This course is intended to give healthcare providers the information necessary to identify the relationship between patient-centered care and patient safety as well as to understand the key concepts of patient-centered care and systems that improve patient safety to enhance patient outcomes.

Pain is often underestimated and undertreated in the pediatric population due to many factors. As a result, children’s health outcomes are directly impacted without proper recognition and pain management, and quality of life is reduced. Physicians and nursing professionals must learn to assess and treat pediatric pain appropriately while caring for hospitalized children. This course describes the past and future status of pain management in children, pharmacological and non-pharmacological management options, and the complexities of managing pain in special populations.

The experience of pain affects people of all ages, including children. Many factors contribute to the undertreatment of pain in this age group. Children’s health outcomes and quality of life are adversely affected without proper recognition and pain management. The course examines the pathophysiology of pain and pain assessment strategies appropriate for different ages and developmental levels. The course will also review pediatric pain assessment tools.

Pediatric ambulatory care consists of well-child checks, preventive care, and the treatment and management of acute and chronic health conditions. Nurses provide holistic care to the pediatric patient by synthesizing their nursing assessments with parent/caregiver concerns. Nurses collaborate with the healthcare team to identify and address common pediatric health problems encountered in the ambulatory care setting.

Perioperative professionals must have a fundamental understanding of the anatomical, physiological, psychological, and emotional differences of children compared to adults and how these differences impact the care needs of pediatric patients in the perioperative period.

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. 

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. 

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.

Worldwide, postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) accounts for high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. Early recognition is key to good outcomes. Recognizing PPH, its stages, and how to measure blood loss is essential since treatment is based on the stages of hemorrhage. Additionally, it is important to understand nursing interventions, treatments for PPH, and teamwork and communication needs to improve perinatal outcomes.

This course aims to enhance the knowledge of acute care nurses about postpartum hemorrhage, including its causes, risk factors, and medical and surgical management.

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.

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. 

You know the medical error statistics all too well, and, at times, they occur too close to home. The purpose of this course is to help you recognize error-prone situations and the factors that impact medical errors so you can prevent them. 

Medical errors and substandard care occur often in today’s complex healthcare organizations. Errors are usually due to multiple factors at the system-level rather than a single factor from an individual. Healthcare organizations that are committed to patient safety are high-reliability organizations. These organizations remain alert for ways to protect patients from harm even though they have few adverse events. This course will offer suggestions for reducing medical errors and maintaining a culture of safety.

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.

The prevalence of medical errors correlates with increased risk of patient harm in the healthcare setting. Since most errors are related to systems issues/failures and not to inadequate care by providers, it is critical to understand the breadth of the problem and the best ways to prevent adverse events and medical errors to improve patient safety. 

As a healthcare professional transporting patients to the ED, you may serve patients with symptoms indicative of behavioral health disorders, such as depressive, bipolar, and anxiety disorders. In some situations, the ED provider must administer psychiatric medications. However, if possible, it is prudent to defer their use until the patient is admitted to an inpatient mental health facility or seen as an outpatient. In many instances, the reason for presentation in the ED is an adverse reaction to psychiatric medications.

This course reviews the concept of high-quality documentation and how it relates to technology and patient privacy. Most documentation takes place within electronic health records (EHRs) and healthcare professionals must understand how to practice high-quality documentation in the digital age. There are challenges with technology but also many exciting developments that can improve nurse documentation. This course reviews how healthcare professionals can reduce the risk of patient confidentiality breaches and cybercrimes.

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.
 

Ensuring patient safety in the operating room (OR) requires effective communication, structured protocols, and teamwork. This course examines perioperative communication failures, preoperative verification, site marking, timeouts, and just culture in promoting accountability. Learners will explore evidence-based safety practices and apply structured handoff techniques to improve patient care transitions.

This course provides perioperative nurses and STs with tools to improve communication and safety protocols, fostering a just culture to reduce OR errors.

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.

Healthcare and behavioral health professionals providing services on the front lines of a sustained health crisis are exposed to traumatic events on a regular basis. Staff deemed essential have little escape from the grueling demands of their daily work. Professional self-care routines are often insufficient or seemingly impossible during times of heavy demand. Without healthy work-life balance, effective self-care practices, and social connection, maladaptive coping mechanisms may surface or return. Many professionals experience feelings of helplessness when, despite their best efforts, they are unable to provide clinical solutions for their clients or patients. Based on what is known about trauma, it is imperative for professionals to effectively address self-care needs in a timely manner, for themselves and for those they serve.

Sepsis is a complex disease state that rapidly causes severe complications and has a high mortality rate, especially if not treated promptly. It requires healthcare professionals from different disciplines to work together to care for the patient. This continuing education program provides definitions and recommendations for management strategies from the most recent guidelines on sepsis.

The goal of this continuing education program is to provide healthcare professionals, including emergency medical service (EMS) personnel, nurses, physicians, and pharmacists, with the updated definitions related to sepsis, as well as information regarding the management of septic patients.

Madeline King is on the speaker's bureau for Tetraphase pharmaceuticals and speaks about the agent Xerava™, which is indicated for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections

Septic arthritis is caused by infection and inflammation in the joint and can result in significant damage to the joints. Early recognition and treatment are critical to the preservation of joint function. This course will discuss how to quickly identify and treat septic arthritis.  

The goal of this course is to provide physicians, nursing professionals, and radiologic technologists with information about septic arthritis.

Survivors of rape and sexual assault will experience a variety of physical and emotional comorbidities as a direct result of their experience. This means survivors will enter the healthcare system through a variety of specialty clinics in addition to their primary care provider. It is important healthcare providers of all disciplines, be familiar with the signs that a patient may have been raped or sexually assaulted in their past. This course will provide the legal aspects of rape and sexual assault, the emotional and physical trauma associated with the experience, and how to identify and care for survivors.