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Cruise Conference Planning For Your Association

Emergency Medicine and Mental Health

7-Night Alaska Inside Passage Cruise
Round-trip Vancouver, British Columbia
August 30 - September 06, 2025
Holland America's <em> Koningsdam</em>
Holland America's Koningsdam
16.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™
16 ACPE Credits
16.0 Contact Hours
Course Fees
$995 for Physicians, Attorneys, Psychologists, Doctors of Pharmacy, & Dentists
$795 for Physician Assistants
$595 for Nurses, Residents, Students & Others

Target Audience
Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists
Program Purpose / Objectives
  1. Identifying character traits that promote clinician well-being, resilience, and positive patient outcomes in health care
    • Define clinician resilience and well-being
    • Identify 3 positive outcomes linked to clinician well-being
    • Review 24 distinct character strengths that promote resilience and well-being
  2. Identify and learn to apply personal character strengths to enhance professional resilience in health care settings.
    • Identify participants' top 5 character strengths which promote professional resilience and well-being
    • Identify workplace applications of these character strengths to enhance well-being, reduce burnout, and improve patient care
  3. Using evidence-based techniques from Positive Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to enhance resilience
    • Learn three brief, evidence-based techniques for building professional resilience and well-being in oneself, team members, and patients
  4. Identify health care applications of evidence-based techniques to promote well-being and resilience of clinicians and patients.
  5. Identify situations in which resilience-building techniques can be utilized to promote well-being in health care settings
  6. Discuss implementation strategies and practice utilizing evidence-based techniques to improve well-being
  7. Assessing and promoting clinician flourishing in health care systems
    • Define flourishing in contrast to burnout in health care clinicians
    • Identify multi-level promotors of flourishing in health care clinicians
  8. Assessing and addressing provider burnout in healthcare systems
    • Understand and distinguish three aspects of professional burnout
    • Review and have the option to complete a standard measure of professional burnout
    • Identify 3 systems-level interventions to reduce health care clinician burnout
  9. Identifying and addressing systemic factors in health care to promote professional resilience and well-being
    • Appreciate factors at the institutional level which correlate with health care clinician burnout
    • Summarize institutional and team-based factors that reduce burnout and promote well-being, professional resilience, and positive patient outcomes
  10. Develop a S.M.A.R.T. goal to improve professional resilience, well-being and sustainability
    • Identify 2-3 opportunities in which participants can promote professional resilience and impact their well-being, practice, team, or health care system
    • Design a short-term S.M.A.R.T. goal to enhance professional well-being, resilience and sustainability
  11. >li>Approach to the emergency airway
    • Utilize an approach to the airway that allows for less anxiety, better control of a potential crisis situation, and better outcomes
  12. Aortic Disasters - a case base approach to Thoracic Aortic Dissection AAA and more
    • The learner will be better prepared to encounter a low frequency high risk illness, with a cognitive approach
  13. The Treatment of Civilians in Combat Zones
    • Beacquainted with needs of civilians ill in injured in combat zones that may differ from those of combatants and from those seen in usual circumstances. This includes issues such as acute and post traumatic stress, sexual violence as well as traumatic injury
  14. Dangerous ENT Infections
    • After a case based discussion of several infectious emergencies the learner will be better equipped to diagnose and treat these conditions
  15. Environmental Emergencies
    • Diagnose and categorize accidental hypothermia and hyperthermia to assess for life and limb threatening situations and initiate appropriate treatment
  16. Ketamine - from sedation to psychiatry
    • Be familiar with the history of the medication Ketamine, its uses for sedation and pain control and the evidence and protocols for the treatment of depression. We will review efficacy and safety
  17. Vertigo in the Emergency Department
    • Be familiar with the causes of vertigo and how to distinguish vertigo of a 'peripheral' or inner ear source, vs a central or vertebrobasiar circulatory source (stroke)
  18. Decision making in the Emergency Department
    • Be familiar with and be able to analyze his/her and other's decision making process and reduce bias and improve judgement in real time
Conference Sessions generally take place on days at sea (as itinerary allows), giving you plenty of time to enjoy your meals, evenings and ports of call with your companion, family and friends.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All conferees, their families, and guests must book their cruise within the University at Sea® meeting group through University at Sea® at 800-926-3775 or by registering online. This ensures our company can provide conference services and complimentary social amenities to all meeting participants and their guests. Thank you for your cooperation.
Faculty

Michael J. Drescher, MD, FACEP

Michael J. Drescher, MD, FACEP
Visiting Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Beilinson Hospital
Rabin Medical Center
Petah Tikvah
Israel
Dr Drescher graduated from the University of Michigan in 1982 with a BA in economics after writing his senior thesis on “Jewish and Arab Economies in Mandatory Palestine.” Upon graduating from the U of M he moved to Israel where after performing his military service as an infantry rifleman he began his medical school studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hadassah Medical School where he graduated in 1992. After marrying his wife Yosefa, Michael returned to the US and completed a residency at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Emergency Medicine Residency, staying on as faculty and in charge of research for the residency as well as an attending physician at Hartford Hospital Emergency Department.

