Earthquakes and tsunamis unleash powerful forces of nature. They cause catastrophic infrastructure and property damage and can result in tremendous loss of life. This course presents some basic facts about earthquakes and tsunamis, including considerations for preparedness and protective actions.

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with a basic overview of earthquakes and tsunamis.

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing in the U.S. and worldwide. However, if the condition is well managed, it can result in a healthy pregnancy. Maternal child health professionals must understand the condition, risk factors, and how to treat it.

Though active shooter events are rare, it is practical and necessary to be well-prepared for the possibility, especially when you work with the public. Between 2010 and 2020, The Joint Commission (TJC) received 39 reports of active shootings that resulted in 39 deaths at accredited hospitals (TJC, 2021). As a result, the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) and TJC require hospitals to prepare for all hazards, including active shooter or hostage events, and to work with their local law enforcement and emergency response agencies to prepare for and respond to active shooter events. Understanding the risks and motivations behind active shooter events, how your body and mind may respond to stress, and how best to prepare for an active shooter event is the best way to protect yourself and others should the unthinkable occur in your facility.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly called HIPAA, protects the confidentiality and security of healthcare information. HIPAA creates and protects individual privacy rights for protected health information and governs the use and disclosure of that information.

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with an overview of the principles of HIPAA.

The content of this course is sourced from 45 CFR Parts 160,162, and 164 (2020) or HIPAA-related resources from the Health and Human Services (HHS) unless otherwise noted.

This is an exciting time to work in the field of behavioral health treatment. The field has changed dramatically in the direction of operating on the principles of recovery. Recovery treatment involves changing our attitudes and beliefs about serious mental illness and the long-term effects of these illnesses over the lifespan to reflect the belief that recovery is the expected outcome. The field continues to expand into areas of advancing the integration of mental health to physical health, connecting to multiple dimensions of wellness and alternative medicine, as well as incorporation of peer recovery specialists. Each of these areas supports the recovery of persons with behavioral health issues.

This course explains the concept of a professional therapeutic boundary and how it differs from a personal relationship. You will learn about the ethical role of the clinical practitioner in establishing appropriate roles and boundaries, the difference between boundary crossings and boundary violations, how to appropriately use social media and other technology, and how to recognize situations with high potential for harmful boundary violations. As you master these skills, you will become more effective in maintaining an appropriate relationship between you and your clients.

As a professional nurse, you are expected to be familiar with many aspects of care. You are not exempt from malpractice or negligence claims because you were following orders. You are responsible for assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating appropriate nursing care. What you document can and does reflect the care provided and the outcomes of that care. Documentation that is factual, complete, timely, and detailed is required. In this course, you will learn about concepts and rules regarding documentation in the medical record. Legal aspects to be aware of while practicing will also be discussed. The goal of this course is to educate nursing professionals in post-acute care settings about the legal implications of documentation.

The Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) is required to demonstrate competency in the domain of emergency nursing which includes knowledge of cardiovascular conditions and emergencies, such as acute coronary syndrome, aortic aneurysm/dissection, and cardiopulmonary arrest.

The purpose of this program is to describe the impact of professional practice issues as they relate to the emergency nurse, their patients, and the health care system.

Veterans are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than non-veterans (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [VA], 2022). This course will explain the specific factors that increase suicide risk in veterans. You will also learn about assessment and intervention approaches used to manage suicide risk in this population.

The goal of this course is to provide knowledge to addictions, behavioral health counseling, case management/care management, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, social work professionals, and physicians in health and human services settings about suicide prevention strategies for veterans.

This multi-lesson module provides suicide training according to the state of Washington requirements. The four lessons cover:

Lesson 1: Assessing and Screening for Suicide Risk: provides skills to identify individuals at increased risk of suicide

Lesson 2: Overview of Evidence-Based, Suicide-Specific Interventions: provides knowledge about evidence-based, suicide-specific interventions

Lesson 3: Community-Based Interventions to Reduce Suicide Risk: provides information about community-based, upstream suicide prevention approaches

Lesson 4: Preventing Suicide Among Veteran Populations: provides skills in assessment and intervention to reduce suicide risk among veterans

Within healthcare, a patient with limited English proficiency (LEP) is an individual whose primary means of communication is not English and who has a limited command of the language in reading, writing, speaking, or understanding (Office for Civil Rights, 2016). These patients need the careful attention of healthcare personnel to ensure the safety and quality of care. Healthcare professionals should understand regulations and standards related to patients with LEP, such as the use of an interpreter for communication.

The goal of this educational program is to improve the ability of the healthcare team to provide quality care and better outcomes for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Proper surgical specimen handling is essential for patient safety. This course covers best practices for intraoperative personnel to prepare, label, and transfer specimens accurately. Adhering to these protocols ensures that specimens are identified and handled appropriately, minimizing the risk of harm to the patient.

This course provides OR nurses and surgical technologists with knowledge of best practices for specimen handling.

This course is about harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment and other types of workplace harassment. It looks at the basic skills needed to deal with situations involving harassment. This course will provide information that will help produce a healthy work environment that is free of harassment. It will also help you understand your role if you encounter harassment in the workplace. The content in this course is applicable to all employees.

HIPAA rules underlie every service related to behavioral health, and they change to meet evolving trends. There are potentially catastrophic organizational and individual consequences if the current HIPAA rules are not followed. This course will help you to identify potential legal and ethical issues related to HIPAA, improve your compliance approach, and develop more effective risk management strategies.

The goal of this course is to assist alcohol and drug counselors, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses in health and human services settings in understanding and applying current HIPAA regulations.

