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.

To manage the threat posed by multi-drug-resistant organisms (MDROs), all healthcare workers and individuals must work together. Along with providing a comprehensive look at new and ever-changing MDROs, this course covers disease trends associated with MDROs, the national approach to combat MDROs, leading practices and clinical interventions, and the psychosocial effects of treatment. You will learn prevention measures and methods to control the spread of MDROs in our communities and throughout health care.

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.

Healthcare professionals are often unprepared to respond to requests for physician-assisted death. With the increase in end-of-life discussions and more arguments for legalizing physician-assisted dying, healthcare professionals need to understand the reasons patients may initiate such a request. Healthcare professionals need to appropriately respond to these requests. This course discusses physician-assisted death and the related concepts. It also discusses ethical and legal concerns related to physician-assisted death. Without the knowledge and understanding of physician-assisted death, healthcare professionals may not respond appropriately to these requests from patients.

Healthcare providers are constantly challenged to quickly adapt to organizational change and respond to turbulent environments with many interconnected and moving parts. Experts maintain that interprofessional healthcare teams can improve the quality of care, problem-solve more effectively, and improve outcomes. Building a team with diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives has been shown to have a positive impact on performance. Nurses can make a distinct impact by influencing the design of care delivery and improving the practice environment as part of strategic interprofessional planning . 

In healthcare, social media posts can influence the hiring process, violate patient privacy, and result in termination of employment. This module informs healthcare professionals of the risks of social networks, which break down the walls separating our personal and professional lives.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

This course is designed to provide greater awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace, steps to take to prevent it, and methods to deal with it if it does occur. The course will focus on federal laws, liability issues, harassment policies, employee rights, supervisor responsibilities, and investigation procedures.

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

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.

Antibiotic stewardship is a movement which aims to treat this powerful group of medications resourcefully, implementing antibiotic use with evidence-based practice. As part of the antibiotic stewardship movement, providers and other team members such as nurses are called upon to be stewards of antibiotics so that these medications can continue to be used to fight infections in the future. In this module, you will learn about antibiotic stewardship and apply your knowledge in several case studies. You will learn about the Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and how you can apply components of the program to your nursing practice.

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.

Being healthcare providers, we 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, whether you work in a skilled nursing facility or an assisted living community, recognize error-prone situations and the factors that impact medical errors in an effort to prevent them.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

In today’s workplace, the abundance of “noise,” such as technology, multitasking, stress, and information overload, can make it hard to communicate effectively, ultimately costing time and money. But by learning how to communicate clearly, concisely, and professionally, you’ll increase understanding with your coworkers. This course identifies primary verbal and nonverbal cues, explains active-listening techniques, and suggests how to avoid barriers to good communication.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Teams are essential in today’s world. Whether it’s in a professional or personal capacity, you’ve undoubtedly worked in a team before. Most likely, some of the teams were more successful than others.

So, what makes a team? More importantly, what makes a successful team?

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with the essential components of being an effective team member.

This course will cover, on an intermediate level, the basic knowledge and skills required to assess and treat the most common vestibular disorders. While this course covers almost all the techniques needed to successfully treat these patients, there is quite obviously a lack of hands-on instruction and practice. Anyone looking to develop a vestibular rehabilitation program for their practice should seek hands-on practical courses to help refine and perfect their clinical skills.

Caregiving demands a tremendous amount of compassion and empathy. While this can be incredibly rewarding, it can also cause some adverse side effects. This course discusses compassion fatigue—its signs and symptoms, how it can affect you and others, and practical methods of dealing with it.

About 20 percent of emergency department visits are due to hand and wrist injuries. While most hand injuries are straightforward, many cause long-term complications that may profoundly alter a person‘s ability to work, create, and enjoy life to the fullest. This continuing education program, which includes the steps for preserving an amputated body part, addresses the assessment and treatment of patients with hand trauma.

 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.

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.

The persons you serve in your service setting are entitled to specific rights under the law. This course will introduce you to these basic rights. Knowing how to promote and protect your clients' rights is key to their health, safety, and well-being. It will also help you and your organization succeed and provide quality, ethical, and legally sound care. The goal of this course is to provide paraprofessionals in behavioral health settings with information about client rights.

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.

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.

In this course, you will meet two different managers and evaluate the results of their autocratic and servant leadership styles. By understanding these leadership styles and their impact, you are better able to bring these learnings to life in your work as a leader. You will also be provided with a Servant-Leader Toolkit with actionable components you can build on. The Toolkit includes best practices, leadership soft skills, and the top 9 characteristics of servant leaders.

