Treatment for HIV/AIDS has significantly improved over the last few decades and has reduced morbidity and mortality rates in patients living with HIV/AIDS. The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (ART) slows the progression of the disease by reducing the amount of HIV in the blood. Determining the most effective treatment regimen is a complex process and will require the use of several medications. The goal of this course is to provide pharmacists in acute care settings with an overview of HIV medication classes and factors influencing treatment decisions.

Advance directives are legal documents with instructions that apply if an adult is not able to make decisions about their own healthcare. They are meant to ensure that a person’s values related to dying, quality of life, and other relevant matters are honored.

The goal of this course is to inform all healthcare staff about the basics of advance directives.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (2021), an estimated 37 million people in the U.S. are currently living with renal disease. It ranks among the top causes of death. Often caused by hypertension or diabetes, chronic kidney disease, which is the most prevalent type of kidney disease, is treatable with medication and lifestyle modification. Unfortunately, an estimated 90% of people with chronic kidney disease do not know they have it and therefore do not receive the necessary care to prolong or improve their quality of life. When you understand the underlying risk factors, you can better recognize symptoms, educate, treat, and prevent further kidney damage. This course discusses the pathophysiology of renal disease. It also discusses a nurse’s role in assessing, managing, and educating people with a diagnosis of renal disease.

As the number of older adults increases, especially those who are older and frailer, the incidence of elder abuse is expected to increase. Mistreatment of older adults often occurs in isolation and often remains undetected. The first step to addressing the problem is to heighten awareness of abuse of the old, in particular among those who serve them or have frequent contact with them. Throughout this course, you will learn about types of elder abuse, indicators, consequences, risk factors of abuse, and interventions. You will have the opportunity to test what you have learned in each section through brief quizzes. The course also offers typical elder abuse case scenarios drawn from actual case material from Adult Protective Services or other elder abuse program caseloads.

Polypharmacy is a widespread problem in older adults as a direct result of chronic conditions requiring an individual to take five or more daily medications. It often leads to adverse drug events that can range from mild to severe or even death. This course discusses polypharmacy, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. It also discusses basic medication actions and interactions with a focus on the physiological changes and potential reactions seen in older adults. Understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of how medications work on and within the body is important in preventing adverse drug events from polypharmacy.

Understanding the risks for 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 goal of this course is to educate healthcare professionals in all settings about specific actions for assessing the risks for, preventing, and responding to an active shooter event.

Heart failure (HF) treatment is costly and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Evidence-based treatment guidelines improve patient outcomes, and it is essential to become familiar with these guidelines to reduce patient mortality. Healthcare team members play a significant role in treating acute HF (AHF), helping to reduce the morbidity and mortality of the disease and decrease the use and costs associated with care. This course aims to educate nurses and nutrition and dietetics professionals in the acute care setting about evidence-based heart failure treatment guidelines.

In patients with symptoms of stroke, early recognition and intervention have been identified as critical factors in stroke outcomes. This includes an initial assessment, a thorough neurological exam, and stabilization of hemodynamic changes. In addition, distinguishing ischemic from hemorrhagic strokes requires time-sensitive assessment parameters, interventions, and diagnostic procedures. Timely diagnoses allow the healthcare team to administer the appropriate treatment options accurately and effectively.

In patients recovering from a stroke, post-hospital care and interventions have been identified as critical factors in favorable stroke outcomes. Improving patient care by managing stroke complications can significantly improve recovery. Given this, nurses and physicians must understand the different types of stroke complications, appropriate interventions, and identify risk factors for recurrent stroke.

In patients with symptoms of acute stroke, early recognition and interventions have been identified as critical factors in stroke outcomes. Evidence-based care can identify, manage, and prevent stroke-related complications. Nurses and physicians must understand stroke management to prevent disability and death. This course aims to present the most up-to-date practices for managing patients with acute stroke.

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.

The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is a tool used to measure the severity of stroke symptoms and aid in identifying the location of the injury. The NIHSS has been shown to strongly predict the likelihood of a patient’s recovery after stroke. 