 The goal of this continuing education module is to help nurses advance their understanding of perinatal HIV transmission, prevention factors, and related legal and ethical issues.

Approximately 30 million Americans have some form of hepatic failure. There are 11,886 people in the U.S. on the transplant list waiting for a new liver (Health Resources & Services Administration, 2021). Hepatic failure is rated as one of the leading causes of death, yet we know much less about this condition compared to other chronic diseases. Clinicians should be familiar with signs of liver failure and related conditions, risk factors for the disease, and treatment strategies.

The purpose of this course is to educate healthcare professionals on the causes, complications, and characteristics of hepatic failure to better manage and care for this patient population.

The OR is a complex environment. Highly trained individuals interact in a specialized setting with sophisticated and technically complicated devices, instruments, and equipment. There are also substantial differences among team members related to education, experience, skill level, influence, and formal and informal power. This course will inform nurses and surgical technologists of the evidence-based steps to take to create a culture of safety in the OR.

By understanding the causes of stroke and how to treat and prevent it, you can make a significant difference in the lives of those you care for. This course will help you identify the symptoms of a stroke and provide you with the necessary knowledge to provide care during and after the stroke.
 

Within any healthcare organization, there are systems, policies, and procedures that can be improved or events that could have been prevented. A root cause analysis is a tool that helps healthcare organizations improve their systems by using a team process of discovery. When you understand how to use a root cause analysis, you can apply it to create better solutions, prevent adverse events, and create more effective and efficient systems. This course discusses what a root cause analysis is and how to use it.

he purpose of this course is to inform the emergency nurse of communicable diseases, including a comprehensive assessment and appropriate interventions.

All healthcare staff must be aware of the challenges that people in minority groups may experience. This includes knowing the effects of those challenges on how people seek and receive healthcare services. This course discusses sexual and gender minorities and their healthcare experiences.

This program presents basic concepts in fetal heart monitoring for bedside perinatal care providers. It is divided into five sections, each of which discusses a separate topic and reinforces key elements of fetal assessment and oxygenation:

Maternal and fetal physiology
Uterine activity and fetal assessments
The instrumentation used in fetal monitoring
Monitoring  and tracing characteristics and selection of clinical interventions
Risk management strategies

Knowledge checks and section Questions and Answers highlight key learning points. Practice exercises and case studies are designed to reinforce the importance of clinicians’ assessments and decisions and their effect on patient care.

AWHONN is the provider of the continuing education activity and Relias is the joint provider.

This course provides nurses with information regarding safety concerns associated with alarm fatigue along with evidence-based research strategies to reduce the fatigue.

Healthcare professionals often encounter patients experiencing agitation or displaying hostile behavior during their careers. De-escalation is a set of approaches and techniques used to assist patients in self-calming to avoid incidents of harm to self, others, or property. Professionals should understand escalation and physiological responses to threats. After determining the risk of escalation, healthcare professionals can use various aspects of verbal communication, such as tone and pitch, and nonverbal communication skills to defuse potentially hostile situations and apply the least restrictive interventions. 

As a healthcare professional, you may find yourself in situations where issues with professional boundaries develop. Some boundary violations can be quite serious for you, your team members, your organization, and the people you provide care for. For this reason, it is important for you to be aware of these risks.

You should understand the difference between a boundary crossing and a boundary violation. You must also be able to recognize situations that may lead to a boundary crossing or violation and know how to prevent problems.

The goal of this course is to share with general staff in any setting the basics of how to maintain professional boundaries.

Social media and other forms of electronic communication allow people to instantly share pictures and messages with anyone, anywhere. But as the opportunities to share information online have increased, so have the challenges for keeping information private.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, was designed to protect individuals’ rights and their personal healthcare information. HIPAA applies to both the storage and transfer of electronic protected health information, so these electronic communications must be handled carefully.

A ‘culture of safety’ is an often-heard term in clinical settings. Most patients require complex care, with many interprofessional teams working together. Large patient volumes, an expectation for rapid delivery of care, the consumer’s ability to choose providers, and government reimbursements all drive acute care facilities to invest in preventing or reducing errors. Improving safety is beneficial to the patient primarily, with less risk of injury or death, but also to the facility and staff, improving retention and job satisfaction, with the added benefit of extensive cost-savings.

Stress is part of everyone’s life. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. A certain level of stress is healthy because it motivates you to be productive. However, too much stress can do the opposite, leaving you feeling drained and irritable. You can’t escape stress, but you can learn to respond to it differently.

The goal of this course is to teach employees how to identify triggers and develop a personal stress management plan.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. The federal laws are very specific about the ways in which you, as an employer, are expected to select, promote, and accommodate your employees. You can be held liable for discrimination whether or not you intentionally discriminated against your employee, so it is imperative that you understand the federal laws prohibiting discrimination.

The Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) is required to demonstrate competency in the domain of emergency nursing which includes knowledge of cardiovascular conditions and emergencies, such as acute coronary syndrome, aortic aneurysm/dissection, and cardiopulmonary arrest.

The goal of this course is to inform the emergency nurse of cardiovascular conditions and emergencies, including a comprehensive assessment and appropriate intervention.

In 2020, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], National Center for Injury Prevention and Control [NCIPC], 2020). Rates of suicide among youth continue to increase, making it essential for behavioral health clinicians and other professionals working with adolescents and transition-age youth to understand the dynamics of suicide among young people.

After providing a foundation on how widespread the problem is and the prevailing theories about the drivers of suicidal behaviors, this course will teach you about how to effectively screen potentially suicidal youth and ways you can intervene to lower their risk.

