What’s New. What’s Needed. What’s Next.™
WOCNext® delivers new evidence-based education, enriching professional development, and strong community bonds that continuously advance the practice of wound, ostomy, and continence care for optimal patient outcomes. It’s the only educational event of the year hosted by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals that delivers ALL the newest need-to-know information. Come for the research. Stay for the conversations. Leave knowing what’s next.
Read below for expert tips on how to submit an abstract and have better chances of getting it accepted from the WOCNext 2023 conference Abstract Chair, Carole Bauer, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, OCN, CWOCN.
Visit wocnext.org/abstracts to learn more and submit an abstract.
What is one new thing about the abstract process this year?
All abstracts will be submitted for posters that will be non-CE. This will help authors by streamlining the disclosure process. We will continue with a robust disclosure for those abstracts that are chosen for our oral sessions.
Will authors need to attend WOCNext 2023 in-person to submit an abstract?
NO! Authors will need to attend the event but may choose to attend virtually or in-person.
What should individuals know about the Abstracts process this year?
All posters will be presented in an electronic poster (ePoster) format. At the time of poster acceptance, authors will have the opportunity to declare their intent to display their work in a traditional paper poster format, in addition to the ePoster format. Attendees will have the ability to view ePosters for a few weeks before and after the event.
There will be a specific time provided for in-person authors to interact with attendees. If an author chooses to attend in-person and elects to only present their work as an ePoster, they will share a monitor with several other authors.
Formatting requests require that each type of abstract category has specific sections that must be included, which are listed in the directions. By formatting your abstract to fit the specific sections, you can increase the likelihood that your abstract will be accepted.
- For the Case Study category, each abstract should include the following sections: Statement of the Clinical Problem/Challenge, Significance to Practice including Past management, Solution/Clinical Treatment Approach, and Outcomes and Conclusions.
- For the Practice Innovation category, each abstract should include the following sections: Topic/Significance to Practice, Purpose of the Innovation/Objectives, and Process/Replication and Outcomes.
- For the Research Study category, each abstract should contain the following 5 sections: Topic, Purpose/Aims/Research Question, Study Design/Method, and Results and Conclusions.
Each abstract requires a minimum of 2 and no more than 5 references. APA format is required for all references.
Are there any additional resources that will be provided as part of the Call for Abstracts process this year?
There are several resources are available to authors.
- A mentoring program will be available to anyone who has an idea for a poster but has never had a successful abstract submission. Mentors will not be connected to the review process but will have had abstracts accepted in the past. To get connected with a mentor, send an email to abstracts@wocn.org.
- A short Bite Size Learning CE course on the abstract submission process is hosted in the WOCN Society’s Continuing Education Center (CEC).
- A PowerPoint slide has been created to reflect new changes that cover everything you need to know about submitting an abstract.
In your opinion, what makes a successful abstract?
A successful abstract is one that has a topic that the authors are passionate about and for which they have read and followed the directions! The greatest problem people have is not reading and following directions.
Do you have any top tips for individuals interested in submitting an abstract this year?
Read and follow the directions! Once you understand the directions, tell your story clearly and concisely. Your goal is for someone else to read and understand your work and be able to replicate it in their practice setting. It is important to remember that each abstract is blind-reviewed. You do not know the background of the person reviewing your abstract so you want to be sure that after reading your abstract they are excited about what you have to say, and that they will be able to replicate your work in their own practice setting. If the abstract is not clear, there is a greater likelihood that the abstract will be rejected.
Why is it important for individuals to share their outcomes/abstracts?
Abstracts, in my mind, contain cutting-edge information. They are about the real-life things we all experience as WOC nurses and healthcare professionals. They lead us to bigger ideas and expand our horizons on how to expand our practice and our body of evidence.
What important information should authors know once their abstract is accepted for a poster presentation?
All posters will be presented in a digital ePoster format AND accepted abstract authors can elect to present their work as a traditional paper poster to be displayed in the Poster Hall in Las Vegas. For the ePoster format, authors can enhance their posters with audio and visual recordings.
What can you tell me about the optional audio/visual portions of the posters?
After acceptance of the abstract, each author will have the opportunity to record a short video briefly describing their work and anything they think was important that was not included on the actual poster. This can be done and is hosted directly in the ePoster platform. This might include what you would tell someone who was looking at your poster in the Poster Hall. Since some of the viewers may be virtual, you may not have the opportunity to interact with them. There is also an opportunity to highlight different sections of your poster using the tools provided. I have found in previous years that when I viewed posters I really enjoyed it when the author did a brief recording or even just highlighted sections of a poster. I think authors should begin thinking about how they would execute this for their posters.
Visit wocnext.org/abstracts for more information and to start your abstract submission today!