How to write an effective conference abstract

Every year the RCN Emergency Care Association asks people who want to present at its annual conference to submit abstracts of their work. These requests produce about 100 abstracts of varying quality, which suggests that some nurses are uncertain about how to construct them. This is unfortunate because excellent work can be rejected by reviewers if the associated abstracts are of poor quality. There are few guidelines for people intending to write their first conference abstracts so this article offers some advice on how to do so to maximise the chance of successful application.