By Teresa van Oort, MHA, MSSW, LCSW-S, and Catherine Cassingham, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C
What an exciting year for learning! 2024 has only just begun and AOSW is excited to offer several opportunities to engage in learning, professional development, growth and networking!
Annual Conference
AOSW’s 40th Virtual Annual Conference: Harnessing the Past for Growth in the Future, will take place May 21-23, utilizing the Zoom virtual platform. This virtual format will allow members who have historically been unable to attend in-person conferences due to disabilities and accessibility challenges, financial constraints and/or a lack of support from their institutions to participate in this milestone event. The 2024 Conference Committee is thrilled to share a wide variety of topics, and the ability to showcase so many new speakers. Registration is open now!
In addition to a robust conference, we are really excited to offer pre-conference workshops, on May 20, that range in skill level from new to oncology to advanced skills building. Newer offerings will meet the needs and interest level of everyone! The Pre-Conference workshop, Oncology Social Work 101: Growing Your Professional Self and Your Programs, will provide an opportunity for those newer to our profession and organization to learn from a panel of experts. For those looking to gain skills in leadership and development, the committee is excited to offer Advancing Clinical and Leadership Skills with ESPEC: Educating Social Workers in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PPEOLC).
For those looking to add to their clinical toolbox, we are excited to feature a team from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai leading an e-learning training and virtual pre-conference session on Hypnosis for Cancer Pain. The course has six modules, each of which has a lecture, quizzes and optional enrichment activities. In addition, you will be required to complete two learning activities – one scenario-based, where you’ll be asked to write how you’d address patients’ questions and concerns about hypnosis, and one where you will be asked to submit a recording of yourself reading a scripted hypnosis session. To be eligible to participate in this pre-conference workshop, you will need to successfully complete all Modules of the Hypnosis for Cancer Pain E-Learning program by April 30, 2024. The online program is free and is funded by the National Cancer Institute. For social workers in all states, except New Jersey, you can receive up to 8.25 continuing education credits for participating.
We are most excited to share that when you register for the conference, you are now able to review the sessions via recording at any time to gain CEU credits at no additional cost to registration. That means you can gain CEUs from the sessions you attend and the sessions that are presenting at the same time! This is an amazing opportunity to attend a session live, while not having to miss out on the content and credits for those sessions at the same time.
AOSW CEU Webinars
Another great way to earn CEU credits for both your state licensure and OSW-C is through AOSW’s webinars, which are offered throughout the year! You can find future webinars scheduled here. Keep checking the website as more webinars are in the pipeline and will be added as they are scheduled. You will also see AOSW webinars advertised on SWON, email blasts, and social media (LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram).
Calling All Potential Speakers!
As 2024 gets underway, we have been working to streamline the application process for webinar speakers. Are you interested in presenting? Or have you recently been to a talk locally that your national AOSW members could benefit from? We have a new online form speakers can fill out that can be found on our website under “Webinars.” It is also linked at the end of this article! If you have questions about the process, feel free to email Catherine Cassingham, our CEU webinar chair, at Catherine.cassingham@nm.org. She would be happy to talk to anyone who is interested in speaking or she can reach out to speakers you have seen and enjoyed.
AOSW Webinar Form:
