This course is about workplace slip, trip, and fall hazards. It alerts you to the serious consequences that can result even from a simple fall or a near fall and provides information about measures that can help you prevent these incidents and reduce potential injuries.

Within any healthcare organization, there are systems, policies, and procedures that can be improved or events that could have been prevented. A root cause analysis is a tool that helps healthcare organizations improve their systems by using a team process of discovery. When you understand how to use a root cause analysis, you can apply it to create better solutions, prevent adverse events, and create more effective and efficient systems. This course discusses what a root cause analysis is and how to use it.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) workgroup standard for fetal heart rate monitoring assessment and categorization, first proposed in 1997 and subsequently updated in 2008 was meant to promote commonality of FHR tracing nomenclature and interpretation. Based on these recommendations, a three-tiered categorization pattern based on the visual assessment of the fetal heart rate pattern was adopted. This module aims to review and apply essential FHR content in several clinical scenarios to highlight an important Clinical Pearl: The Category III tracing is a rare intrapartum FHR pattern that is highly associated with fetal acidemia and adverse neonatal outcomes.

While much of the responsibility for nurse retention has been placed on the administration hierarchy, nurses themselves must take an active role in understanding why colleagues choose to remain in their jobs. Nurses play a vital role in developing and implementing strategies that create an engaging and rewarding work culture. Improving nurse retention also directly improves patient outcomes.

Supervisors and managers are challenged by change every day and must consistently demonstrate self-confidence to their teams in the face of these challenges. In this course, you will explore the characteristics, behaviors, and actions of being an effective “change agent,” (one who guides, supports, or leads change) which is a critical role in guiding your teams through change. The goal of this course is to provide managers and supervisors with an understanding of the common reasons for resistance to change and learn ways to counteract it.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses and prescribing providers (physicians) in all healthcare settings with best practices to improve their care team approach to patients with depression and anxiety.

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. 

This course provides an overview about the safety of patients undergoing a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC) to attempt a vaginal birth after cesarean delivery (VBAC). Research evidence has influenced where VBACs are performed, which women are eligible and how the practice is conducted, including the safe use of induction/augmentation medications. The safety of VBAC for mother and newborn always remains the primary underlying principle that guides care.

A case of obstetrical hemorrhage due to uterine atony, requiring medical and surgical interventions and blood component replacement therapy is presented. Emphasis: A review of obstetrical hemorrhage, etiologies, and treatments is provided. The importance of early recognition and response to excessive blood loss is stressed. Medical and surgical interventions for uterine atony are reviewed. Current recommendations for blood component replacement therapy for massive hemorrhage are discussed.

Intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring is an integral part of modern day obstetrics and when properly interpreted, may provide valuable insight into the fetal metabolic state. During labor, the physiologic stress posed by regular uterine contractions and maternal expulsive efforts may adversely impact the fetal acid-base status, leading to changes in the fetal heart rate pattern.

This module aims to review and apply essential FHR content in several clinical scenarios to highlight an important Clinical Pearl: Management of the laboring patient requires that the FHR pattern trends are interpreted in context with the clinical scenario and progress of labor.

Two cases are presented. Risk factors, including recurring and nonrecurring, for obstetrical hemorrhage, are reviewed. Delivery preparations and preventative strategies are discussed. Methodologies that better quantify blood loss, allowing for earlier recognition of excessive blood loss, are presented. Management of the patient experiencing obstetric hemorrhage, including a review of current guidelines for blood component replacement therapy, are reviewed.

This content is intended for all members of the obstetric team and is based on the educational theory that team performance is enhanced when all members of the team have the same understanding of the task and procedure to be performed.

Three different obstetrical scenarios, complicated by a Category II Fetal Heart Rate pattern, are presented to illustrate the importance of clinical context when formulating management plans. Emphasis, characteristics, and potential etiologies of Category II fetal heart rate tracings are reviewed. Management of the patient with a Category II fetal heart rate pattern is discussed, with special emphasis on the importance of the clinical context and fetal heart rate pattern evolution.

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. 