Whenever a crime occurs, evidence can be transferred among the perpetrator, victim, and the crime scene. Law enforcement personnel collect and preserve crime scene evidence. Healthcare professionals can simultaneously assist with a crime investigation and provide good healthcare to patients by collecting and preserving evidence from the patient’s body. It is imperative to understand that the collection and preservation of evidence from a patient should never compromise the patient’s safety, autonomy, or legal rights. This course provides an overview of interviewing, collecting, and preserving forensic evidence, toxicology, and documentation.

Perioperative providers can BEST prepare for emergencies in the operating room by knowing the responsibilities of each team member and rehearsing interventions ahead of time. When you are in the moment and your heart is racing, it’s easy to forget how to respond or even where supplies are located. Practicing your responsibilities and team interventions ahead of time will help to prepare you for the unexpected. This course provides you with an opportunity to participate in five emergency scenarios to test your knowledge. Time is of the essence when an emergency happens so you must think and act fast to save the patient!

The goal of this course is to equip nurses and STs with knowledge of the responsibilities of the team during a range of OR emergencies. 

Substance use is a growing problem across populations. As a helping professional, you need a basic understanding of how substance use affects your clients. This information will help you to provide support and resources to help clients seek treatment and recovery. In this course, you will explore substance use disorders, how they develop, and their impact on individuals. The course also explains your role as a paraprofessional when working with individuals with substance use disorders. You will be provided an overview of evidence-based interventions and the types of substance use treatment programs available, when additional treatment may be necessary. Detailed examples will help you to apply this information in your own work. The goal of this course is to provide paraprofessionals and peer support specialists in health and human service settings with information on substance use disorders and evidence-based interventions.

Throughout this course, you will gain knowledge about common challenges encountered during telehealth appointments and learn ways to overcome those challenges. You also will learn about effective techniques to communicate, interact, build rapport, and engage with your clients via telehealth. The course will also explore how to improve clinical effectiveness and client outcomes through the use of telehealth within integrated care. Information and vignettes will be blended to offer practical strategies that you can apply in your own setting to use telehealth for adults with behavioral health issues.

In an emergency department, information often flows amongst providers and patients quickly because of urgent, sometimes life-threatening, situations. Due to the volume of information being shared, as well as the need for it to be shared quickly and accurately, emergency department providers must be especially careful to safeguard patient information.

The goal of this course is to update nursing professionals in the acute care setting with basic information about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and 42 CFR Part 2.

This course, which was designed to comply with HIPAA law, will help you protect the privacy of the people you provide care for. Allowing unauthorized individuals to see a person’s personal health information can have severe consequences for you and your organization, even if it happens by accident.

The goal of this course is to provide post-acute care staff with basic information about the principles of confidentiality, privacy, and security.

Concussion is a form of mild traumatic brain injury that is common in children and adolescents. Despite increased awareness about the injury, concussion remains under-reported and under-diagnosed. Nurses and Radiology Technicians must be aware of the identification, diagnosis, and management of concussions in pediatric patients. 

Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) is a condition that occurs when the body produces too much antidiuretic hormone (ADH), which causes fluid retention and electrolyte imbalance. SIADH can have various causes and manifestations and can lead to serious complications if not recognized and treated promptly. This course will provide you with the knowledge to thoroughly assess and manage patients with SIADH in the hospital setting.

Worldwide, postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) accounts for high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. It is important to understand the definitions and causes of PPH, as well as the many risk factors associated with PPH and how to assess a woman’s risk. Early recognition is key to have good outcomes. Recognizing PPH, the stages of PPH, and how to measure blood loss is essential, since treatment is based upon the stages of hemorrhage. Additionally, it is important to understand nursing interventions, treatments for PPH (including medication, surgical procedures, and blood products), and teamwork and communication needs to improve perinatal outcomes.

End-of-life issues are difficult to face. The decisions to be made are challenging for everyone involved including the dying person, their loved ones, and the healthcare team. Individuals will have their own unique needs and concerns and will cope in their own way. But this can also be an opportunity for personal growth. These events will often provide people with the opportunity to self-reflect and gain insight into what is most valuable to them.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, minority groups will outnumber what is now considered mainstream culture by the middle of this century. Healthcare professionals need to heighten their awareness about the importance of role, culture, and tradition in preventing and treating women’s unique healthcare problems. When there is a lack of cultural sensitivity in communication, patients are less likely to be content with their healthcare experience, increasing the likelihood of miscommunication and possible cultural disparities. These factors can also cause non-compliance with treatment, worse health outcomes, and a higher incidence of adverse events.

The goal of this course is to equip healthcare professionals with knowledge of the impact of culture on women’s health beliefs and practices and their responses to current approaches to care.

The Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) is required to demonstrate competency in the domain of emergency nursing which includes knowledge of respiratory emergencies, their signs and symptoms, their management, and the nursing interventions. 

The goal of this course is to review the knowledge domains specific to respiratory emergencies included as a part of the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) exam.

This course is not affiliated with the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN).

The Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) is required to demonstrate competency in the domain of emergency nursing which includes knowledge of psychosocial emergencies, their signs and symptoms, their management, and the nursing interventions that are needed.

The goal of this course is to review the knowledge domains specific to psychosocial emergencies included as a part of the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) exam.

Telehealth offers numerous benefits and poses several challenges when used to treat behavioral health conditions. Many challenges can be addressed through specific problem-solving and communication strategies.

This course provides an overview of telehealth as well as a discussion of both benefits and challenges. You will learn the regulatory issues you should consider when preparing and implementing a telehealth practice. Lastly, this course highlights important strategies to develop rapport and promote engagement when treating clients via telehealth.

