eams with talented people and a skilled leader are often unable to maintain optimum results over a long period of time. Team leaders must continually assess, evaluate, and monitor the team’s motivation level toward achieving its goals. They must also facilitate emotional buy-in and commitment. This course provides healthcare staff with an overview of how to motivate and enhance a team.

This course focuses on 2 continuous quality improvement strategies that can be used to change complex systems—the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) method and Six Sigma’s define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) method. These simple, but effective, methods of making minor changes in systems can transform ambiguous and error-prone processes into tested, clear processes designed to reduce errors.

This course focuses on two continuous quality improvement strategies that can be used to change complex systems—the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) method and Six Sigma’s define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) method. These simple, but effective, methods of making minor changes in systems can transform ambiguous and error-prone processes into tested, clear processes designed to reduce errors.

Antibiotic stewardship is a movement to improve antibiotic use through evidence-based practice. Team members become the stewards of antibiotics. This helps these medications continue to effectively fight infections. Antibiotic stewardship follows core elements to improve the use of antibiotics and their outcomes. This course discusses the core elements and benefits of an antibiotic stewardship program.
 

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.

Facilitating change for quality outcomes is the cornerstone of any successful organization. Change is necessary for organizational growth and development and for creating a robust organizational culture. In this course, you will explore the trends and change models for quality improvement, barriers to system change, problem-solving, crisis management, and how to incorporate quality measures that support change facilitation in the acute care setting.

Effective communication with patients and families is the foundation for a therapeutic, safe, and positive patient experience. The patient‘s experience of care is greatly influenced by what is communicated and observed. It is also a vital component of obtaining an accurate history and physical assessment, providing informed, comprehensive care, and educating patients and families to achieve optimal outcomes. The goal of this course is to provide information about how to effectively communicate with patients in healthcare settings.

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).

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.

Most healthcare professionals strive to provide equitable treatment, but unconscious biases can still influence clinical decisions, leading to disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. This course explores how implicit bias develops, its impact on healthcare delivery, and strategies for recognizing and reducing bias in practice. The goal of this course is to educate healthcare professionals in all settings on implicit bias.

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.

Today's workforce is increasingly diverse. Supervisors must be able to work effectively and respectfully with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. In this course, you will learn about various dimensions of culture. You will learn what cultural competence is and how you can become more culturally competent. You will also learn how culture and cultural competence affect your relationship with the staff members you supervise.

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. 

Health inequities in pain management are prevalent across different healthcare settings. The cultural, ethnic, and social differences influence patients’ and providers’ perceptions and responses to pain. Several studies report higher incidences of pain, disability, and suffering in women and people of color compared to non-Hispanic White people. This course covers influential sociocultural factors grouped into the patient, the provider, and systemic factors. This course helps healthcare professionals become familiar with cultural differences associated with pain perceptions and management. Pain variables such as culture, religion or ethnicity are not part of standardized pain scales. Healthcare workers need to provide culturally competent care to their patients by asking about specific practices, beliefs, and values regarding pain that impacts the patient’s quality of life.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses, physicians, and social workers with an overview of cultural sensitivity in the management of pain.

Understanding privilege is a step toward increased empathy. It helps to foster a more inclusive culture. People often associate privilege with one gender identity, one race, or wealth. The truth is, we all have privilege to varying degrees. This course will help you understand what privilege is. It will help you understand how privilege affects different individuals and groups.

Diversity presents both challenges and opportunities. This course discusses the benefits and challenges of diversity. It also discusses how to avoid discrimination toward those you work with and provide care for. This course provides healthcare employees with education on diversity.

Economic stability is defined as a domain of social determinants of health in the Healthy People 2030 campaign. It relates to an individual’s ability to access resources such as food, adequate housing, and healthcare. Each component of economic stability, including poverty, employment, food security, and housing stability, is linked to individual health outcomes.

You have probably heard about an “IQ” score that measures intelligence, but have you ever heard of “emotional intelligence” or EQ? Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand, express, and manage your emotions, as well as your insight into what the people around you are feeling. EQ can add to your quality of life and contribute to career success. In this course, you’ll learn about developing emotional awareness, which is the foundation of emotional intelligence.

Healthcare professionals in acute care settings frequently observe how lifestyle-related choices contribute to health crises and reduced quality of life for their patients. Changing behaviors, such as taking a new medication, quitting smoking, or eating healthier, to improve well-being is a difficult process for many patients. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a person-centered way to support individuals in changing their behavior. MI centers on what matters most to the patient and encourages a curious, accepting, and compassionate stance by the provider. The spirit of MI is demonstrated in the language and way a provider responds to the patient’s uncertainty about change. The provider helps the patient explore their own goals, barriers, and potential impact of making a change. When MI is embedded into the practice of healthcare, the results can be positive for the patient and practitioners.

Healthcare practitioners greet, assess, screen, treat, and refer LGBTQIA+ individuals every day. Some may understand the unique needs of this population. However, more information and education are needed to ensure that people are represented in research and are treated with respect and dignity when receiving healthcare. This course discusses barriers LGBTQIA+ people face in accessing healthcare, along with the physical, mental, psychosocial, and cultural factors that affect their health. It provides practical strategies for providing sensitive, informed, and inclusive care. The goal of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with education on health disparities in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Team-based healthcare is provided by two or more people who represent different professions with the common goal of improving the well-being of a patient. Interprofessional (IP) collaboration may improve outcomes such as pain relief, improved access to healthcare services, and early recognition of treatment failure. Effective team-based, patient-centered care should be tailored to the population served and the needs of those individuals. This course outlines the components of team-based care and provides examples in different settings.

This course aims to help healthcare team members identify core principles of team-based IP healthcare in all settings.

Military cultural competence is essential to effectively engage, understand, and support active duty service members, reservists, and veterans in behavioral health treatment. Those in the military represent a specific cultural group. This course will provide you with an introduction to military culture. You will learn about the overall structure of the military, the core values of the primary branches, and the unique experiences of specific sub-populations within the military. This information will help you more effectively engage with, understand, respect, and support the military service members who seek your services.

The goal of this course is to provide addiction, behavioral health counseling, case management/care management, marriage and family therapy, nursing, psychologist, and social worker professionals in health and human services settings with information about military culture in general, the effects of military culture on sub-populations, and how behavioral health concerns affect military service members and veterans.

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.

Multicultural care helps reduce behavioral health disparities, build trust, and improve outcomes for marginalized clients. This course explains key concepts that support multicultural care and core components of culturally responsive care. It also indicates how to address personal and institutional bias in healthcare settings.