The goal of this course is to equip clinicians with the knowledge necessary to apply the NIHSS to patients experiencing an acute stroke.

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. The goal of this course is to provide alcohol and drug counseling, behavioral counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services settings with skills for reducing suicide risk in adolescents and transition-age youth.

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.

This course provides an overview of essential skills and considerations for engaging in sensitive and effective advance care planning conversations. You will learn the most important decision domains to address as outlined in the FIVE WISHES® framework, how to demonstrate compassionate communication, and conversation skills specific to eliciting values-based end-of-life care decisions.

The goal of this course is to provide healthcare professionals in all settings with enhanced communication skills related to advance care planning.

This course will help you determine the steps you need to take to build and implement an effective advance care planning program and describe how resources from the FIVE WISHES framework program can help. You will learn how to build support, determine goals and measures, and identify processes and standards to ensure your program is making a difference for your care recipients and your healthcare organization.

Despite intensive efforts to motivate patients and families to formulate advance directives (ADs), most Americans do not have them and may face a life-threatening illness without a plan to guide their relatives and healthcare providers. Experts stress the need for major changes in the approach to promoting ADs, including a focus on ongoing dialogue between patients and healthcare providers. This course outlines what happens in the absence of an advance directive and identifies how to overcome barriers to implementation. As a clinician, you will learn new ways to involve patients in advance-care planning.

The incorporation of screening for alcohol use disorders in a general medical setting can significantly increase the number of individuals with alcohol use disorders who are identified and treated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 4 medications to treat alcohol use disorder, making treatment in primary care and other general medical settings a viable alternative to specialty care. This course will give you valuable information about these medications as well as several medications used off-label, empowering those you serve and increasing the likelihood of their recovery.

People with bipolar and related disorders often have work, school, and relationship problems. Up to 40% of people with bipolar disorders are misdiagnosed with other conditions (Hashimoto et al., 2018; Stiles et al., 2018). Misdiagnosis can lead to delays in treatment and worse consequences for the client, such as cognitive impairment, hospitalization, disability, and medical issues.

People with bipolar disorders also have a 20 to 30 times greater suicide risk than the general population (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022; Overs et al., 2021). It is important that professionals are able to recognize, assess, and treat bipolar and related disorders to help decrease the negative effects of delayed diagnosis.

The goal of this course is to provide skills for addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work professionals in the health and human services setting to gain knowledge about recognizing and addressing symptoms of bipolar and related disorders.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects thousands of people each year. IPV affects people of all social and economic backgrounds, ages, sex, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. 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 educational program is to provide nurses, psychologists, social workers, alcohol and drug counselors, marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors in health and human services with information for recognizing, identifying, and responding to intimate partner violence.

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.

There are external conditions which exist with the potential to affect a patient’s current and future health, often beyond a patient’s direct control. These conditions, referred to as social determinants of health, encompass where a patient lives and works, socioeconomic policies, systems, and norms, and more. These factors and many other contribute to health inequity and inequalities at local, state, national, and international levels. The social determinants of health impact the daily delivery, accessibility, and engagement of health improvement efforts. The conceptual framework behind social determinants of health, current inequalities and inequities in healthcare are important for clinicians to consider when while caring for patients and improving  the health of individuals and communities.   Clinicians must explore how to increase awareness and interest in the determinants, as well as ways to engage patients, stakeholders, and other clinicians in addressing social determinants of health.

Data is being applied in ways never before seen by payers and providers to drive healthcare improvement through an analytic approach. Data can be applied to improve healthcare costs, quality, and outcomes. To understand how data is being utilized, you must first understand the broad perspective of what experts are calling the “data revolution” in healthcare, or the “age of big data.” It is also important to know what this means from a technology perspective.

There is also a micro-level of healthcare data application within the payer setting that has different ways in which data is helping payers to improve overall population health, manage healthcare costs, and inform the creation of innovative pilot programs. For those working in a healthcare setting, it is important to know how healthcare data is applied from a payer’s perspective. This includes member case management selection, the intersection of healthcare data and member preference, and how data is being used to inform best practices through medical necessity criteria (MNC) and clinical guidelines.