This course discusses how to recognize, prevent, and report abuse, neglect, and exploitation of vulnerable adults in the state of Washington.

The goal of this course is to educate direct care workers in post-acute care settings on how to identify, prevent, and report suspected or witnessed abuse, neglect, or exploitation in the state of Washington.

Listening skills are an often-undeveloped component of effective communication. Leaders and managers with strong listening skills build more productive and engaged teams with increased effectiveness. In this course, you will learn how managers and leaders can listen actively to build stronger teams and increase their impact. You will also learn the importance of establishing common ground and practicing empathy as you apply the techniques for becoming a better listener.

The goal of this course is to provide managers and leaders with the awareness and skills to be effective communicators.

While strokes can be fatal, symptoms of stroke can be abetted if the patient is treated early enough. Educating patients on stroke prevention is vital for those who are at risk to avoid a medical emergency. In addition, it is important for healthcare providers (HCPs) to understand the etiological risk factors for stroke, as well as management techniques for patients who have already suffered a stroke.

The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human service settings with information about how substance use disorders can impact family systems and approaches to help the family system. 

Depression and suicide are among the top public health concerns facing older adult populations. Older adults encounter changes physically, cognitively, and psychosocially that often contribute to the onset of depression. Further, older adult populations have among the highest incident rates of suicide than any other age group, which makes appropriate diagnosis and treatment of depression in this population even more critical. This course will provide an overview of some physical, cognitive, and psychosocial factors that could be contributing to depression in an older adult, as well as important information on recognizing risk factors and warning signs of depression in this population. Additionally, information related to evidence-based treatment strategies for older adult populations will be discussed along with the importance of monitoring treatment adherence.

Bowel ischemia, infarctions, perforations, and obstructions are serious conditions that require prompt recognition and interventions to prevent severe complications and death. There are several underlying conditions that predispose patients to these conditions, for which education and risk modifications are crucial. 

The goal of this course is to equip nursing professionals in acute care with knowledge of risk factors, signs and symptoms, and management strategies for bowel ischemia, infarction, perforation, and obstruction.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand, express, and regulate your own emotions. It also refers to your awareness of what the people around you are feeling. One of the hallmark skills of EQ is the ability keep your emotional brain and your thinking brain working together, even in intense or stressful situations. Why is this important? What can it do for you?

The goal of this course is to teach all staff strategies to manage emotions.

The Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN®) is required to demonstrate competency in the domain of emergency nursing which includes knowledge of gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) conditions and diseases, their signs and symptoms, management, and applicable nursing interventions.

In this course, you will learn about how substance use impacts women differently. You will learn ways that you can provide gender-responsive treatment to women struggling with substance use or at risk of developing a substance use disorder. 
The goal of this course is to provide addiction, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family counseling, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services settings with information about substance use treatment for women at various stages of development.
 

While the demand for emergency department (ED) care remains high, EDs continue to decline in number nationwide. Those that remain are overcrowded and at capacity, often having patients wait hours or even days to be admitted. Although many seek care in the ED for an acute injury or illness, others seek treatment for acute exacerbations of poorly managed chronic illness, such as diabetes, or management of a chronic illness in the absence of an acute problem, such as for blood pressure control and cardiac or asthma medication refills. The ED has become the largest provider of unscheduled primary care visits, seriously stressing the healthcare safety net. Patients in the ED are staying longer for prolonged observation and complex diagnostic workups. There is an increasing number of critically ill patients being treated and cared for in the ED rather than the critical and intensive care unit. Additionally, chronic mental and psychiatric patients often seek treatment in the ED rather than with individual providers. This has resulted in overcrowding in the ED, putting strain on its personnel.

This course will cover an overview of topics surrounding medication administration including pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, safety standards, and legal and ethical guidelines for practice. The learner will use case scenarios to gain a deeper understanding of the foundational practice.

Documentation is a critical component of therapy services. Your documentation is used to communicate with other healthcare professionals, evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, and substantiate billing by justifying the care provided. Individuals who review your documentation in the medical record will never see the therapy sessions, so you have to “tell the story” by including the necessary components to justify services for reimbursement. This course covers general guidelines for documentation, components to improve documentation, and special considerations. Practical examples are provided to help you incorporate best practices into your documentation.

This course provides detailed information about the pathophysiology, disease trajectory, and unique symptoms experienced by patients with advanced neurological diseases. Learners will identify the clinical features of advanced Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Huntington’s disease as well as best practices for symptom management. In addition, the key clinical indicators and symptoms that should serve as triggers to optimally transition a patient with advanced neurological diseases to palliative and hospice care are presented. The unique disease-related stressors for family caregivers are discussed. The goal of this course is to provide nurses in hospice with knowledge of caring for people with end-stage neurological diseases.

As a healthcare worker, you are in regular contact with residents, visitors, and coworkers. When harassment or bullying occurs in the workplace, the impact on staff and visitors creates a troubled workplace. Facility operations are also disrupted with long-reaching effects. Workplace violence refers clearly to threats or actual use of physical force against a person in the workplace. In recent years, more healthcare workers have assumed a greater risk of exposure to workplace violence. In this course, you will learn how to spot, prevent, and respond to workplace violence. 

Healthcare professionals often feel unprepared to ask about abuse or to counsel a pregnant woman who is being abused, although they are in a unique position to assess for IPV and to support women who experience it. As such, it is necessary for clinicians to skillfully screen for IPV and offer effective interventions when appropriate.

