Abstract Awards

Please read the eligibility criteria carefully for each of the awards below. Presenters will not be able to put their presentation forward for these awards at any time other than during the abstract submission process.

Group of 15 people gathered for a photo with an award.

Research Award

To be eligible for the Research Award, the abstract must report on a research project that is completed, or a completed section of a program of research, and that has ethical approval, or is a systematic review, or quality improvement project.

Abstracts to be considered for the Research Award must include:

  • Abstract title, author/s surname, initial, organisation affiliation
  • Introduction and background 
  • Aims/objectives/hypotheses 
  • Methodology and methods 
  • Results 
  • Outcomes/significance/implications for the profession 
  • Translation to policy and/or practice change 
  • Identify 2-3 learning objectives significant to your abstract.

Stan Alchin Award

The Stan Alchin Award is presented to the best clinical paper presented by a clinician or group of clinicians. To be eligible for the ACMHN Stan Alchin award it is a requirement that presenters are clinicians at the time of presentation.

Abstracts to be considered for the Stan Alchin Award must include:

  • Abstract title, author/s surname, initial, organisation affiliation
  • Introduction and background 
  • Aims/objectives
  • Project description/description of the work 
  • Outcomes/significance/policy and practice change 
  • Implications for mental health nursing 
  • Identify 2-3 learning objectives significant to your abstract.

General Award

The General Award is presented for the best paper presented reporting on management/administration/policy issues, project work, Masters, PhD or other research that does not meet the criteria for the Research award and the Stan Alchin award.

Abstracts to be considered for the General Award must include:

  • Abstract title, author/s surname, initial, organisation affiliation
  • Introduction and background 
  • Aims/objectives 
  • Project description/description of the work 
  • Outcomes/significance/policy and practice change 
  • Implications for mental health nursing
  • Identify 2-3 learning objectives significant to your abstract.

The Meryl Caldwell-Smith First Time Presenter Award

This award is dedicated to Meryl Caldwell-Smith AM, former Lifetime contributor to the College and is presented to the individual who is presenting for the first time outside of their organisation/place of work/tertiary institution. You will be presenting for the first time outside of their organisation/place of work/tertiary institution. The presenter must be the first author on the presentation and the main presenter.

Abstracts to be considered for this award must include:

  • Abstract title, author/s surname, initial and organisation affiliation
  • Introduction and background 
  • Aims/objectives 
  • Description of the work 
  • Outcomes/significance/policy and practice change 
  • Implications for mental health nursing 
  • Identify 2-3 learning objectives significant to your abstract.

Clinical Supervision Award

Abstracts to be considered for these awards will be assessed against the following criteria:

  • Primary focus of the presentation is current Clinical supervision (CS) practice involving mental health nurses in Australia 
  • Introduction and background, including the aims and objectives and scope of the project/process 
  • Reference to theoretical influences underpinning the work (eg. model of CS) 
  • Project description including challenges in undertaking the project/process and how they were responded to/overcome 
  • Implementation process/project outcomes and evaluation 
  • Discussion including barriers and enablers to engagement in CS by mental health nurse
  • Implications for mental health nursing (eg. contribution to new knowledge, implementing and sustaining CS practice, clinical and/or policy development) and any implications noted for consumers/carers/community
  • Oral Presentations: Overall presentation including audience engagement and discussion 
  • Poster Presentation: Overall presentation incorporating Criteria above in a creative and visually appealing manner.

General Poster Award

All posters are eligible for the General Poster Award and will be assessed against the following criteria:

  • Contribution to mental health knowledge is demonstrated 
  • Contribution to mental health practice is demonstrated 
  • Visually appealing, legible font and not crowded 
  • Content is clear, concise and original 
  • Relevance to mental health nursing and implications for mental health practice is shown

Abstracts must be submitted with the following details:

  • Abstract title, author/s surname, initial and organisation affiliation
  • Introduction and background 
  • Aims/objectives 
  • Project description/description of the work 
  • Outcomes/significance/policy and practice change Implications for mental health nursing 
  • Identify 2-3 learning objectives significant to paper/poster

Guidelines

Presenters are advised that the ACMHN International Mental Health Nursing Conference provides delegates with a program that reflects and leads contemporary mental health nursing practice. As such, all abstracts are to be presented using appropriate terminology for people who experience mental health issues. Terms such as 'mentally ill people', 'the mentally ill' and 'case/subject' and 'the mentally ill case' are not accepted. Rather, descriptors should be person-centered, such as 'people/person who experience XYZ', 'consumer', 'service user', 'person with disability, gender diverse, sexually diverse', 'person with a lived experience' or 'client'. Abstracts which do not meet this criteria will not be eligible for review.

  • Online submission is the only method of abstract submission
  • Submissions can be saved as Draft in the abstract portal but must be finalised to be considered
  • Abstracts submitted for presentation will be published exactly as received and should be checked for spelling and grammar prior to submission
  • You may submit more than one abstract all under the same account
  • Abstracts will only be accepted as 350-word text format abstracts. We recommend writing your abstract in Word and saving to your desktop prior to starting the submission process, then 'copy and paste' the abstract content into the relevant section of the abstract
  • All presentations should be primarily in English. If English is not the first language of speakers/projects please provide details on how you will provide access for delegates (i.e., translator, subtitles…). If you need assistance with this, please contact the Program Committee
  • All speakers must attend and present the conference in person
  • It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure that the abstract is submitted correctly. For assistance with submissions, contact acmhn@conlog.com.au.
  • It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure their abstract explains how it relates to the themes
  • Where there is more than one presenter all correspondence will be sent to the person who submitted the abstract
  • Every effort will be made to accommodate the presenter/author presentation preference however the Program Committee reserves the right to allocate the presentation to best suit the program
  • The invitation to submit an abstract does not constitute an offer to pay travel, accommodation or registration costs associated with the conference. Similarly, no presenter fee is paid to successful presenters
  • If your abstract is accepted, all speakers agree to register and pay the Early Bird registration price. 


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