APTA Nebraska Podcast
The APTA Nebraska Podcast dives into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We’re here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, build our community, and optimize the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
APTA Nebraska Podcast
E28 - Updates and Conversation with the Education Committee
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We pull back the curtain on how APTA Nebraska’s Education Committee builds a state conference that feels practical, current, and worth your time. We also share what members asked for next, how to submit an abstract or poster, and how we can help if the write-up feels intimidating.
• Jen and Amber’s current roles across skilled nursing, mobile practice, and PTA education
• Need for volunteers plus sponsor and exhibitor support to help keep conference costs down
• How we review speakers and posters for current evidence and clinical relevance
• Why the multi-track, CSM-style format gives attendees better choice
• The bigger goal of advancing evidence-based practice across Nebraska
• Networking as a real career tool for mentorship, research collaboration, and reconnecting
• What worked well last spring, including turnout, vendors, venue, and food flow
• High-interest topic areas from surveys, including leadership, geriatrics, peds, pelvic health, neuro, lifestyle medicine, AI, virtual PT, and sports performance
• Abstract and poster deadline of September 13 plus typical October notifications
• Offer to connect clinicians with educators to help write or refine abstracts
Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and join the discussion.
Episode Links:
Nebraska Physical Therapy Association - Education Committee
Welcome And Mission
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the APTA Nebraska Podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We're here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans. Join us as we connect with experts, share insights, and build community throughout our profession.
Meet The Education Committee
SPEAKER_00Welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast. I'm Brad Dexter, your host, and I'm joined by our education committee, which consists of Jen Bursima and Amber Harrington, today to kind of share a little bit about a state conference that's upcoming. But before we dive into that, we'll kind of reflect a little bit on the state conference from this last spring as well. So, ladies, welcome back to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Before we dive into some of the content, do you guys just want to remind our listeners uh where you're currently at, what you're doing, uh, just so we have a little bit of context. Jen, let's start with you.
SPEAKER_02So uh primarily I am um I've been working in a skilled nursing facility, long-term care, and right now I'm just volunteering on this education committee. We have recently um added a sub-nominator or subcommittee for recruiting like uh sponsors and exhibitors to increase, you know, keep the people who attend engaged, but also keep the cost of the conference down. Um, so we're working on building that right now. Um, we're also in the the works of looking for another member for the nominating committee or for the education committee, because I took on um a role on the nominating committee. So I'm trying to kind of replace myself in in a sense. Um so if anyone's interested, I'm also looking for anyone who's interested to kind of just be mentored in the education committee.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. And Amber.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think last time I was on the podcast, I um talked about I own my own mobile physical therapy practice, still doing a little bit of that, but I recently started a role at Southeast Community College as an instructor in the PTA program and will be the director of clinical education there also.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. Well, thank you guys for the updates. And Jen, you started talking a little bit about this already, but um, you know, from an education committee standpoint, I'm gonna let you guys in a moment kind of just dive into a little bit more about what you guys are typically doing. But I did hear you say we have some other roles opening up. So just a membership committee chair here launching that out too. We would love to have anyone out there that's interested in either a helping to serve on a subcommittee of the education committee, dive in to help out. That's a great idea. Find ways to keep costs down by including sponsors in there. Um, so we we need people that will help with kind of seeking out some of those sponsors, and then you're moving into a different role on the nominating committee, and so we we need some extra hands on education committee too. So if anyone has interest in uh in doing that, please reach out to Jen or Amber. Their uh information is all over APTA Nebraska's website, and it's also going to be in the show notes, so it should be easy to find.
How The Conference Gets Built
SPEAKER_00All of that being said, is there anything else at kind of a high level that you guys want to talk about in regards to what the education committee does?
SPEAKER_02So globally, what we do is we put the call out for the speakers, for the abstract poster presenters, we then you know review all of those applications. We determine if the the presenters are um either knowledgeable and or are presenting with evidence that's current within the past five years. Um then we uh kind of strategize how we lay out the conference based on how many people that we get to, you know, uh that are interested in presenting. So in the past we had you know a couple speakers, we've now moved into the CSM kind of formatting where it allows multiple courses at the same time to be um attended, and you can kind of choose your adventure in a way. And then uh so depending on how many we have, we can have more in each time block. So I think last year, what did we have, Amber? Two or three, only two per time slot. And if we can, you know, we'd love to be able to up that even to three different courses available to accommodate more diversity in each time block.
SPEAKER_00Now these just need to be more didactic types of uh sessions, or are you looking for lab-based sessions as well?
SPEAKER_02I want anything that will be directly applicable, that you can walk away from and like apply that will engage your audience. You know, we're not looking for something is just you know talking at the audience. We want something engaging um and applicable.
