In 2013 I visited my first ever congress abroad. Will it was a very nice trip to Japan, because the 11th quadrennial congress of the WFNN was in Gifu. My former colleagues were very jealous because i got a trip to Japan and my former employer almost paid everything. In Japan I accidentally talked to a Vicki Evans.

We talked about many things. One of out topics was my thesis which i had written to become a nurse. As you you have guessed my thesis was about Humour as a Nursing Intervention. Vicki said to me that it was a great subject and that i had to publish my thesis as an article. With the help of Vicki I did (Thanks Vicki).
But that was not all of it. I had set my goal on going to Opatija and give a presentation about my thesis to my fellow international colleagues. So I wrote my abstract and sent it to the congress committee and guess what….. It got accepted.

So as i have been invited to give a presentation on the upcoming WFNN congress in Opatija i am getting ready for it.
I made a nice checklist for this little trip.

As you can see i still have to do some things to get everything in order. I am working very hard on the financial side. But that’s really hard. My current employer is very difficult to convince to give me some money to cover some of the costs. This because he doesn’t see the benefit in my subject for his organization. Well what do you think of the knowledge i will be gathering and sharing with my colleagues.
But that’s not his problem. He even had the nerve to ask me to give a presentation for his staff. I bluntly asked him what he is offering in return and he said: “Nothing!”. Well you probably guest my answer to him….

Update:
I am getting zero expenses covered. Not from my employer nor from my branch association (V&VN).
All this because they all think that humour is not important.

How are you getting your expenses covered for going to an event you really want to go?