You will learn about the costs, benefits, and goals of integrated care systems. As there are numerous challenges to integrating care, you will become aware of some of these key challenges, and familiar with particular characteristics of well-functioning integrated care systems. Finally, you will learn a variety of ways that behavioral healthcare professionals, including you, can function effectively in an integrated care environment.

Hospitals are standardizing care based on the best evidence to reduce inconsistencies, improve high-quality and safe patient care, and minimize costs. Nurses and leaders alike are responsible for accelerating efforts to ensure the adoption of evidence-based practice exists and is embedded into all aspects of patient care. This course presents various evidence-based practice (EBP) models and frameworks that aid nurses in translating the best evidence into practice. Adopting an EBP model creates a standardized approach to inquiry and guides the implementation of best practices.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects thousands of people each year. It affects people from all social and economic backgrounds, ages, sex, genders, sexual orientations, race, and ethnicities. Those who experience IPV often suffer adverse social and health outcomes that make early recognition, identification, and response a priority for professionals working in healthcare and health and human services.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses in the acute care setting with knowledge of the different bariatric surgical options and the psychosocial, metabolic, and physiological issues that patients may encounter before and after bariatric surgery.

Health outcomes are influenced in myriad ways by an individual’s social environment and their community. For example, community is linked to such outcomes as body mass index, homicide rates, and suicidal behavior (Diez Roux & Mair, 2010; Bharmal et al., 2015; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.). Due to these strong influences on health outcomes, the U.S. Department Health and Human Services Healthy People 2030 campaign identifies social and community context as a domain of the social determinants of health. Social determinants of health are external conditions which exist with the potential to affect a patient’s current and future health, often beyond a patient’s direct control. Of particular importance, however, is how this domain fits into the larger picture of the social determinants of health. The elements in the social and community context have been shown to help negate potentially negative consequences of the other social determinants of health (Bharmal et al., 2015).

Floods and landslides can occur in many locations throughout the U.S. This course provides basic information about these hazards and the destruction they can cause. This course emphasizes the importance of being informed about flooding and landslide risks and hazards around you and various protective actions you could consider taking.

The goal of this course is to provide employees with a foundation for staying safe during flooding and landslides.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that approximately 795,000 people within the U.S. experience a stroke annually, and among these individuals, over 75% experience a stroke for the first time (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2021). Stroke, a national and international neurological problem, is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death globally (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020; American Stroke Association [ASA], n.d.). Nurses need to be informed about the urgency of early treatment to be proactive in educating their communities. They also need to understand the resulting behavioral differences created in right- versus left-hemispheric strokes, and how a lack of knowledge can negatively impact immediate post-stroke care.

Grief is a normal and natural response to loss. It is not a problem to be solved, but rather a way of coping. This course discusses the basics of the grief process, the different types of grief, and ways of expressing grief. It also discusses tools to help you stay present and resilient as a healthcare professional supporting individuals and families.

This course provides an overview of the use of robotic-assisted laparoscopic/endoscopic methods during surgery. Along with a review of the eight components necessary for an endoscopic surgical procedure, it also describes the endoscopic functions of robotic-assisted technology. You will come away with a better understanding of how health-care professionals interact with robotic-assisted technology.

The current opioid use epidemic has had devastating consequences for those impacted by it. Medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is an effective, yet underused, approach to the treatment of opioid use disorder. By taking this course, you will have information that you can share with your clients and their family members about what MOUD is, its risks and benefits, and the types of medications used in MOUD. The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services settings with an overview of what MOUD is, how it can help individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD), and the medications used by providers that treat OUD.

The world of legalities, red tape, and ethics can be a daunting one. We have all heard about the importance of confidentiality and trust in healthcare. How do these issues apply to preceptorships? This educational activity addresses integrity in preceptorships and gives you information you can share with preceptees to enhance professional and personal character, confidence, and wisdom in nursing practice. It also reviews important ethical and legal considerations that should be reviewed and incorporated into a preceptorship. The goal of this course is to provide nurses and nurse preceptors in ambulatory care settings with information about integrity, ethical conduct, and legal considerations in nursing practice and preceptorships.

Nurses are required to document everything of significance that happens on their shift. This can be a straightforward process, but there are often challenges. There are all kinds of scenarios that present documentation difficulties. Patients may refuse treatment or want to leave the hospital against medical advice. Your unit may be understaffed, and you want to document a complaint. The computer system can go down and you have to document on paper. Or maybe your documentation just takes too long, and you are wondering how to document faster. This course reviews strategies for documentation in challenging situations and how to document more efficiently.

In this Change Management 2: Leading the Implementation of Change course, you will explore strategies for planning and implementing change, as well as guiding your team through the change process. You will gain an understanding of the common reasons why most change efforts fail. You will learn how to effectively overcome these challenges and have the opportunity to assess the change readiness of your team. Successful change implementation requires a focus on the behaviors and attitudes of your team and employees to ensure they adapt to, and support, the change. You will identify the four stages of change and learn how to help your employees adapt to change effectively. The goal of this course is to provide managers and supervisors with strategies for planning and implementing change, as well as for guiding their team through the change process.

The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services settings with an opportunity to apply your existing knowledge to assess and intervene with an at-risk adult.

The perioperative nurse plays a primary role in the anesthesia experience. Knowledge of techniques, patient assessment, and care management for the patient receiving or recovering from anesthesia positively impacts patient outcomes. This course discusses anesthetics and adjuvant medications used in the perioperative setting, anesthesia-related complications, and the nurse’s role in assisting with anesthesia management.

This course provides nursing professionals with information about the principles and practices of anesthesia care in the perioperative setting.

