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.

Earthquakes and tsunamis unleash powerful forces of nature. They cause catastrophic infrastructure and property damage and can result in tremendous loss of life. This course presents some basic facts about earthquakes and tsunamis, including considerations for preparedness and protective actions.

The goal of this course is to provide all staff with a basic overview of earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Healthy People 2030 campaign categorizes social determinants of health (SDOH) into five domains and each one has an impact on health outcomes and informs best practices in the delivery of healthcare (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). This course provides practice scenarios for use of a rapid assessment tool for screening patients for social determinants that impact their health.

Economic stability is defined as a domain of social determinants of health in the Healthy People 2030 campaign. It relates to an individual’s ability to access resources such as food, adequate housing, and healthcare. Each component of economic stability, including poverty, employment, food security, and housing stability, is linked to individual health outcomes.

Medical errors and substandard care occur often in today’s complex healthcare organizations. Errors are usually due to multiple factors at the system-level rather than a single factor from an individual. Healthcare organizations that are committed to patient safety are high-reliability organizations. These organizations remain alert for ways to protect patients from harm even though they have few adverse events. This course will offer suggestions for reducing medical errors and maintaining a culture of safety.

This course provides nurses with information regarding safety concerns associated with alarm fatigue along with evidence-based research strategies to reduce the fatigue.

Education access and quality is a pillar of the social determinants of health for Healthy People 2030 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). This course outlines the effects of education on an individual’s health. The four components of education access and quality include early childhood education and development, high school graduation, enrollment in higher education, and language and literacy.

All healthcare professionals must be aware of bias and the challenges that bias can create in healthcare. This includes knowing some of the challenges people face with the healthcare system. In this course, you will learn best practices to help recognize and manage bias.

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the delivery of quality care. It refers to meeting the needs of people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence must be a two-way system to benefit people with differing beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. This course discusses cultural competence and how organizations can use cultural competency to create an atmosphere of inclusion.

Nearly 10% of U.S. population does not have health insurance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], n.d.a). Healthy People 2030 is a national population and public health initiative endorsed by top U.S. government health agencies, setting health goals for the U.S. healthcare system to improve the overall wellbeing of patients in their communities. This course provides an in-depth and interactive analysis of one of the five Healthy People 2030’s domains of social determinants of health (SDOH), healthcare access and quality, and its impact on patient outcomes. 

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.

As defined by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) (2019), the perioperative nurse’s goal is to help patients achieve or exceed the level of well-being they had at the pre-procedural baseline. The nurse is required to have the clinical knowledge, judgment, and clinical reasoning skills necessary to safely plan, deliver, and evaluate care for surgical patients.

The goal of this course is to equip perioperative nurses with knowledge of the nursing process and the roles and responsibilities within the perioperative team.

Human trafficking victims are often concealed by their traffickers; however, studies show that many victims interact with healthcare professionals while they are being victimized. This places healthcare professionals in a unique position to recognize the signs and risk factors of human trafficking and take steps if they suspect a person may be a victim of human trafficking.

The goal of this course is to provide healthcare staff with critical steps to recognize and respond to human trafficking.

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.

The physical environment in which individuals live has a direct impact on their health and wellness and their ability to access healthcare. Healthy People 2030 identifies neighborhoods and the built environment as a domain of the social determinants of health tied to health outcomes. This course provides an in-depth analysis of this domain and how it affects the health and well-being of patient populations. The four components of neighborhood and built environment include access to healthy foods, quality of housing, crime and violence, and environmental conditions. Clinicians can leverage this knowledge to improve treatment planning for patients and health outcomes.

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).

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).

Whenever a crime occurs, evidence can be transferred among the perpetrator, victim, and the crime scene. Law enforcement personnel collect and preserve crime scene evidence. Healthcare professionals can simultaneously assist with a crime investigation and provide good healthcare to patients by collecting and preserving evidence from the patient’s body. It is imperative to understand that the collection and preservation of evidence from a patient should never compromise the patient’s safety, autonomy, or legal rights. This course provides an overview of interviewing, collecting, and preserving forensic evidence, toxicology, and documentation.

Medication errors and substandard care occur often in today’s complex healthcare organizations. High-reliability organizations remain alert to potential errors and ways in which they can be prevented, regardless of how few adverse events occur. Healthcare organizations with a culture for patient safety focus on identifying the cause of errors and applicable prevention strategies rather than blaming or punishing the people involved in an error. Organizations that focus on patient safety in this manner have higher rates of error reporting and are better positioned to address problems at the systems level.

The goal of this course is to educate healthcare professionals about approaches to prevent medication errors.

Survivors of rape and sexual assault will experience a variety of physical and emotional comorbidities as a direct result of their experience. This means survivors will enter the healthcare system through a variety of specialty clinics in addition to their primary care provider. It is important healthcare providers of all disciplines, be familiar with the signs that a patient may have been raped or sexually assaulted in their past. This course will provide the legal aspects of rape and sexual assault, the emotional and physical trauma associated with the experience, and how to identify and care for survivors. 

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.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, minority groups will outnumber what is now considered mainstream culture by the middle of this century. Healthcare professionals need to heighten their awareness about the importance of role, culture, and tradition in preventing and treating women’s unique healthcare problems. When there is a lack of cultural sensitivity in communication, patients are less likely to be content with their healthcare experience, increasing the likelihood of miscommunication and possible cultural disparities. These factors can also cause non-compliance with treatment, worse health outcomes, and a higher incidence of adverse events.

The goal of this course is to equip healthcare professionals with knowledge of the impact of culture on women’s health beliefs and practices and their responses to current approaches to care.

Health inequities in pain management are prevalent across different healthcare settings. The cultural, ethnic, and social differences influence patients’ and providers’ perceptions and responses to pain. Several studies report higher incidences of pain, disability, and suffering in women and people of color compared to non-Hispanic White people. This course covers influential sociocultural factors grouped into the patient, the provider, and systemic factors. This course helps healthcare professionals become familiar with cultural differences associated with pain perceptions and management. Pain variables such as culture, religion or ethnicity are not part of standardized pain scales. Healthcare workers need to provide culturally competent care to their patients by asking about specific practices, beliefs, and values regarding pain that impacts the patient’s quality of life.

The goal of this course is to provide nurses, physicians, and social workers with an overview of cultural sensitivity in the management of pain.