Though active shooter events are rare, it is practical and necessary to be well-prepared for the possibility, especially when you work with the public. Between 2010 and 2020, The Joint Commission (TJC) received 39 reports of active shootings that resulted in 39 deaths at accredited hospitals (TJC, 2021). As a result, the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) and TJC require hospitals to prepare for all hazards, including active shooter or hostage events, and to work with their local law enforcement and emergency response agencies to prepare for and respond to active shooter events. Understanding the risks 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.

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.

Telehealth offers numerous benefits and poses several challenges when used to treat behavioral health conditions. Many challenges can be addressed through specific problem-solving and communication strategies.

This course provides an overview of telehealth as well as a discussion of both benefits and challenges. You will learn the regulatory issues you should consider when preparing and implementing a telehealth practice. Lastly, this course highlights important strategies to develop rapport and promote engagement when treating clients via telehealth.

Health outcomes are influenced in myriad ways by an individual’s social environment and their community. For example, community is linked to such outcomes as body mass index, homicide rates, and suicidal behavior (Diez Roux & Mair, 2010; Bharmal et al., 2015; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.). Due to these strong influences on health outcomes, the U.S. Department Health and Human Services Healthy People 2030 campaign identifies social and community context as a domain of the social determinants of health. Social determinants of health are external conditions which exist with the potential to affect a patient’s current and future health, often beyond a patient’s direct control. Of particular importance, however, is how this domain fits into the larger picture of the social determinants of health. The elements in the social and community context have been shown to help negate potentially negative consequences of the other social determinants of health (Bharmal et al., 2015).

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.

Age-specific competency is not only a regulatory requirement but a professional necessity. Patients of differing ages are prone to different risks and have specific needs. For instance, infants require lots of attention; toddlers require constant supervision; and older adults depend on healthcare professionals (HCPs) to help them avoid potentially life-threatening complications. Nurses who have developed age-specific competencies are sensitive to these needs and risks. They are also adept at assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating the care for these patients. Ensuring staff members are competent in caring for patients of differing ages is one important way that healthcare organizations ensure safe, high-quality care.

The goal of this course is to provide nursing professionals and health educators in acute care with an overview of age-specific competency requirements needed when planning and delivering healthcare.

Risk managers, administrators, and managers should be aware that there are always risks involved with business operations. Consequently, they must have solid risk management practices and programs to help identify, assess, and manage risks of all sorts. Risk management practices should be integrated across major organizational departments, initiatives, and programs, such as service delivery, safety, security, business and public communications, and supply chain, to name a few.

The goal of this course is to provide administrator professionals with an overview of risk management principles.

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).