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of stroke care from onset to rehab. Details of stroke care in the acute care setting and rehabilitation for stroke are reviewed. Stroke prevention strategies are explained. 

For many of us, social media is a fun way to stay in touch with friends and family. We share photos and stories with people across town and around the world. However, nurses need to be cautious as they engage in social media as it can affect their careers in ways never imagined. Content taken in the wrong context can damage a nurse’s professional reputation.

All healthcare organizations must follow a specific HIPAA rule, known as the Privacy Rule. This rule limits the use and disclosure of protected health information, known as PHI. The Privacy Rule also grants people the right to view and correct their medical records, receive copies, or request that copies are sent. The goal of this course is to provide all staff with knowledge of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

The goal of the course is to discuss how innovations can be recognized, developed, adopted, and disseminated amongst staff, as well as review areas where innovations are likely to change the provision of care. We will also explore the patient’s role in innovation, and how patient and family-centered care will drive ongoing changes.

Caregiving demands a tremendous amount of compassion and empathy. While this can be incredibly rewarding, it can cause some adverse side effects. The goal of this course is to provide all staff with an overview of caregiving side effects.

As the population of the U.S. soars in diversity, healthcare professionals must be prepared to care for childbearing families from many different cultures. All cultures and families should be given the same respect, be assured of the highest quality of care, have their religious, ethnic, and cultural values respected and integrated into their care, and have their physical and educational needs met in a way that honors their spiritual beliefs and individuality. Knowledge of the cultures one is serving and the influence they have on women’s perceptions of childbirth are important for achieving positive outcomes. Equally and perhaps more important is applying the principles of cultural humility to nursing care.

The goal of this continuing education course is to improve the ability of nurses and health educators in acute care settings to assess and meet the sociocultural needs of childbearing families of diverse cultural and social groups. 

Increasing awareness of cultural diversification has challenged traditional institutions and practices. This includes the delivery of treatment services. Outcome studies have consistently demonstrated the need for change in the way that healthcare and other services operate. Awareness of and sensitivity to cultural issues are critical to establishing a positive relationship with the people you are serving and ensuring beneficial treatment outcomes. 

About 70% of adults in the U.S. have experienced at least one traumatic event (Sidran Institute, 2018). Most overcome their trauma responses without formal intervention. Others, however, experience persistent symptoms that need formal intervention. The goal of this course is to provide addiction, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapists, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services settings with information on how to assess and treat trauma- and stressor-related disorders.

To know documentation principles and to apply them in daily practice are musts for every nurse. These are essential to protect patients and to safeguard every nurse’s license. Documentation is the foundational proof that care was provided to a patient. Requirements and methods of documenting are ever-changing amongst a variety of documentation modalities. Although nurses sometimes view documentation as a process that takes precious time away from direct patient care, it is one of the most critical skills they perform. In fact, appropriate and effective documentation is at the core of nursing practice.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses working in acute care settings with information about the value of laws and standards governing nursing documentation, legal basics for appropriate documentation, and provide awareness of documentation practices that can lead to legal issues.

Supervisors and managers are challenged by change every day and must consistently demonstrate self-confidence to their teams in the face of these challenges. In this course, you will explore the characteristics, behaviors, and actions of being an effective “change agent,” (one who guides, supports, or leads change) which is a critical role in guiding your teams through change. The goal of this course is to provide managers and supervisors with an understanding of the common reasons for resistance to change and learn ways to counteract it.

The biopsychosocial model takes a more holistic perspective, emphasizing biological, sociocultural, and psychological factors that relate to the risk of these disorders. This course will present an overview of this model’s primary assumptions, how it differs from other perspectives on substance-related and addictive behaviors, and how it can inform your approach to treatment. The goal of this course is to provide social workers, psychologists, alcohol and drug counselors, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, and nurses in health and human services with information on how the biopsychosocial model is used in treatment for substance-related and addictive disorders.

In this course, you will learn about Motivational Interviewing, an intervention to help people discover their own desire and ability to make difficult changes. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a way of communicating that draws out people’s own thoughts and beliefs in order to help them address their ambivalence about making a change.

The course uses a blend of instructive information and interactive exercises to help you understand and apply its core concepts. The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human service settings with the skills to define and demonstrate the core concepts of Motivational Interviewing.

Culturally appropriate interventions must be utilized when working with culturally diverse clients and patients. Cultural competency goes beyond having knowledge of traditional cultures. This course discusses how cultural competency functions to deliver culturally competent care related to diet and nutrition.

The goal of this course is to educate fitness professionals, health education professionals, and nutrition and dietetics professionals with information on developing cultural competency.

This course is about workplace slip, trip, and fall hazards. It alerts you to the serious consequences that can result even from a simple fall or a near fall and provides information about measures that can help you prevent these incidents and reduce potential injuries.

Every year, workers are injured or killed when the equipment they are working with unexpectedly turns on or the residual energy stored in the equipment is released. Lockout/Tagout, or LOTO, is a set of procedures used to control hazardous energy during the service or maintenance of machine and equipment. The aim of LOTO procedures is to protect workers from the release of hazardous energy.  

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with an overview of lockout/tagout procedures.

Sexual harassment in the workplace creates an uncomfortable working environment for employees and can also create hardships for employers. This course will explain to staff working in any healthcare setting what sexual harassment is and what they can do about it.

Education access and quality is a pillar of the social determinants of health for Healthy People 2030 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). This course outlines the effects of education on an individual’s health. The four components of education access and quality include early childhood education and development, high school graduation, enrollment in higher education, and language and literacy.

