Charles Bombardier, PhD, participates with the crowd during his plenary session: Evidence-Based Strategies to Motivate Veterans to Reduce Substance Use and Adopt Healthy Behaviors at the PVA Summit + Expo 2014, Aug. 27, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. Photo Devon O'Brien
Day two of the PVA Summit + Expo 2014 featured a focus on care from medical health professionals, adopting healthy habits and discussing sex and disability
The Paralyzed Veterans of America Summit + Expo brings together nurses, physicians, social workers, therapists and other health care providers each year to educate, collaborate and share information that can be taken back and applied at their health care centers. Day two was full of sessions focused on the care and education given by medical professionals to their patients.
Charles Bombardier, PhD, awakened the crowd first Aug. 27 with an interactive plenary session. His presentation utilized attendees in role-playing exercises to learn ways to help patients effectively adopt healthy behaviors. The session included quitting smoking, cutting back on drinking and eating healthier using motivational interview strategies to find why the unhealthy behavior exists and what motivates them to stop.
Other sessions included Nursing the Spirit — a discussion on using spirituality in patient care to help not only patients, but nurses as well, to in turn be able to better serve patients — and Self Management in Spinal-Cord Injury and Multiple Sclerosis — this gave nurses, physicians assistants and nurse practitioners ideas on how to better educate and use self management practices to the benefit of patients.
There were also a couple of discussions on sex and disability including a session on people with disabilities in a sexual minority, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community, and session on approaching what can be an uncomfortable conversation and education on sex during rehabilitation.