The perioperative nurse plays a primary role in the operative process. Knowledge of procedures, appropriate patient assessment, and care management guidelines will positively impact patient outcomes. Patients consider anesthesia to be a major risk of surgery and expect perioperative team members to be their advocates by caring for their pre-, intra-, and post-operative needs and providing safe and effective care. This course discusses anesthetics and adjuvant medications used in the clinical setting, anesthesia-related complications, and the nurse’s role in management of perioperative patients.

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.

This course focuses specifically on early interventions that are designed to reduce suicide risk. You will learn how these early interventions impact suicide risk. You will also learn of examples and the role that programs highlighting connectedness, life skills, and resilience play in preventing suicide. The goal of this course is to provide social work, psychology, nursing, alcohol and drug counseling, marriage and family therapy, and counseling professionals in health and human services with information about community-based, upstream suicide prevention approaches. 

This course provides an overview of how anxiety impacts children and adolescents. You will learn about the specific types of anxiety disorders and the multiple pathways by which anxiety can develop. As you progress through this course, you will learn assessment strategies and evidence-based interventions that you can implement to identify and treat these disorders in children and adolescents.

In this course, you will learn to identify different depressive disorders, as well as the unique ways depression manifests in children and adolescents. Additionally, you will learn to recognize risk factors for both depression and suicidality in youth.  

An integrated care model treats the whole child by combining primary care and mental healthcare in one setting. Within this model, treatment providers understand how to screen for depression and suicidality in order to coordinate care. You will learn about specific instruments useful for detecting depression and suicidality among youth. An understanding of the root causes of depression will highlight the rationale for various treatment approaches. Lastly, you will be able to describe the best practices available to help children and adolescents manage depression.  

Opioids are used to treat severe pain but also include serious risks if the medication is misused. The misuse of prescribed and illicit opioids contributes to rising numbers of opioid overdose deaths. This course will provide you with an overview of opioid use disorder, detailed information to gather during a comprehensive assessment, and treatment options to implement with clients diagnosed with opioid use disorder. 

Members of the healthcare team must be able to recognize symptoms of bacterial meningitis to expedite testing and treatment, and advocate for preventive vaccination among appropriate age groups. With knowledge of preventive measures and awareness of early symptoms, the impact of meningitis can be greatly reduced.

Treatment planning documentation is a critical link between the client, the services you provide, and the client’s progress. This course will reinforce what you already know about plans of care while offering you direction and structure for capturing the real therapeutic relationship on paper. You will learn how to better represent the care process by incorporating the core principles for clinical documentation. You will take a fresh look at ways to record your client’s strengths, goals, and treatment objectives, while also evaluating methods to accurately represent interventions, outcomes, and discharge plans. The goal of this course is to provide professionals in addictions, behavioral health counseling, case management, care management, marriage and family therapy, psychology, social work, and nurses in a health and human services setting with current strategies and recommendations for effective and person-centered treatment planning documentation.

The patient interview is the most important part of your exam. Gaining the patient’s perspective and learning more about issues important to them can guide you in developing patient-specific care plans. This course will discuss how to conduct patient-centered interviews. You will learn interviewing methods to effectively elicit the important details about a patient's reason for presenting to the clinic. Information will also be presented on how to approach challenging situations that arise during patient encounters.

This course will provide you with information about the numerous risk and protective factors of suicide. You will learn effective screening approaches you can use to identify elevated risk. You will also learn how to follow a positive screening with an in-depth clinical assessment, including several different models you can use to guide your assessment. The goal of this course is to provide alcohol and drug counseling, marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services with skills to identify individuals at increased risk of suicide.

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.

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.

Boundaries are important in guiding acceptable and unacceptable interactions. People working in service or care professions are often in situations where the lines between a professional and social relationship become blurred. Setting and keeping professional boundaries are key to protecting your clients, yourself, and the service or care process. The goal of this course is to provide paraprofessionals in health and human services settings with information about professional boundaries, boundary crossings and violations, and situations when crossing a boundary may be acceptable.