Nurses working with older adults will likely encounter wounds. Both acute and chronic wounds are more likely to occur in older adults than their younger counterparts because of the chronic conditions associated with the wounds, such as vascular disease, venous insufficiency, and diabetes mellitus. This course discusses the effects aging has on the skin’s function. It also discusses common wounds seen in older adults. 

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.

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.

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. Nursing leaders 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 nursing 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.

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.

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 long-term care facility, rehabilitation facility, or nursing home you work for provides housing and a variety of services to many individuals. Because your duties include the need to communicate personal information, this course explains your responsibility for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the personal information of these individuals.

Mammography, the most widely used screening tool for breast cancer, has certain limitations. Several imaging modalities are being developed and improved to overcome mammography’s shortcomings. This course discusses how imaging techniques can reduce breast cancer mortality when used for routine screening and diagnosis, as well as for staging breast cancer, planning treatments, and monitoring response to chemotherapy.

 As an employer or supervisor, you need to know what obligations the FMLA imposes on your organization when an employee requests leave from their job. This course will introduce you to key provisions of the FMLA such as which employees have rights under the FMLA and the circumstances under which they are eligible to take protected leave. Then, you’ll learn about your responsibilities both when an employee asks for leave and wants to return to work. Finally, you’ll learn how to comply with the FMLA and avoid potential pitfalls. The goal of this educational program is to provide administrators and human resource professionals with knowledge of FMLA.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Data must be presented in a way that is quick and easy for the target audience to understand and facilitates timely and effective decision-making about how best to respond. 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 are an important first step to greater nurse participation in EBP and quality improvement (QI) initiatives.

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.

The purpose of this course is to prepare learners for preceptor specialty practice, provide valuable material for a preceptor portfolio, and support professional development.

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.

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with an overview of CPR.

NOTE: This course does not replace the 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.

The content of this course is sourced from the American Heart Association’s CPR and ECC Guidelines unless otherwise noted. The American Heart Association is not affiliated with nor endorses this course.

Diabetes is a chronic health condition that affects millions of people all over the world. If not managed properly, it can lead to serious complications and even death. This course discusses the basics of diabetes, current medical treatments, and nursing care. Knowing and understanding the effects of diabetes will help you provide care to individuals with diabetes and help them to maintain their quality of life. 

The goal of this course is to educate nursing professionals in post-acute care on the basics of diabetes.

This course provides information on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)  regulations regarding hazardous chemical hazards and toxic substances in the workplace, and the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS)  as aligned with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).  

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with an overview of how to work safely with hazardous materials and what to do in the event of a hazardous chemical spill.

Very often, teams with highly talented people and a skilled leader are not able to sustain the vision and achieve optimum results over a long period of time. It is critical for a team leader to continually assess, evaluate, and monitor the team’s commitment level toward achieving its goals. In this course, you will explore the importance of identifying team dynamics associated with assessment and motivation that can help or hinder your team’s success. You will also learn some practical actions for facilitating emotional buy-in and commitment to achieving greater team results.

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.

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.

This course will give a high-level overview of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Historically, the provider payment system was flawed, focusing on volume vs. quality of care. This course will further define the QPP and its two-track pathways for Medicare-eligible participants, known as Qualifying Participants (QPs). The two QPP pathways, Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs) will be discussed, including enrollment stipulations and 2023 proposed payment changes. Lastly, this course will briefly discuss the COVID-19 implications affecting the QPP.

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.

This assessment measures overall learner competencies as aligned with the modules presented in the social determinants of health learning path. The objectives being assessed are the social factors that impact a person’s health, how providers can incorporate the social determinants of health into their patient assessments, how these determinants impact patients’ ability to adhere to their care plans, and how to improve the care-planning process by incorporating social health information.

