by Chris Allman, JD, CPHRM, DFASHRM
Spring has finally sprung! As the weather starts to warm up (finally!) around the country, so do the offerings and happenings around ASHRM and many ASHRM-affiliated state chapters.
As we kick off the month of May, I am lucky enough to be attending Chapter meetings in New Jersey, Southern California and Michigan. At each of these meetings, I am always blown away by the great sessions and speakers. For as long as I have been a risk professional, I still take away something new from each session. I also love to learn the nuances of health care risk management in different areas of the country, not only from the education sessions, but also from getting to talk to the wonderful risk professionals in attendance at these meetings. If you have not been to your local chapter meeting for a while, or if you are not a member of your local chapter, I highly recommend joining your local chapter and attending their sessions. So much great educational content and networking opportunities can be had!
It is never too early to mention the 2025 ASHRM Annual Conference, September 28-30, in beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina! You won’t want to miss our opening keynote speaker, two-time NASCAR Champion, Julia Landauer, speak on “The Drive to Win: Inspired Strategies for Self-Mastery,” as well as all of our excellent planned sessions. Registration for the 2025 ASHRM Annual Conference is open now, and don’t miss out on the early bird rates.
In the meantime, there are plenty of happenings around ASHRM. Hopefully, you’ve read ASHRM’s new whitepaper, “Strategies for Promoting Risk Management Professional Resilience,” written by Tatum O’Sullivan, Abdul Al Hamamsy, Geri Amori, and Margaret Curtin. This important whitepaper is part of ASHRM’s continuing wellness initiative kicked off in earnest at last year’s Annual Conference. The wellness initiative supports ASHRM’s strategic goal of increasing member value. Beyond that, though, this whitepaper gives us great insights and strategies to focus on for ourselves, since we are in a profession where we are constantly outward facing and continually charged with fixing the issues for our organizations while setting aside any issues we may have.
Another great way to focus on ourselves as a profession (and, maybe toot our own horns a little bit…) is through Health Care Risk Management Week 2025, which is right around the corner, from June 16-20. ASHRM has a lot of resources and planned fun for our members for Health Care Risk Management Week! Check out the ASHRM website for an HRM week word search, webinars, tip sheets, HRM Week swag, and much more. We may have a few surprises planned, too, so stay tuned!
Of course, ASHRM has plenty of other opportunities to advance your career, too! ASHRM Express will be held in Chicago, July 14-19, 2025, and will offer all three HRM modules, the Patient Safety Certificate Program and the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Certificate Program. Registration for ASHRM Express is open, so hurry and register to take advantage of the Early Bird Registration.
Also, continue to check the ASHRM website for exciting and informative upcoming webinars to assist you in your professional development and where you can earn CEUs (https://www.ashrm.org/ashrm-webinar-series). Upcoming webinars include topics ranging from emerging risks of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, to reducing risk through high reliability, to peer review, to tales from the risk management hotline. You won’t want to miss any of these insightful webinars!
On a personal note, please let me be the first to wish you all a happy Health Care Risk Management Week 2025 and to thank you all for your hard work in keeping patients safe and helping ASHRM stay true to our mission of delivering “Safe and Trusted Health Care.” I’m looking forward to meeting and talking with more ASHRM members at state chapter and ASHRM events around the country to learn more about you and your organization and how ASHRM can better serve your risk management journey. After all, ASHRM is your organization!