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.

Bronchoscopy is a valuable procedure with diagnostic and therapeutic benefits. However, it accompanies risks for potential complications, some of which can be life-threatening. In addition, patients commonly experience anxiety and stress before and during the procedure. In fact, some patients have even described it as traumatic. Nurses play an important role in preparing patients for a bronchoscopy both physically and mentally. 

You can better assist your patients who have asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by building care teams in primary care. Learn how to assemble these teams and utilize certain disease-specific checkpoints for improved patient outcomes and health management.

Learn how to identify best practices for building care teams for patients with depression and anxiety, define key checkpoints and patient follow-ups, identify strategies for coordinating care with other providers, and evaluate the care provided by the team.

Diabetes, a very common chronic condition, can be managed by prescribing proper diet, exercise, and pharmaceutical treatments. This course discusses building care teams for these patients, teaching team members key milestones and checkpoints, ensuring medication adherence, and coordinating care with other providers as it relates to diabetes.

Identify checkpoints for managing and preventing the hospitalization of patients with hypertension (HTN), congestive heart failure (CHF), and coronary artery disease (CAD).

 The goal of this course is to provide knowledge about the clinical aspects of managing patients with BN.

We have all seen bullies in our lifetime, often as one child picking on another on the playground or teenagers not allowing a student to sit with them at lunchtime. You do not expect to see bullies at work; but, sadly, they are there.

The goal of this course is to educate all employees on how to recognize, respond to, and prevent bullying.

Opioid dependence can be caused by the use of prescription opioids (obtained legally or illegally) or the use of illicit opioids (e.g., heroin). It continues to be a growing problem in the United States with opioid-related deaths occurring daily. Often, patients who discontinue opioid use require treatment to prevent relapse or the extreme effects of withdrawal. Buprenorphine is a partial mu-opioid agonist used for the treatment of patients with opioid dependence. It is available as a sublingual tablet, sublingual or buccal soluble film strip, and injection and is used in formulations with or without naloxone. The goal of this course is to educate nurses, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians in acute care settings about opioid dependence and the therapeutic use of buprenorphine to treat the condition.

This course provides an overview of the autonomic nervous system and its functions, with a focus on the cardiac effects of certain therapeutic agents.

The healthcare system is becoming increasingly complex. Therefore, care coordination and case management (CM) are integral to producing optimal member outcomes, decreasing the cost of care, and ensuring effective use of healthcare services. In this course, you will learn about the function, need, goals, and principles of care coordination and CM within the payor setting as well as common challenges that may be encountered. Finally, you will learn about the care coordination and CM process and the benefits to providers, members, and payer organizations.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses and CM professionals with education about the functions and benefits of the care coordination and CM process.

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.

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. 

This course explains the indications for hysterectomy, a commonly performed surgical procedure. You will learn the different approaches and the areas of special learning needs for women experiencing this procedure. Also covered is post-operative nursing care for women who undergo a hysterectomy, whether that care takes place in a surgery center, a hospital, or at home.

Cervical cancer continues to affect thousands of women, but increases in routine screening for women ages 21 to 65 have resulted in a steady decrease in the number of diagnosed cases over the past decade. This course discusses the basics of etiology, risk factors, screening methods, diagnosis and staging, and subsequent treatment of cervical cancer. 

Three different obstetrical scenarios, complicated by a Category II Fetal Heart Rate pattern, are presented to illustrate the importance of clinical context when formulating management plans. Emphasis, characteristics, and potential etiologies of Category II fetal heart rate tracings are reviewed. Management of the patient with a Category II fetal heart rate pattern is discussed, with special emphasis on the importance of the clinical context and fetal heart rate pattern evolution.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) workgroup standard for fetal heart rate monitoring assessment and categorization, first proposed in 1997 and subsequently updated in 2008 was meant to promote commonality of FHR tracing nomenclature and interpretation. Based on these recommendations, a three-tiered categorization pattern based on the visual assessment of the fetal heart rate pattern was adopted. This module aims to review and apply essential FHR content in several clinical scenarios to highlight an important Clinical Pearl: The Category III tracing is a rare intrapartum FHR pattern that is highly associated with fetal acidemia and adverse neonatal outcomes.