SPEAKER_00So it it is true that you guys put out the call for abstracts, that you review anything that comes in, and then you're responsible for a lot of the conference planning that happens, and then you execute that when the time comes. But um, those are a lot of the logistics. If you kind of, if you kind of step back and take that 10,000-foot view, what what's
Evidence And Networking Matter
SPEAKER_00the vision of our conference? What are we really trying to accomplish when uh when you're putting these calls out? How are we trying to form and shape the clinicians in our state?
SPEAKER_02I think promoting higher evidence-based practice and continued learning instead of stalemating in you know old ways, making sure that we're continuing to advance how we practice as new research comes out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think giving people an opportunity to connect with people around the state and know what's going on in our state, what's going on in our organization, um, and getting people involved.
SPEAKER_02The networking aspect as well. So, like if you have people who are presenting who have done like a base clinical trial and they want to expand that, but they need more um participants to increase that. We wanted to be able to also uh be able to allow that building of networking and relationship.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's great. Uh I've I've enjoyed talking to Nick uh on this podcast and off of this podcast, right? Just about um, I think some of the networking things that are happening um within our conference, um uh within our state organization, but then outside of that as well, uh, you know, I think one example of that was just private private practice owners and the way that they've been um maybe stepping up from an advocacy standpoint uh and a legislative standpoint within our state, which has been phenomenal to hear and see as well. And and more of those connections can continue to happen. I I connected with um one of my clinical instructors from when I was in school at this state conference. I hadn't seen her uh in probably 13, 14 years. And we ended up having a lunch a few weeks later and just kind of reconnecting as to where she's at in her career right now, what she's doing. And so it was just it was fascinating to get to hear where um life has taken her and what she's up to right now. And I just learned a ton from her too. So I know that there are more conversations like that that happen at the state conference. It's a time to just again connect or reconnect with people that you don't get to see a ton too. So um it's really great.
Spring Conference Recap
SPEAKER_00So all of that being said, let's kind of go back to last spring. Do you want to recap um how the conference went, maybe what your guys' general um perceptions were of that, what you learned from it, and what you're bringing forward into this year's conference?
SPEAKER_01We had a great turnout for the conference this last year. A lot of great feedback from the participants, a lot of great feedback from our vendors that came and want to keep coming back because they really appreciated um the participation that we do have at our state meeting compared to some of the other conferences that they go to and things like that.
SPEAKER_02I don't think that anyone really had any um has had any complaints about the venue. Um, the food. The food last year was on point. I think getting UNMCs uh catering back up and running has been really nice. Umly. We're always constantly trying to work on making sure that people can get through food lines, you know, timely and efficiently so that and not run out of food. We're gonna have to keep working on those numbers, constantly looking for variety.
SPEAKER_00So when you guys reflect on maybe some of the evaluations of the conference from the attendees, are there things that people are wanting changed and how are we looking to change
Topics Members Want Next
SPEAKER_00those? And then what are kind of the areas of interest that um some of the attendees uh maybe brought forward that you're considering for next year's conference?
SPEAKER_01I don't think we got a lot of feedback about any major changes that people are wanting. I think the feedback has been that people really enjoy the CSM format. I think it gives them uh a variety of topics that they can go and listen to and kind of, you know, dabble in a lot of different areas. Um, looking through some of the surveys, we had a lot of great suggestions for education topics. Um we had some suggestions for leadership and practice management, quite a few suggestions on that. That would be a great one because we haven't had a lot of that recently in our topics. So things like opening a practice, marketing management, what are some income generators for practices? Uh, we're just some suggestions. There was a lot of requests for geriatrics, including things like the active older adult or the older athlete, um, a lot of requests for pediatrics, um, requests for pelvic health, including pregnancy and postpartum, uh, return to work and our work athletes. Um, there were several requests for neuro and a wide variety of topics, including vestibular Parkinson's, spinal cord injury, um, brain injury other than concussion. We've had a lot of focus on concussion lately, I think, because that's been a growing area, but um, some interest in other things too. Functional neurological disorders was requested several times. Um, there was also a big interest in things like lifestyle medicine, learning more about how we, you know, educate on that and nutrition and sleep and stress um management, um, kind of primary care PT, um, and our role in that, and um, chronic disease management like congestive heart failure, COPD, diabetes, and those things that we might um be seeing patients for. And then there was also kind of some requests to look for just kind of the future of PT. What are some new things that are coming? Um, new areas of PT that are developing with the new technologies and things that are out there and new advancements in healthcare. Um, new things like AI and how do we use it ethically in PT, um, remote therapeutic monitoring and virtual PT that's um being used more. And then, of course, a lot of requests in the orthopedic and sports um area as well. Um, some specific ones were returned to throwing or running, a lot of requests on shoulder rehab that's a little more complex, and maybe even some sports psychology or how mental health impacts our PT. Um, and maybe even yoga for PT was requested. So there's a lot of topics out there. Um, so we're, you know, anybody that has some expertise in that area, you know, we're looking for a variety of courses um that are evidence-based and current and that people can apply, like Jen had mentioned, um, and you know, something they can take home and use immediately. And just I would say you don't have to be an educator to uh put in your name for it as a speaker. Um I think we we'd get a lot of educators because they do presentations other places and they have a lot of great updated information to share, but our clinicians have a lot of great experience and information to share also. And so we would really like everybody that has something that they could share with us in some of those topics to put their name in.
