The theme for NANT 10 is: Celebrating Milestones.
As neonatal therapists, your role is steeped in supporting the attainment of developmental milestones in the NICU and mitigating the negative effects of prematurity and illness on those same milestones. You teach parents about the subtleties of developmental progression in their fragile and tenacious babies, helping them identify and participate in milestones they cannot find in mainstream pregnancy and parenting resources.
But that’s not all. You also CELEBRATE milestones!
Not only medical milestones such as getting off the ventilator or CPAP, having their NGT removed, or breathing on room air…
But developmental benchmarks – bonding through skin-to-skin holding, maintaining a quiet alert state, calming themselves by bringing hands to face, demonstrating the progression of flexor tone development, waking and rooting when hungry, transferring milk at the breast or bottle, and many more.
How would parents know about or support these milestones if not for your skilled direction and passion for shared knowledge and empowerment? How would they learn that the NICU can be a place of celebration if not for your example?
You are the leaders in this realm. You are the translators of development, the celebrators of progress.
What does this theme have to do with your abstract submission? Everything.
What are the foundational milestones of neonatal development? How are they supported, or not, by the environment of care? Which developmental components brim with evidence and which lack it? What do you know about the effects of prematurity, illness and/or surgery on development? What evidence is there to validate the ways in which all neonatal professionals engage with the babies in their care? How can you expand parental knowledge and participation in these milestones without overwhelming them? What have neonatal therapists accomplished in the past decade? The list goes on and on.
In order to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes, neonatal therapy must continue to grow and evolve as a specialty, and neonatal therapists must continue to grow and evolve as clinicians, researchers, collaborative team members, and leaders.
NANT’s 10th Anniversary Conference is a developmental milestone for all of us. It celebrates YOUR significant growth and progress in the past decade – new research, new programs, Neonatal Therapy Certification, clinical advancements, collaboration, Membership, shared resources and more. Collectively, you change the landscape of neonatal development starting with each baby and family you serve in the NICU. Your brilliance is requested not only by NANT, but by the tens of thousands of babies you can positively affect all over the globe by presenting at an internationally attended professional conference.
We invite you to submit an abstract for NANT 10. Any profession (or parent) with relevant content may submit.
Submissions will be accepted for Main Conference Oral Presentations, Poster Presentations, and Pre-Conference Sessions through Friday, August 16th.
Click here to submit an abstract and/or review the submission process.
The Conference Committee looks forward to reviewing your submissions.
