Category: Child Abuse

This week is the IAFN annual conference, and once again, it’s an opportunity to network and collaborate with some of the best and the brightest in the field. It’s a week I love, and sometimes love to hate, because with the deeply satisfying moments come the inevitable, frustrating ones where I witness acts of great professional unkindness perpetrated left and right. Over the years a degree of both public and private shaming has begun to emerge at this conference, particularly in regards to education, that makes me feel sad for the profession. I have witnessed it first hand, as close friends have been made to feel their accomplishments mean nothing without advanced degrees; I’ve listened (astonished) in public forums as those who should be mentors explicitly tell audience members that they need to dumb their content down for the non-PhDs in the room; and of course, I’ve had more nurses than I can count worry to me about whether they will have a place in the organization 5-10 years down the road if they don’t go back to school.

You may have noticed I took some time away from the site last week. I don’t usually disappear like that, but looming deadlines coupled with some time away to celebrate my dad’s accomplishments in the 216 meant that this site got a bit neglected. Frankly I needed the space, so it was good to have it. But now I’m back in the office, refreshed and ready to face the week. It includes the holiest day in my year; an interesting talk Wednesday morning here in town (I’ll be speaking about social media use); and the march toward wrapping up my time with the Army. Hard to believe this year is coming to an end (and how much work we’ve accomplished–if you’re curious we’ll be presenting about it in Orlando). In the meantime, I spent most of my weekend pretty unplugged, although I managed to get a bit of reading done. Here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:

After a terrific course in San Antonio last week it’s good to get back to the office and get my in-box in order, attempt to get a handle on new projects, and geek out on data waiting for review. It was an unusually social weekend for me (once I made it back from Texas, that is), so it wasn’t until later Sunday evening that I even found time to catch up on what was circulating on the interwebs. Here’s what caught my eye since last we spoke:

August is such an odd month, full of transition. Getting the kid back to school, thinking about my own transition as I begin wrapping up this gig (what’s next? being my very favorite question, and a seriously legit one for me right now), making some decisions about how and where I want to spend my time and resources. Plus the wife is in her own fancy-pants new job, so we’ve got a new routine to get used to around our house. Never boring. We laid pretty low this weekend: took care of our people, fed some folks, perused the interwebs, the usual. Here’s what I was checking out since last we spoke:

How is it August already? Hard to believe my sweet kid heads back to (high) school in less than 2 weeks and the summer is winding down. It was pretty quiet around DC this weekend, and I spent a bit of time playing catch up. There’s still more to read, but here’s what caught my eye thus far, since last we spoke: