Writing incident reports is an important part of providing direct support services. Your reports help the person's support team respond effectively to their needs and keep them safe in the future. 

The goal of this course is to teach DSPs in IDD settings the key elements of an incident report, why they are important, and how to write them effectively.

Nurses are required to document everything of significance that happens on their shift. This can be a straightforward process, but there are often challenges. There are all kinds of scenarios that present documentation difficulties. Patients may refuse treatment or want to leave the hospital against medical advice. Your unit may be understaffed, and you want to document a complaint. The computer system can go down and you have to document on paper. Or maybe your documentation just takes too long, and you are wondering how to document faster. This course reviews strategies for documentation in challenging situations and how to document more efficiently.

To know documentation principles and to apply them in daily practice are musts for every nurse. These are essential to protect patients and to safeguard every nurse’s license. Documentation is the foundational proof that care was provided to a patient. Requirements and methods of documenting are ever-changing amongst a variety of documentation modalities. Although nurses sometimes view documentation as a process that takes precious time away from direct patient care, it is one of the most critical skills they perform. In fact, appropriate and effective documentation is at the core of nursing practice.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses working in acute care settings with information about the value of laws and standards governing nursing documentation, legal basics for appropriate documentation, and provide awareness of documentation practices that can lead to legal issues.

Documenting care is just as important as providing care. This course discusses the purpose of the medical record and documentation. It also describes documentation practices and legal standards that affect the certified nursing assistant.
This course provides direct care workers in post-acute care education on documentation and legal aspects of care.

Improving hospital processes surrounding discharge and transitions of care can reduce adverse events and readmissions. Process improvements may also lead to better patient adherence to the treatment plan and their overall experience with care. Healthcare professionals must understand care coordination and transitions of care and how they impact HCAHPS survey results.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is a national standardized survey required for hospitals participating in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) programs. Survey results are linked to hospital reimbursement from CMS. 

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.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted to prevent patient dumping by hospitals seeking to avoid unrecoverable costs of care for patients without insurance or the ability to pay for medical services. Language within the statute has led to inconsistencies in how it has been interpreted. Patient dumping and inappropriate medical screening examinations (MSEs) are the most common reasons for EMTALA violations (Ladd & Gupta, 2021). This course will describe how key terms are currently interpreted and how they apply to hospitals with a dedicated emergency department (ED). In addition, learners will have an opportunity to review cases where EMTALA violations were alleged and judgments applied by the courts. 

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.

The perioperative nurse plays a primary role in the anesthesia experience. Knowledge of techniques, patient assessment, and care management for the patient receiving or recovering from anesthesia positively impacts patient outcomes. This course discusses anesthetics and adjuvant medications used in the perioperative setting, anesthesia-related complications, and the nurse’s role in assisting with anesthesia management.

This course provides nursing professionals with information about the principles and practices of anesthesia care in the perioperative setting.