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.

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.
 

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.

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.

This course equips the healthcare team with critical skills for assessing and managing pediatric trauma. It provides information about pediatric-specific anatomy, physiology, and trauma risks across developmental stages. Learners will explore best practices for identifying life-threatening injuries and assessing shock, respiratory, and neurological complications in children. Key topics include age-specific vital signs, pain assessment tools, and tools like the Pediatric Assessment Triangle (PAT) and Broselow™ Pediatric Emergency Tape. 

This course is designed to equip healthcare professionals with the basic critical skills for managing pediatric trauma in pre-hospital and clinical settings. Focusing on the unique anatomical and physiological differences in children, the course covers essential topics such as field triage, airway management, Pediatric Assessment Triangle, and weight-based medication dosing. Learners will gain insights into best practices for handling high-risk injuries and ensuring patient safety. With a strong emphasis on teamwork, the course integrates knowledge checks to reinforce learning and ensure mastery of key concepts in pediatric trauma care.

Peer review is essential for being a part of a profession, but few healthcare organizations have meaningful nursing peer review. Nursing has lagged behind other professional groups, especially physicians, in creating a peer-review agenda. Authentic nursing peer review requires evidence-based standards by all nurses, regardless of role or practice setting. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Interpreting and using data are essential components of evidence-based nursing practice, which has been linked to improved patient outcomes and quality of care. However, many nurses do not use evidence-based practice (EBP) or participate in nursing research efforts. 

Understanding data collection and presentation methods is an important first step to greater nurse participation in EBP and quality improvement (QI) initiatives.

Quality improvement is driven by data. Nurses who understand data and how to interpret it can create the most impactful quality improvement initiatives. This course for nursing professionals explains the relationship between data and quality. It also reviews what data is, how to collect it, and how to display it in charts and graphs for others to understand. 

This lesson will describe, in detail, 1 of the structured communication strategies that is used frequently in high-stakes situations: The ISBAR+R method. Appropriate use of this method can help healthcare providers avoid preventable errors by improving the effective communication of timely, accurate, and pertinent information among all members of the healthcare team.

The role of risk management has a significant impact on the quality outcomes of acute care organizations. It includes systems and validated processes aimed at assessing and developing interventions to mitigate risk factors and optimize quality outcomes. HCPs are stakeholders in the risk management process and can benefit from understanding risk management strategies and objectives. In this course, you will learn about risk management in the acute care setting.

The goal of this course is to provide healthcare professionals in acute care settings with information to enhance their understanding of the role they play in risk management along with proven strategies for ensuring quality outcomes in their professional practice in acute care settings. 

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.

This course covers the essentials of emergency department (ED) triage, including triage strategies, systems, and scales used to prioritize patient care. Learners will explore key concepts such as the ESI system, vertical split flow, and the impact of accurate triage on patient safety and ED efficiency. Focus is also placed on the importance of ongoing education, reassessment, and collaboration within healthcare teams.

This course provides ED nurses and providers with a comprehensive understanding of the triage process. 

Wrong-site surgery (WSS) has been consistently ranked among the top four most reported sentinel events in the U.S. healthcare system for 5 years in a row, as reported in the Joint Commission’s annual sentinel events report in 2023. Despite being classified as a "never event," the occurrence of WSS is still alarmingly high. These events are both shocking and damaging to the public's trust in the healthcare system.

This course provides physicians, nurses, and surgical technologists with knowledge of evidence-based practices for preventing wrong-site surgeries.