Explore and enjoy the beautiful city of La Crosse. Our conference site, the Radisson Hotel in downtown La Crosse,
is within walking distance of many fine restaurants, unique
shops, and points of interest. Relax by taking in a dinner
cruise on the Mississippi River, or by simply walking along
its banks through beautiful Riverside Park.
Barge traffic on the Mississippi River
at LaCrosse
Across the River: View of the Mississippi
from the Minnesota bluffs
MARK YOUR CALENDARS - August 14-15, 2008
RTS Coordinator AdvancedTraining and
Pre-Conference Workshops
*Based on requests received from past RTS Coordinator Advanced Training attendees, we have added another segment to RTS Coordinator Advanced Training.
Pre-conference Workshops
Thursday, August 14, 2008, Radisson Hotel, La Crosse, WI
In Your Eyes: Caregivers’ Role in Bereavement Photography Todd Hochberg, Professional Bereavement Photographer 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Registration Fee: $150
Bereavement photography represents a highly prized, yet technically challenging, memento for parents of babies who die. In addition to the photos that healthcare professionals take as part of a standard of care for bereaved families, there is a trend toward also using outside photographers. Presented by Todd Hochberg, professional bereavement photographer, In Your Eyes: Caregivers’ Role in Bereavement Photography is a half-day intensive session for all caregivers interested in improving the quality and content of photographs they take for grieving families experiencing perinatal loss.
Using Guided Participation for Teaching and Learning: 2008
by Rana Limbo, PhD, RN, CNS-BC, and Cheryl Casperson, MS, RN
1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Registration Fee: $95
RTS Coordinators encounter situations daily with co-workers and patients that involve teaching and learning. As an experienced perinatal bereavement professional, you look for ways to share your knowledge and skills. You may be a preceptor or designated as an educator or an expert leader. Yet sometimes what you say doesn’t seem to make a difference—it “goes in one ear and out the other.” Learn how to change that through Guided Participation.
Guided Participation is a method of engaging with another to help the other learn a socially important practice (i.e., how to communicate or regulate emotions). One person serves as a guide or expert and gradually transfers responsibility (for making decisions, figuring things out, trying new skills) to the other person.
Guided Participation is relationship-based, involves reflective processes, and creates a framework for teaching and learning that extends the more traditional notion of teaching as “providing information” and learning as “listening to the information.”Designed and researched by Karen Pridham* and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing and based on the work of John Dewey, Barbara Rogoff, and others, Guided Participation is unique in its focus on working with another to develop their competencies. Also valuable as a method for engaging with families, this session focuses on the use of Guided Participation with professional colleagues.
This workshop weaves information on learning styles and generational differences into a discussion of Guided Participation processes, with a focus on defining issues and developing competencies. Central to the learning experience are videos of real-life clinical experiences, followed by small- and large-group discussion.
Course faculty, Rana Limbo and Cheryl Casperson, are advance practice nurses who have worked extensively in educating nurses and others in the clinical setting. They currently provide education to the Gundersen Lutheran Heart Institute preceptors.
The following are examples of situations for which you can use Guided Participation.
Helping a family see their baby for the first time
Helping a new staff member learn effective communication skills
Supporting effective time management
Making sensitive follow-up calls
Dealing with staff criticism of a staff member new to perinatal bereavement
Dealing with a colleague who criticizes a bereaved parent or family member
Convincing a new staff person to follow established hospital or clinic procedures
Teaching precise charting
* Pridham, K. F., Limbo, R., Schroeder, M., Thoyre, S., & Van Riper, M. (1998). Guided participation and development of care-giving competencies for families of low birth-weight infants. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28(5), 948-958.
Prerequisite: Certificate of completion from RTS Bereavement Training in early pregnancy loss, stillbirth, & newborn death, and RTS Coordinator Training.
RTS Coordinator Advanced Training is designed to help you meet the challenges you face daily as an RTS Coordinator. It will help you stay abreast of current grief research, learn new educational techniques, support clinical practice, and find out more about bereavement support resources.
Advanced Training will help you think about things in a different way, support your practice, and foster connections with other leaders in hospital and clinical-based RTS bereavement care.
Advanced Training presents an outstanding roster of healthcare experts, all offering you the benefit of their own unique education and expertise, addressing topics designed to answer questions and solve problems in the field of perinatal bereavement.