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.

A case of obstetrical hemorrhage due to uterine atony, requiring medical and surgical interventions and blood component replacement therapy is presented. Emphasis: A review of obstetrical hemorrhage, etiologies, and treatments is provided. The importance of early recognition and response to excessive blood loss is stressed. Medical and surgical interventions for uterine atony are reviewed. Current recommendations for blood component replacement therapy for massive hemorrhage are discussed.

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.

Symptoms such as fever, cough, and chills can alert you to the presence of an infectious or communicable disease in a child. When identified, these symptoms can alert you to potential concerns in your environment. Some symptoms are less obvious and may require careful inspection of the child to determine potential risk factors. Children are exposed to a variety of environments. Caregivers working with families must have the ability to identify health care concerns quickly to stop the spread of disease.

Dementia gradually destroys the areas of the brain responsible for sending and receiving messages, making communication difficult. There are guidelines that you can follow to ensure effective communication with persons with dementia, even those who have severe cognitive impairments. In this course, you will learn how to understand the person with dementia by knowing them as an individual and recognizing common speech patterns, how persons with dementia use behaviors for communicating discomfort, and the communication strategies you can employ to ensure the person receives your message.

Concussions are head injuries that are caused by a traumatic, biomechanical force. The symptoms of concussion are primarily the result of functional disturbances, not structural injuries, and may include headache, dizziness, changes in mood or behavior, and changes in sleep patterns. Despite increased awareness of the injury, concussion remains under-reported and under-diagnosed. Diagnosis of a concussion is based largely on the presence of clinical symptoms as there is no quantitative test for concussion. Neuroimaging is considered to be overused in the acute evaluation of concussions since imaging technologies, such as CT, cannot diagnose concussion. CT can only identify more serious injuries, such as hemorrhages or contusions. In the future, serum biomarkers may be helpful in stratifying patients at increased risk of related injuries or complications from concussion.

In this course, you will learn the essential telehealth components necessary to conduct a clinical assessment, risk assessment, and utilize formal assessment instruments. You will also learn what hardware and software technological resources are needed to connect with clients via telehealth.

The goal of this course is to provide addictions, behavioral health counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychology, and social work professionals in health and human services with information on conducting clinical assessments via telehealth.

Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, because every person is different. However, handling it the right way leads to better relationships, an improved work environment, a stronger team, and personal goal achievement. This course presents techniques essential to handling conflict in the workplace.

Recognizing, understanding, and addressing patient behaviors, as well as the rationales behind these behaviors, is critical to successfully manage patients and protect practitioners and their practices. This course will review three major areas complicating patient care: Drug diversion, SUD, and pain management considerations in patients with SUD.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses, social workers, counselors, and physicians in both acute and post-acute care with how to prevent, identify, and manage substance abuse among residents and/or patients.

 After completing this refresher course on the key action steps in CPR, you will have a grasp on the essential components of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), including the initial first aid steps you can take prior to performing CPR. Through didactic, interactive exercises and vignettes, you will be able to apply this material when you need it most. This course does not replace formalized training and return demonstration that must be completed for competency according to the American Heart Association. This course should only be used as a “refresher” to remind the learner of the key action steps in CPR.

Crisis is broadly defined as an exceptional event that is disruptive and beyond a person‘s usual coping skills. The goal of crisis intervention is to return individuals or families to the optimum level of functioning they experienced before the crisis. In addition, a potential for growth exists when people develop new and effective coping skills. Nurses need to understand crises and assessment and intervention strategies because they are often the first medical personnel to spend enough time with patients to recognize the signs of crisis.

More than 20% of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are obtained in intensive care units (ICUs) even though ICU beds make up less than 10% of the total beds in most hospitals (Marchaim & Kaye, 2021). Sepsis and infections account for 40% of all expenditures in this setting and are the leading cause of death in noncardiac ICUs. However, the incidence of sepsis in the ICU population continues to rise. Patients in ICUs have a multitude of factors that put them at high risk for infection. Critical care nurses play a vital role in preventing ICU-acquired infections but must have the right knowledge and skills to do so.

