by Mary Ellen Dellefield, PhD, RN

1. Be brave!  Although some participants know all about making scientific or clinical posters, please do not be intimidated by this. There is a first time for everyone! The guidelines for the CALTCM poster presentations are on the CALTCM website.

2. Be practical and be brief. Write no more than 250 words excluding the title, names, and affiliations.  Writing something that is short may be harder than you realize! The submission deadline has been extended to Friday February 10, 2017. This is coming up quickly. Once your poster is accepted, you will have until April 28, 2017 to conduct your work and make a poster.  Click here for details.

3. Think about using a project that you have already done. It may have been formatted in the QI storyboard format. There are free poster templates online, use one to put your content into the categories required for this conference. These are: title of poster and names and affiliations; Background/objective/research question; methods/study design; results/analysis; and conclusions/interpretation.

4. Put a new twist on the existing content. Modify your QI PIP poster content under the QI PIP format of Plan, Do, Check, and Act.  

• PLAN: For the category of background/objective/research question use planning content from your PIP poster. Look at what you wrote for assemble the team and develop aim statement and examine the current approach.

• PLAN: For the category of methods/study design, use content from the identify potential solutions; develop an improvement theory; and test the theory sections of the PIP poster

• DO/CHECK: For the category of results/analysis, use PIP content related to test the theory and check the results.

• ACT: For conclusions/interpretation, use content from standardize the improvement or develop new theory establish future plan and process owner.

5. Follow the guidelines for the poster presentation. Remember that you are able to develop a poster for: clinical research (qualitative or quantitative); QI work; and/or clinical vignettes. These are case studies or examples that illustrate a concept like infection control, enhancing quality of life; or quality of care.

6. Check out free poster templates on line. Check these out:  Poster templates on Microsoft Word; http://phdposters.com/gallery.php; or http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/ posteradvice.htm and http://writing.engr.psu.edu/posters.html. 

7. Save some money!  ONE presenter per accepted poster will receive a FREE conference registration.