All healthcare professionals must be aware of bias and the challenges that bias can create in healthcare. This includes knowing some of the challenges people face with the healthcare system. In this course, you will learn best practices to help recognize and manage bias.

It was once assumed that addressing underlying conditions was the best way to treat suicidality. We now know that suicidal people need interventions that directly target suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Suicide-specific interventions will give you the tools to help clients manage suicide risk.

In this course, you will learn about specific evidence-based and research-informed interventions that directly target suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Through case examples, you will gain a better understanding of ways to implement these strategies.

The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals with knowledge about evidence-based, suicide-specific interventions.

A common complication of pregnancy is gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). GDM is a type of diabetes that develops in pregnant people who normally do not have diabetes. Proper diet, exercise, and pharmacological interventions can help your patient have a healthy pregnancy and newborn.

The goal of this course is to educate the healthcare team on current screening recommendations, diagnostic criteria, blood glucose goals, and treatment interventions for GDM.

Although medical care can be often concrete, healthcare professionals, including nurses, are faced with ethical dilemmas that are not as clear-cut. In healthcare, sometimes situations arise where there is an “area of gray.” In those moments, thoughtful analysis using reason and ethical principles is needed. Many healthcare institutions have developed ethics committees to navigate patient care in difficult situations.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses in the acute care setting with knowledge of key terms, theories, and principles of bioethics, as well as the procedures, functions, roles, and responsibilities associated with an ethics committee in the acute care setting.

No matter how much we know, there is always something more to learn about communication, teamwork, and interprofessional/interpersonal work relationships. Healthcare is a continuously evolving, fast-paced, multigenerational, and multicultural work environment. Communication and teamwork are vital components of safe and effective healthcare. Preceptors must incorporate these elements into preceptorships to successfully transition new staff into ambulatory care and clinical patient care arenas. This becomes particularly important when transitioning preceptees into specialty practice that requires them to work interdependently, such as in ambulatory care. The goal of this course is to provide nurses and nurse preceptors in ambulatory care settings with information about communication and teamwork in preceptorships.

This course will offer a blend of ethical and legal information, clinical vignettes, and strategies that can later be applied in therapeutic settings. The content of this course includes information about informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, boundaries, mandatory reporting, and rules for sharing information. The course assumes the learner has a basic understanding of telehealth technologies and formats. To learn more, you can search the Relias library for additional courses related to telehealth.

The goal of this course is to provide addictions professionals, behavioral health counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses in health and human services settings with strategies and information for competent and ethical telehealth practice.

The focus of this course is coagulopathies. In general, the term coagulopathy refers to bleeding disorders. This course will provide a review of the components of a clot. It will also provide you with valuable information about how to care for those with coagulopathies such as immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), and warfarin-induced coagulopathy.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses in the critical care setting with a general overview of coagulopathies, including the recognition and nursing management of ITP, DIC, HIT, and warfarin-induced coagulopathy. 

The role of a preceptor is vital to an organization’s ability to efficiently and effectively onboard an individual to a new department or work unit. This course is designed to include principles and practices for precepting new employees across healthcare settings. It introduces the learner to the fundamentals of the preceptor role and provides best practices for being an effective preceptor. Preceptors exhibit professionalism and best practices in their work units. Being a preceptor requires skill, talent, and preparation to yield the best outcomes.

In this course, you will learn about pediatric anatomical and physiological differences, which will help you recognize normal variations throughout your assessment. Additionally, you will learn communication methods to help children feel more at ease during your assessment. Finally, you will understand essential warning signs that require immediate referral to additional medical professionals using the available resources and tools.

Good communication can be challenging because of the many distractors in today’s workplace, such as technology, stress, and multitasking. If communication is weak, it can lead to poor work relationships and decreased satisfaction for everyone. It is essential for you to learn how to communicate effectively with everyone you come into contact with. This course discusses how to communicate clearly, concisely, and professionally.

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the delivery of quality care. It refers to meeting the needs of people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence must be a two-way system to benefit people with differing beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. This course discusses cultural competence and how organizations can use cultural competency to create an atmosphere of inclusion.

Substance use is linked to millions of deaths worldwide each year (Ritchie & Roser, 2019). Supporting individuals’ long-term recovery from substance use can help save lives. Recovery is a lifelong process that aims to keep an individual substance-free while improving their overall quality of life. Wellness strategies enhance recovery outcomes by focusing on optimal health across all dimensions of an individual’s life.

Nurses, respiratory therapists, and emergency medical professionals who care for children must have the requisite skills and training on the unique characteristics of a pediatric patient’s respiratory system. Children have significant respiratory system differences compared to adults. These include, but are not limited to: Anatomy, physiology, signs and symptoms of respiratory distress, and respiratory emergencies. In children, the leading cause of cardiopulmonary arrest occurs from etiologies within the respiratory system. Clinicians must understand these differences and be prepared to work collaboratively to quickly respond and provide safe and competent care to any child who is in respiratory distress.

Healthcare workers will often interact with patients who make up stories or memories that are inaccurate, sometimes wildly so. These patients are not lying, they are confabulating. A nurse who knows how to manage confabulation can help these patients. With proper interventions, most patients can stop confabulating or learn to manage the condition. This course will give you a solid foundation of knowledge about and skills to handle confabulation by explaining what it is, who does it, what causes it, and how to manage it.

The goal of this course is to inform nurses in the acute care setting about confabulation and how to assess and manage patients with confabulation.

Opioid misuse is a leading cause of unintentional injury and death among adolescents and young adults (Hudgins et al., 2019). More than 80% of adolescents who die from an opioid overdose do so accidentally, reflecting in part their lack of understanding and underestimation of the dangers inherent in the misuse of opioid medications (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023).