Substance use is a growing problem across populations. As a helping professional, you need a basic understanding of how substance use affects your clients. This information will help you to provide support and resources to help clients seek treatment and recovery. In this course, you will explore substance use disorders, how they develop, and their impact on individuals. The course also explains your role as a paraprofessional when working with individuals with substance use disorders. You will be provided an overview of evidence-based interventions and the types of substance use treatment programs available, when additional treatment may be necessary. Detailed examples will help you to apply this information in your own work. The goal of this course is to provide paraprofessionals and peer support specialists in health and human service settings with information on substance use disorders and evidence-based interventions.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex condition that may have short- or long-term effects on a patient. TBIs have a wide array of associated symptoms and disabilities. These may have a significant impact on the lives of patients and their families. Healthcare professionals should be ready to rapidly assess patients with TBIs so that they can be treated promptly.

This course provides strategies to enhance the knowledge and skills of physicians, registered nurses, and physician assistants in recognizing, assessing, and managing traumatic brain injuries, contributing to improved patient outcomes and interdisciplinary collaboration.

As a healthcare professional transporting patients to the ED, you may serve patients with symptoms indicative of behavioral health disorders, such as depressive, bipolar, and anxiety disorders. In some situations, the ED provider must administer psychiatric medications. However, if possible, it is prudent to defer their use until the patient is admitted to an inpatient mental health facility or seen as an outpatient. In many instances, the reason for presentation in the ED is an adverse reaction to psychiatric medications.

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.

Healthcare workers will often interact with patients who make up stories or memories that are inaccurate, sometimes wildly so. These patients are not lying, they are confabulating. A nurse who knows how to manage confabulation can help these patients. With proper interventions, most patients can stop confabulating or learn to manage the condition. This course will give you a solid foundation of knowledge about and skills to handle confabulation by explaining what it is, who does it, what causes it, and how to manage it.

The goal of this course is to inform nurses in the acute care setting about confabulation and how to assess and manage patients with confabulation.

Healthcare professionals are responsible for implementing infection prevention techniques. This course reviews how pathogenic organisms spread in healthcare settings, infection prevention strategies for healthcare professionals, and occupational health strategies to control the spread of infectious and communicable diseases.

The goal of this course is to provide nursing and medical assistant professionals in the healthcare setting with a general overview of infection prevention strategies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that in 2019, 5,333 work-related injuries resulted in death. These numbers show a 2% increase over 2018 figures and represent the most significant one-year increase since 2007 (BLS, 2020a). This course discusses the story behind the statistics. The key to reducing incidents and injuries in your organization is to prevent incidents from happening. To prevent incidents, you must understand what causes them. This course will help you to understand the significant role you play in incident investigation and prevention. 

Nurses deliver infusion therapy to millions of patients in hospitals, home healthcare settings, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics, and physicians’ offices annually. Nursing professionals perform many daily activities involving peripheral catheter insertion and safe delivery of intravenous (IV) fluids and medications. The use of vascular access devices and IV therapy are commonplace in the acute care setting. With that said, clinicians must take caution due to the potentially serious and fatal complications that can occur from inappropriate IV fluid or drug delivery. Patient safety requires that nurses institute safeguards to avoid complications associated with IV treatment.

Needlestick injuries continue to pose a threat to all healthcare professionals (HCPs). While HIV was once the most concerning organism, today, hepatitis B and C take precedence (King & Strony, 2022). Regardless of circumstances, more than 90% of sharps injuries are preventable (International Safety Center [ISC], n.d.). Therefore, all healthcare clinicians must be diligent to avoid injury even in busy and stressful working conditions. This module will review the current literature on managing the most common bloodborne pathogens (BBP) transmitted by needlestick injuries and evaluating post-exposure prophylaxis.

This course will provide healthcare professionals in the acute care setting with an introduction to the use of psychedelics for the treatment of behavioral health conditions. Healthcare professionals will learn about the types of agents used, their indications, benefits, and their associated risks and side effects.

The goal of this course is to provide health care professionals in the acute care setting with an introductory review of novel therapeutic agents used to treat behavioral health conditions.