Without a doubt, one of the coolest things the Bureau of Medical Services does for all its nurses and providers is run an annual continuing medical education conference (CME). Aside from the pandemic, it is always in person, and it typically rotates between a domestic location and a foreign one. Last month happened to be CME, and it took us to Orlando, Florida. A nice little retreat from the building heat of Nouakchott. Apparently Florida isn’t always hot and sweaty.

The is obviously a wonderful benefit. Just about everyone in medicine needs enough continuing medical education to maintain their licensure, and with this occurring every year, we as providers end up having more than enough when it comes to license/cert renewal. The opportunity to travel and connect with everyone in the Bureau with just about everything paid for by MED is all the sweeter.

With 3 R&R’s for serving in Nouakchott, I decided to use one for my family since at this point it has been nearly 9 months since they have been back to the U.S. With news of our visit, my sisters and parents all descended on central Florida and we had a great little family reunion of sorts. This was my first really long break in work, eating up a week for the conference, and an additional 2 weeks of plain old leave. Below is a pic of our first meal in the U.S. in the airport. It was also the last thing we ate before leaving. That’s one happy kid.

Overall, the content of the CME was fascinating, and it was so awesome to see all my friends from orientation while also connecting with more seasoned providers in the service. A great time had by all.

In the coming weeks, I’ll talk a bit more about our leave, and what a family with 2 small children does when they find themselves 10 minutes away from a location that a famous mouse calls home.