“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
– Chinese proverb
In early 2013 the Pathology Continuing Education Committee, a team composed of Pathology employees from the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Suburban Hospital, and Sibley Memorial Hospital, began to plan and organize an innovative educational symposium that would include a wide variety of subjects for both clinical and non-clinical staff. This was the first of its kind educational symposium in the Department.
The Symposium was scheduled for September 10-12, 2013, with a total of 36 sessions to be offered over the three-day period. It took a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work to launch this project. The selection of CE topics and the search for speakers, approval for PACE accreditation, a search for a JH East Baltimore location large enough to accommodate the expected number of attendees (ultimately, the Turner Building), the official Symposium program booklet to put together, a registration roster to collect names, the advance collection of the speakers’ PowerPoint presentations, orders of breakfast, lunch and snack foods, special garage parking permission from our Parking Office, unique banners to order, signs for every session, the recruitment of many volunteers to help on the actual days, registration planning for the tables, and much more, were among our tasks. Under the guidance and leadership of Barbara Parsons and Lorraine Blagg, Committee Co-Chairs, our efforts over the next seven months moved steadily. But would this Inaugural Continuing Educational Symposium be successful — would our plans work well? I think these were questions each of us asked ourselves privately. We certainly hoped so and we worked hard.
Early on the first morning, Tuesday, September 10, we knew that yes, it was going to be successful and our plans were working very well! On Wednesday and Thursday, September 11-12, the same was true! Nearly 500 people registered, the majority from the Pathology Departments of Hopkins Hospital, Bayview, Howard County, Suburban, and Sibley, and there were also people from other non-Pathology Labs, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, and Kennedy Krieger. In addition to the educational components, Pathology employees had the opportunity to meet many fellow Pathology colleagues from various labs and hospitals.
The feedback from attendees was very overwhelmingly positive and proved the value and worth of the Symposium. The Committee received many comments such as “enlightening … highly educational … awesome … looking forward to next year … would have liked to have taken more sessions …” Three of the sessions were recorded and are available on the Web. To view a full listing of the sessions that were offered, please open this link: http://pathology.jhu.edu/department/training/Pathology-Education-Symposium-Program.pdf
The Pathology Continuing Education Committee is especially grateful to the all of the volunteers who gave of their time to make the Symposium such a successful event. New members are always welcome! If you are interested in joining, please contact Barbara Parsons or Lorraine Blagg.
Renata Karlos, B.A.
Staff Assistant and Continuing Education Committee Member
Johns Hopkins Pathology