SPEAKER_00You know, one thing I would add to that is um, because what I'm hearing you say is, gosh, there's there are a lot of different opportunities or a lot of interest from many of the people that come. And I'm certain that we have people that are listening to this that could say, ooh, I I actually know a lot about that, or I'm really passionate about that. But you may be in a place where you're like, I'm a little intimidated by writing up an abstract, or I'm just not sure where to start, or I don't have the time to do that. Let me just throw this out there. Uh, you have friends that are educators that would love to come alongside you and help you with that. Um, if you need a hand, you need consultation of some kind, uh, we would love to help you or get you connected with someone that um would either want to be a part of your your presentation with you or help you with the write-up. We enjoy doing things like that. So if that's a barrier for you and you need the help, reach out. Okay, so it sounds like we have a lot of good uh good content potential for next year's state meeting.
Abstract Deadlines And Support
SPEAKER_00Uh the call has gone out for abstracts. Give us the give us the details on that. When when are those abstracts due? When are you guys gonna start reviewing them? When do you intend to uh to give back to people so they know that they're accepted?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so those um abstracts and um the poster, if you want to present a poster too, that's um also so those are all due by September 13th, and then we'll start to review those right away and usually um reach back out to people by October. Um, and we'll kind of start working on getting some agreements set up, but or if there's any requests that we have for changes in what they've submitted, sometimes we'll um request some changes to see if that can then fit within what we're looking for. So um so then we will get that all set and laid out for the conference.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. All right. So I I think we I think we reflected a little bit. I think we looked ahead a little bit uh to next year's conference. I think we hit the details. Is there anything else that I'm missing that you guys want to tell our audience?
SPEAKER_01We want we'd like to get as many people share, you know, putting forth for being a speaker or presenting posters as possible, because it just gives people a lot of variety of topics that they can go learn about. We love hearing from um a lot of different people. So the more people we have, the better the conferences.
SPEAKER_02And if you have something that maybe you wanted to present on or you have some ideas, put in an abstract. And if we have too many people presenting on similar topics, we as we review those abstracts can kind of group you together and put you as like a little team that you can kind of create uh a presentation maybe on the same topic, but it'll take a little bit of the burden out of creating speaking for as long, potentially.
SPEAKER_00That's great.
Lightning Round And Closing
SPEAKER_00To wrap things up, you guys. I started this with our EPSIG podcast. It's a little bit of just like quick hitter questions, but I've now rebranded it. This is the good life lightning round. Okay, so we're gonna wrap up with some rapid fire questions for you guys just to keep it light and fun, okay? So about about 60 seconds. Jen, I'm gonna ask you to answer first on each of these. Amber, you're gonna go second, okay? All right, runza or valentino's? Ranza.
SPEAKER_01I think I'll go Valentino's.
SPEAKER_00Okay, goniometer or just eyeball it. Eyeball it.
SPEAKER_01You know, really eyeball it probably. Okay, what's your unless you're doing more specific, but I'm in the neural realm.
SPEAKER_00So you can eyeball sometimes. Depends on this depends on the circumstance, right?
SPEAKER_01If you're in if if you're a student and you're doing orthopedic, please use a goniometer.
SPEAKER_00Good. Most used phrase that you use with your patients. Hop on up. Hop on up. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, there's a lot of a lot of uh tighten your or you know, squeeze your buttons.
SPEAKER_00Um tighten your core. Okay, morning person or don't talk to me before my first patient type of person. Morning.
SPEAKER_01Definitely a morning person.
SPEAKER_00Okay, last one for you. What would your walk-up song be if you had one for the clinic? Tatahoochee.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I can think of a song, but I always thought it would be fun to have a compilation of like walking songs that included walking in them, you know.
SPEAKER_00Give us some examples.
SPEAKER_01Oh, let's see. Walk like an Egyptian. Uh-huh. The these boots are made for walking. Is there a little walk like a dinosaur or something like that?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I will walk, I will walk 500 miles. Yeah. We're dating ourselves probably for a lot of people, but I'm pretty sure there's a Spotify playlist for you'll have to look at it. Yeah. Okay. Well, ladies, thank you. Well done on the Good Life Lightning Round. Um, fun answers. Thanks for the conversation. Thanks for all the work that you're doing as well. And um, to our audience, to our members, to PTs in the state listening. I hope this was informative to you guys. And and please put in your abstracts, put in your ideas, because um we won't have a great conference in 2027. Yes, thank you. See you guys. Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast. Stay connected with us for more conversations that elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the discussion. Because together, we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.