In 2000 Dr Drescher and his family moved back to Israel where he worked as an attending physician in the ED at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel where he was interim head of the Trauma service and of the ED until 2005. Those were years of unrest in Israel with terrorist attacks happening with relative frequency affecting both work in the ED and life outside.

From 2005 -2010 moved back to Connecticut where he was the Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine at Hartford Hospital and after another move from 2015-2022 was the Chief of EM at Beilinson Hospital, Rabin Medical Center, in Petah Tikvah, Israel.

Dr Drescher has published over 40 peer reviewed articles, with a research interest in emergency radiology, pain control, clinical decision making among other topics.

From 2018-2022 he was the Chairman of the Israel Association for Emergency Medicine and worked on the advancement of the specialty in Israel. He is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCONN school of medicine and visiting Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Tel Aviv University School of Medicine.

Gina Touch Mercer, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Family, Community, and Preventive Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix, Arizona

Our staff can assist you with all your travel arrangements.

Questions? Call us at 800-422-0711.
We can assist you with all your travel arrangements. We'd be happy to help you plan your flights, hotels or tours before and/or after your cruise conference.

Cruise Itinerary

DATE PORT OF CALL ARRIVE DEPART
Sat Aug 30 Vancouver, British Columbia
- 4:00 pm
Sun Aug 31 Alaska Inside Passage
- -
Mon Sep 01 Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska
9:00 am 9:30 am
Mon Sep 01 Juneau, Alaska
1:00 pm 10:00 pm
Tue Sep 02 Skagway, Alaska
7:00 am 8:00 pm
Wed Sep 03 Glacier Bay
7:00 am 4:00 pm
Thu Sep 04 Ketchikan, Alaska
11:00 am 7:00 pm
Fri Sep 05 Alaska Inside Passage
- -
Sat Sep 06 Vancouver, British Columbia
7:00 am -
*Tentative course schedule, actual class times may differ.

Ports of Call

Vancouver, British Columbia - Sophisticated. Culturally diverse, this beautiful port city brims with attractions. From Vancouver's cosmopolitan downtown to the historically renovated Gastown district and exotic Chinatown, Vancouver displays varied urban scenes. Nestled near the city center is Stanley Park, resplendent with its deep forest, totem poles, and scenic promenades.

Non-US/Canadian individuals, please Click here to determine if you will need a visa to board this cruise which visits Canada.

Alaska Inside Passage - Winding along the breathtaking coast of Alaska, the Inside Passage offers magnificent views of forested islands, rock-walled fjords and snowcapped mountains. Richly diverse flora and fauna are also on display.

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska - Amidst the pure silence, you'll sail past translucent blue icebergs silhouetted against a most dramatic backdrop of waterfall-laced rock walls ascending thousands of feet into the sky. This classic fjord, Tracy Arm extends over 30 miles and once seen, it is never to be forgotten.

Skagway, Alaska - The tiny town of Skagway still looks like it did during the Klondike Gold Rush over 100 years ago— and today it remains an outpost for thrilling Alaskan adventure. An old-time street car ride along bustling Broadway Street reveals well-preserved buildings, including the state’s oldest hotel. You can see engraved walrus tusks at the Corrington Museum, or get lost in riveting historical reenactments around town. If outdoor adventure is more your thing, there are plenty of ways to amp up the adrenaline, from sledding with Alaskan Huskies on Laughton Glacier to rafting Lynn Canal, the longest fjord in North America.

Glacier Bay - If you didn't know any better, you'd think Glacier Bay ostentatious for the way it flaunts its ice. When a monumental chunk of ice splits off a glacier and thunders into the sea the impact shoots water hundreds of feet into the air. You hold your breath as you catch the moment on film. Then you wait for it all to happen again. And it does: Glacier Bay has more actively calving tidewater glaciers than anyplace else in the world.

Ketchikan, Alaska - Ketchikan sits at the southern end of Alaska’s Inside Passage— a gateway to the wild landscapes and seascapes of Misty Fjords National Monument. The canned salmon capital of the world, it’s a hub for fishing and outdoor sports. It’s also home to three tribes of Northwest Coast Native Americans, making it a great place to get a taste for the local culture. You’ll see it in the colorful, hand-carved totems that line the city’s streets and parks, and in the unique stilted homes that cling to Deer Mountain’s slopes. If you want to get up close and personal with nature, venture into the Tongass National Forest, the largest in the United States. Or head to Ketchikan Creek Waterfall for amazing views of downtown Ketchikan and a glimpse at the yearly salmon runs.

Our staff can assist you with all your travel arrangements.

Questions? Call us at 800-422-0711.
We can assist you with all your travel arrangements. We'd be happy to help you plan your flights, hotels or tours before and/or after your cruise conference.
SHORE EXCURSIONS
Please note that our shore excursions are operated separately and
independently of those offered by the cruise line.
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