Life-threatening dysrhythmias can occur in an inpatient setting, even more so in an intensive care unit. Changes to the electrical conduction system can cause sudden hemodynamic instability and cardiac death. Given this, critical care nurses must understand the different types of dysrhythmias, their causes, ECG characteristics, defibrillation, pacing, and nursing interventions.

Therapeutic communication between the nurse, patient, and family can be challenging in high-stress environments. Typically, critical care units have higher acuity levels and intense time constraints, thus hindering effective interactions. However, nurses who receive education in communication methods are more prepared to effectively communicate with their patients and families. Given this, critical care nurses must understand communication barriers, cultural influences, the importance of patient-centered communication, and strategies to increase therapeutic interactions. 

Sepsis is the result of a dysregulated host response to severe infection that can result in systemic inflammation, immune system dysfunction, coagulopathies, multi-organ system failure, and death (Rhodes et al., 2017). The signs and symptoms of sepsis can vary in onset and presentation and depend on many individual patient factors. Early recognition and intervention is key to improving patient outcomes. Nurses are vital in this role as they are readily at the bedside and able to continually assess the patient and communicate changes in patient condition to providers. The goal of this course is to challenge the learner’s ability to identify key risk factors for sepsis and recognize signs and symptoms of early and progressive sepsis. It will also challenge the learner to accurately anticipate management strategies in the treatment of sepsis and sepsis-related complications.

Having sound critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment skills makes the difference between keeping patients safe and putting them in harm‘s way. This educational activity addresses the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for critical thinking and clinical reasoning. It reviews results from key studies and gives strategies for developing the thinking skills needed to function as a 21st century healthcare professional.

Computed tomography (CT) scans are essential for emergent and urgent diagnosis of brain injuries. CT scans are preferred over other forms of imaging due to their availability, lower comparable costs, and the brief amount of time it takes to perform. According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines, a patient presenting with stroke-like symptoms should have a CT scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) completed within 20 minutes of arriving to the emergency department (ED) (Powers et al., 2019). Understanding the anatomy of the normal, injured, or diseased brain can help improve awareness of common brain injuries that can be diagnosed with a CT scan. The goal of this course is to educate nursing and radiology professionals in the acute care setting on common disorders that affect the brain and the role of the CT scan.

This introductory overview of cultural diversity will help enable you to interact with others of diverse cultures and effectively perform your job responsibilities.

The Joint Commission's standards for culturally competent patient-centered care went into effect for hospitals in January 2011, and began affecting accreditation decisions in 2012. In today‘s multicultural healthcare environment, caregivers cannot make assumptions about patients‘ behaviors based on their own cultural backgrounds. This continuing education module helps healthcare professionals understand the impact of culture on women‘s health beliefs and practices, and their responses to current approaches to care.

Individual social, spiritual and physiological factors seem to influence the experience of pain. People experience pain differently even within the same cultural group by having more or less of a modulating substance, such as endorphins, within their physiological system. This could explain why the response to pain differs not only among people from different backgrounds but among those from the same ethnic group. There is also evidence that primary care providers underestimate pain severity in their minority patients. This continuing education module helps healthcare professionals become familiar with cultural differences associated with pain perceptions and pain management.

Healthcare professionals must go beyond simply recognizing that there are different cultural norms and practices. Culturally appropriate interventions must be utilized when working with culturally diverse clients and patients. Cultural competency goes beyond having knowledge of traditional cultural eating patterns. A lack of cultural competency creates divisions between healthcare professionals and their clients or patients. This course discusses how cultural competency functions to deliver culturally competent care related to diet and nutrition.

As the population of the U.S. soars in diversity, healthcare professionals must be prepared to care for childbearing families from many cultures. All cultures and families need to 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 respects spiritual beliefs and individuality. Knowledge of cultures and the influence they have on women’s perceptions of childbirth are important for achieving positive outcomes. 

