked in Medical Histology, Veterinary Histology and Research and Development with Histology and cytology. I think all are important and all have their place in the profession. I think more students and techs need to know of the opportunities that are out there in this profession.
I learned that we have a state/region division of the NSH association and I am very excited to get involved in that. I got the name and contact of the regional leader and plan to attend the next meeting.
I really want to encourage all students and Histotechs to get involved in the NSH association. I plan to talk to the techs at the hospital that I know and try to get them involved and to become members. There is so much for them to learn. I hope that Harcum, where I am attending school, will also encourage the involvement of the Histology students into this association. They will definitely benefit and it’s also a great way to network for jobs and opportunities.
The digital posters this year were outstanding. I sent several of them to my email for future use. What a great opportunity to be able to view those. The vendor area was awesome and there were so many there to learn from and get contact information from. I plan on trying quite a few different products from them and improving my lab.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to attend this year and learn a whole other side of the association. Thank you for all of the hard work that is put in by so many people on a daily basis. I hope to get involved first on a state level, since my time is very limited right now with school and work full time.