Spring Letter from Natalie Adame

Dear OC NAPNAP members,

Happy (belated) Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Week and thank you for what you do!

If you don’t know, my name is Natalie Adame, and I’m your OC NAPNAP Chapter President. I work at CHOC Children’s Hospital Outpatient Gastroenterology and Nutrition clinic and in CHOC’s inpatient Multidisciplinary Feeding Program.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the National NAPNAP conference in Dallas at the end of March and representing our Chapter. It was the first in-person conference since the pandemic hit and personally, my first in-person conference. I will share my experience with you and some resources I collected throughout the week in this email. 

If you missed it, you can still sign up (here) for the virtual conference to watch all the presentations from April 26–29, 2022 and have access to all content until July 31, 2022.

During her Opening Keynote, Dr. Felesia Bowen inspired and challenged us during her talk on ‘Empowering Change Through Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’.  When you watch it from home, don’t forget your band-aid (if you were there, you get it!)

Another highlight was when Dr. Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco had the entire audience laughing and learning about ’2022 Immunization Updates’ in a must-see presentation about her real-life experiences vaccinating children throughout her career and especially during the anti-vax movement.

I met our past President Dr Jessica Peck and talked to her about the efforts to spread awareness for child trafficking (link here to support and learn prevention strategies). Did you know you can easily support this cause, at no cost to you, by using Amazon Smile, which donates money for each purchase you make on Amazon (it’s super easy, click here).  Dr. Peck’s virtual leadership throughout the pandemic has inspired and pushed our role as a PNP into the limelight.  I have no doubt our leaders Dr. Andrea Kline-Tilford (President) and Jennifer Sonney (President-elect) will continue to carry that torch. 

In all, there were so many brilliant presenters and something for everyone. 

Overall, it was a great experience, and I was, and am, so proud to represent our Chapter.  Thank you to NAPNAP National for planning a great event and I look forward to next March in Orlando!

Please continue to look out for emails from your OC NAPNAP Board for more virtual and in-person events. This has been a challenging couple of years for all of us, and I want to thank you for your dedication to the children of Orange County. 

It was so refreshing to meet PNPs from around the country in person. I hope to meet all of you soon. 

Natalie Adame, RN, MSN, CPNP-PC

President, Orange County NAPNAP Chapter