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.

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. 

The world of legalities, red tape, and ethics can be a daunting one. We have all heard about the importance of confidentiality and trust in healthcare. How do these issues apply to preceptorships? This educational activity addresses integrity in preceptorships and gives you information you can share with preceptees to enhance professional and personal character, confidence, and wisdom in nursing practice. It also reviews important ethical and legal considerations that should be reviewed and incorporated into a preceptorship. The goal of this course is to provide nurses and nurse preceptors in ambulatory care settings with information about integrity, ethical conduct, and legal considerations in nursing practice and preceptorships.

Establishing an effective corporate compliance program helps healthcare organizations prevent, detect, and correct unlawful and unethical behavior. This course discusses the laws and behaviors related to ethics. It also discusses your responsibilities in preventing and identifying unlawful and unethical behavior. The goal of this course is to familiarize general staff in healthcare settings with the most common types of fraudulent and improper conduct.

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.

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.

Ethics are a significant part of high-quality clinical practice. This one hour course presents ethical principles and responsibilities of healthcare professionals. The goal of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with an awareness of how ethics impact clinical practice and an approach for analyzing ethical issues in clinical practice. 

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.

Increasing awareness of cultural diversification has challenged traditional institutions and practices. This includes the delivery of treatment services. Outcome studies have consistently demonstrated the need for change in the way that healthcare and other services operate. Awareness of and sensitivity to cultural issues are critical to establishing a positive relationship with the people you are serving and ensuring beneficial treatment outcomes. 

Recent movement toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is encouraging for historically overlooked individuals. It brings a variety of frequently ignored perspectives and experiences, but it has also uncovered the depth of implicit biases.

Biases are among the most significant factors for healthcare. This course presents the impact of implicit biases and other forms of discrimination on the provision of healthcare, as well as best practices to reduce implicit bias.

The goal of this course is to provide healthcare employees with training about implicit bias in healthcare.

As the population of the U.S. soars in diversity, healthcare professionals must be prepared to care for childbearing families from many different cultures. All cultures and families should be given the same respect, be assured of the highest quality of care, have their religious, ethnic, and cultural values respected and integrated into their care, and have their physical and educational needs met in a way that honors their spiritual beliefs and individuality. Knowledge of the cultures one is serving and the influence they have on women’s perceptions of childbirth are important for achieving positive outcomes. Equally and perhaps more important is applying the principles of cultural humility to nursing care.

The goal of this continuing education course is to improve the ability of nurses and health educators in acute care settings to assess and meet the sociocultural needs of childbearing families of diverse cultural and social groups. 

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.

Although medical care can be often concrete, healthcare professionals, including nurses, are faced with ethical dilemmas that are not as clear-cut. In healthcare, sometimes situations arise where there is an “area of gray.” In those moments, thoughtful analysis using reason and ethical principles is needed. Many healthcare institutions have developed ethics committees to navigate patient care in difficult situations.

The goal of this course is to equip nurses in the acute care setting with knowledge of key terms, theories, and principles of bioethics, as well as the procedures, functions, roles, and responsibilities associated with an ethics committee in the acute care setting.