Along with the increased risk of lethal overdose, adolescents who misuse prescription opioids are at increased risk of severe medical complications that necessitate emergency treatment, progression to drugs with even greater potential for lethality such as heroin, and the development of a substance use disorder (Davis et al., 2020).

The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services with information on the development, prevalence, and treatment of opioid use disorders in adolescent and young adult populations.

Establishing an effective corporate compliance program helps healthcare organizations prevent, detect, and correct unlawful and unethical behavior. This course discusses the laws and behaviors related to ethics. It also discusses your responsibilities in preventing and identifying unlawful and unethical behavior. The goal of this course is to familiarize general staff in healthcare settings with the most common types of fraudulent and improper conduct.

Utilizing care management can improve and assist in managing patients with chronic health conditions. Care management provides the opportunity to deliver various medical services to patients recently discharged from the hospital. In addition, care management models in a primary care setting can increase a patient’s access to providers, decrease hospital visits, and reduce readmission. 

The goal of this course is to educate case managers, nurses, care managers, and social workers in ambulatory care, acute care, patient-centered medical homes, and behavioral health homes on care management. 

Anesthesia administration has become increasingly safer, but is not without risk. Patient- and family-centered care and the desire to save costs has led to a shift in perioperative care needs from “stabilize and admit” to “stabilize and discharge.” Each patient undergoing anesthesia requires competent, professional nursing staff to assist in timely and safe medication administration, maintenance, and recovery. Knowledge of anesthetic techniques, agents, and adjuvants is vital to this competence.

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was implemented in 1996 and has evolved significantly. While HIPAA regulations have many varying components, the part of HIPAA most relevant to healthcare professionals, however, centers around the protection of an individual’s healthcare information. Because you play a key role in the production of healthcare information, you play a key role in its protection.

The goal of this course is to provide licensed professionals with an understanding of HIPAA, privacy, and security.

There are many reasons that it can be difficult working with certain people. There may be communication breakdowns, personality clashes, or conflicting work habits. You may not like everyone you work with, but you do have to respect everyone. By learning ways to reduce conflicts, you’ll likely become more respected, too. In this course, you’ll learn strategies to calmly address misunderstandings before they become actual conflicts. Professional relationships can improve when you know how to deal with differences, communicate clearly, and listen respectfully.

This course provides an overview about the safety of patients undergoing a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC) to attempt a vaginal birth after cesarean delivery (VBAC). Research evidence has influenced where VBACs are performed, which women are eligible and how the practice is conducted, including the safe use of induction/augmentation medications. The safety of VBAC for mother and newborn always remains the primary underlying principle that guides care.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses and prescribing providers (physicians) in all healthcare settings with best practices to improve their care team approach to patients with depression and anxiety.

This course is intended to provide nurses with knowledge of pediatric stages of development, mechanisms of injury, and assessment best practices including the pediatric assessment triangle as they relate to trauma.

Documenting care is just as important as providing care. This course discusses the purpose of the medical record and documentation. It also describes documentation practices and legal standards that affect the certified nursing assistant.
This course provides direct care workers in post-acute care education on documentation and legal aspects of care.

Healthcare-associated infections are a serious issue. On any given day, approximately 1 in 31 hospitalized patients has a healthcare-associated infection, and over 75,000 of these infections result in death (CDC, 2018). Astounding, isn’t it? And these numbers don’t account for infections acquired in other healthcare settings. Preventing the transmission of infections from one person to another is critical.

The goal of this course is to provide staff in all healthcare settings with the basics of infection control.

People have used substances since ancient times. Sometimes substances were used as a medicine to treat an ailment, for recreation, or to support spiritual practices. The desire to find ways to feel or think differently is a normal part of the human experience. However, some people who use drugs develop patterns of compulsive use that are hard for them to control due to how the drug impacts their brain. They can experience harmful, even fatal, consequences. In 2019, the results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 20.4 million people, or 7.4% of the population of the U.S. had a substance use disorder (SAMHSA, 2020a). As behavioral health providers, we have opportunities in our interactions with clients to address thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors around substance use. We can support clients around learning about substances, the impact of substances, work to prevent or identify problematic use and substance use disorders, as well as offer information about treatment or provide treatment to clients.

Obesity rates in the U.S. have risen to the level of an epidemic, as 1 in 3 adults are affected by this disease. Obesity is a disease that significantly affects a person’s health and is not simply due to poor diet and lack of exercise. This course introduces healthcare professionals to the causes, management, and treatment options for adult obesity.

The goal of this course is to familiarize healthcare professionals with the growing epidemic of obesity among adults in the U.S.

In the operating room, patient safety depends on high quality communication and shared knowledge among the surgical team. Several factors in this setting can contribute to communication failures like time constraints, shift changes, environmental barriers, the complex nature of surgical procedures, and clashing communication styles. All members of the surgical team must understand the risks to patient safety associated with communication failures, what information must be communicated and when, and how to use an assertive communication style.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses and CSTs with best practices for effectively communicating in the operating room. 

Healthcare professionals witness the impact on patients’ quality of life and also see how hard it is for people to make changes in their health. Motivational interviewing is a patient-centered way to have a conversation that supports those struggling to make behavioral changes. The provider helps the patient explore personal motivators and identify their own goals. The approach is based on what matters to the patient. When each member of an interprofessional team practices from this point of view, the results can be positive for the patient and for the practitioners.

You work for a company that provides services to many people. You may need to discuss personal information about the people you serve, but this must be done thoughtfully. Everyone’s personal information must be kept safe.