This course will guide you through understanding best practices in incident report writing. It will assist you in understanding how those practices help protect the health and safety of the person you support, while at the same time protecting you. In this course, you will identify factors that affect the quality of incident reports and investigate elements that affect memory and recall. You will focus on reducing factors that negatively impact the completeness and accuracy of incident reports. Demonstrating your understanding of the guidelines taught in this course will ensure your documentation adheres to legal, ethical, and programmatic standards. While completing this course, you will review incident report notes and apply what you have learned to identify unclear, subjective, and ungrammatical elements within the notes. This course is intended for direct support professionals

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.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of arrhythmia. It affects approximately 2.7 million people in the U.S. and is a leading risk factor for stroke (AHA, 2016). AF is most commonly seen in patients who are over age 60 years. Many patients with AF are asymptomatic, making it difficult to diagnose. AF can increase the risk of stroke if not diagnosed and treated. Approximately 15% of people who experience a stroke have AF (AHA, 2016). Strokes resulting from AF can be prevented with early screening, diagnosis, and intervention.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dependent and older adults are a population who are vulnerable to abuse from someone they know, such as family members, service or care providers, and others. There are hundreds of thousands of investigated reports of cases of abuse each year. And yet, it is well known that dependent adult abuse and elder abuse are significantly under-reported. This type of abuse has a significant impact on the adult victim’s health, safety, emotional well-being, and ability to engage in daily life. The first step to addressing the problem is to heighten awareness of abuse of dependent and older individuals, in particular among those who serve them or have frequent contact with them. Individuals working with dependent and older adults must be knowledgeable about the common types of abuse perpetrated against these adults. They should also be familiar with the responsibilities related to reporting suspected or known dependent adult abuse or elder abuse.

Recent research and healthcare reform efforts highlight the central importance of engaging patients and their families in treatment as a key factor in improving patient outcomes. In family-centered care, collaborative relationships between healthcare providers and the patient’s family members are emphasized for their benefits to quality care. In contrast, lack of engagement of the patient and their family members in treatment is associated with inadequately addressed existing health problems, the emergence of new health issues, treatment complications, medical errors, deaths, disability, and more frequent use of high-cost services such as emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations vs. preventive and routine care.

This course will provide an overview of strategies you can use to engage your patient’s family members in treatment to promote greater follow-through with discharge recommendations from the ED and reduce high utilization of costly treatment approaches.

Quality Improvement (QI) can be implemented within almost any healthcare setting and can prove highly beneficial for achieving improved delivery of service outcomes. For quality improvement to be effective, it is crucial that everyone at your agency or clinic be informed of any QI projects and how their roles and responsibilities might impact these projects. The better you understand the QI process, the more proficient you will be as an active participant in improving the quality of services your agency or clinic provides. Using several quality improvement models, as well as detailed and specific examples that demonstrate these models in action, this course offers an overview of quality improvement, along with relevant aspects of how quality improvement impacts not only your job, but also your clinic or agency’s performance. You will be armed with the knowledge you need to apply these concepts in your own setting.

Proficiency in the use of a validated stroke scale, such as the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), is important for any member of the healthcare team caring for patients with acute stroke. This stroke assessment scale efficiently assesses stroke severity, offering objective information about prognosis and outcomes along with directing early treatment. With proper training in the use of the NIHSS, including serial monitoring, specifically for those at risk for worsening neurologic status, little variance should exist in results among clinicians. Education is essential to improving reliability and increasing effective communication regarding treatment of stroke patient

Pain management in the emergency department relies heavily on the use of opioid analgesics, which generates risk for patients to develop long term opioid use or an opioid use disorder.  Multimodal analgesia can improve the patient experience and reduce the risks of opioid use if emergency providers approach pain with a more critical mindset.This activity is designed to help emergency providers improve management of pain while decreasing patient exposure to opioids.  It is also designed to help providers navigate how to manage patients with opioid use disorder.

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.

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.

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.

Healthcare supervisors and managers are presented daily with challenges. These challenges present as process failures or those surrounding staff behaviors. An organization’s management team maps a path to support their supervisor’s success in dealing with these challenges. The approach is defined by proven characteristics, skills, and experiences. This course discusses the basic tools needed for supervisors and managers to be successful in their roles. 

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. 

Workplace-related stressors can have a negative impact on both nurses and the patients under their care. The effect of these stressors has led to intensifying burnout and compromising safe patient care. Nurses must be knowledgeable about how to deal with stress effectively.

This course will familiarize the learner with personal protective equipment. The different types and proper application of personal protective equipment are discussed. Choosing the correct personal protective equipment for the type of exposure is presented. This course engages the learner in discovering educational resources for commonly used chemicals and tactics for choosing personal protective equipment used in situations where exposure risks are evolving. 

In helping people maintain their health, well-being, and independence, nurses must feel confident in their ability to make appropriate decisions. This course discusses ethical concepts that will guide you in tough situations where making the right decision is critical. Included is a discussion of ethical principles for nursing practitioners in the geriatric setting, along with how to utilize a decision-making process to resolve ethical situations and problems.

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.