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. 

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. 

In this course, you will learn about pediatric anatomical and physiological differences, which will help you recognize normal variations throughout your assessment. Additionally, you will learn communication methods to help children feel more at ease during your assessment. Finally, you will understand essential warning signs that require immediate referral to additional medical professionals using the available resources and tools.

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. 

This course is intended to provide nurses with knowledge of pediatric stages of development, mechanisms of injury, and assessment best practices including the pediatric assessment triangle as they relate to trauma.

This course is intended to provide nurses with knowledge on interventions for pediatric trauma, including injuries to the head, chest, abdominal cavity, and extremities. Interventions for asphyxiation, drowning, burns, and electrical shock will also be presented. This course is the second part of the Managing Pediatric Trauma series. The first course in this series is Managing Pediatric Trauma: Assessment.

This course will teach you about the various types of child abuse and neglect that are currently the most common, and the physical and behavioral warning signs that may accompany different kinds of child maltreatment. You will learn some general guidelines for mandatory reporting and how you can find out the specific reporting requirements of your particular state.

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.

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.