The goal of this continuing education course is to improve the ability of healthcare providers to assess and meet the sociocultural needs of childbearing families of diverse cultural and social groups.

Culture affects how individuals talk about and recognize their mental health symptoms. It also affects how providers conceptualize and work with individuals with diverse backgrounds. It is important to recognize how culture influences the ways individuals and providers approach mental health. Healthcare providers should be encouraged to use interventions and strategies that assist in delivering culturally competent care.

This course will examine the reasons for healthcare disparities among culturally diverse individuals, how both the cultural backgrounds of patients and their providers can impact patients’ mental health outcomes, and what kinds of actions providers can take to provide more effective care to patients of diverse cultures.

Employee Cyber Security Awareness Training is more important now than it has ever been. Data breaches and hacking may sound unlikely, but cyber-attacks occur daily. In many cases, businesses are unprepared, because management does not understand the risk. Many companies believe they will not be the target of an attack. The truth is that all companies must prepare for a cyber-attack by having an individual or team in place to protect from such an attack.

The goal of this course is to provide education to entry-level professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, alcohol and drug counselors, psychologists, nurses, and social workers working in the health and human services field about types, prevalence, causes, and consequences of medical and treatment errors in the behavioral health setting, as well as how to address them and reduce risk of future errors.

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.

Diabetes is not an uncommon condition in today’s healthcare systemthe U.S.. This high-volume condition can be managed very effectively, but diabetes disease management can also become very complicated. How can patients learn to manage their own diabetes? What strategies are most effective in teaching patient self-care? By creating an action plan with their patients, primary care providers can not only help to improve patient outcomes, but they can also empower the patients to take a bigger role in their own their disease management. When patients take on more responsibility for their care, resources (both time and economic) are freed up and can be allocated to other patients or areas of need. However, creating an action plan requires input from both the primary care provider and the patient, and no two plans are likely to be the same. Factors such as finances, living situation, or other social determinants of health must all must be considered when putting together a plan. A patient’s diet may also play a role. In this module, the topics of action plans, the social determinants of health, and nutritional counseling will be explored.

The goal of this course is to provide case/care management, nursing, and social work professionals with information about diabetes management.

Anxiety disorders, the most common psychiatric illnesses, affect millions of American adults, filling their lives with overwhelming anxiety, fear, and uncertainty out of proportion to any actual danger. These symptoms often persist for significant periods of time, and if not treated, can grow progressively worse. Anxiety disorders frequently occur in conjunction with other psychiatric or physical illnesses, making symptoms even worse. This course provides an overview of signs and symptoms as well as the most effective psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments available. New and improved therapies can help most people with anxiety disorders lead productive, fulfilling lives. This course will help you recognize anxiety disorders in those you serve and implement the most appropriate form of treatment.

As a behavioral health professional, you know how challenging it can be to understand the complexities of diagnosing and treating personality disorders. Drawing upon guidelines from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and current empirical literature, this course offers you a comprehensive look at the etiology, categories, and diagnostic criteria for personality disorders while considering differential diagnoses and co-occurring disorders. Lastly, this course offers information on best practices for the treatment of personality disorders.

The two most common trauma-related disorders are acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal of this educational program is to provide nurses, social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, and psychologists in health and human services settings with information on the diagnostic criteria for acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, steps in the diagnostic process, and psychological and pharmacological interventions to treat PTSD.

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.

Ensuring that a healthcare system is culturally competent can reduce health disparities. Healthcare employees who have effective interpersonal and working relationships are essential to successful healthcare outcomes. Healthcare staff provide care to individuals from many backgrounds, so it is essential that they get proper Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training. DEI training should be integrated into the standard hiring and onboarding process for the entire healthcare workforce. The goal of this course is to provide healthcare employees with training about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

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.

This course will familiarize the learner with basic information concerning domestic and intimate partner violence (IPV). Information about IPV’s prevalence, characteristics, legal protections and risk factors will be presented. The cycle of abuse will be explained along with issues related intimate partner homicide. Screening and intervention protocols will be described along with community resources available to people experiencing domestic and intimate partner violence.