Courses by Credit Type

Bullying leaves nasty fingerprints on individuals, healthcare organizations, the nursing profession, and patients. Its mark is damaging and long lasting. Leaders, therefore, have a responsibility to do their part to stop the cycle of bullying and incivility. In this keynote presentation leaders will learn practical tools and strategies they can immediately implement to address workplace violence, bullying, and incivility within the healthcare environment. When leaders are equipped to address disruptive behaviors, employees stay, and patients achieve better outcomes.

Nurses and clinical leaders should understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and strategies for creating a culture where employees and patients feel respected and valued in healthcare. This continuing education activity will provide nurses and clinical leaders with an overview of DEI and key strategies to foster a culture of inclusion for patients and employees.

Upon completion of this activity, the learner will gain knowledge regarding the common practices and advantages of surgical stapling along with the potential complications; understand tissue thickness and its relevance to cartridge selection; and learn how surgical staplers are selected and used today.

Through greater awareness of what the hazards are specific to clinical alarms, what the evidence-based guidance is to mitigate these risks, and the roles each healthcare professional plays in improving clinical alarm management, teams can collaborate to develop solutions toward optimizing alarms in practice to achieve patient safety and staff wellbeing.

Gloves are a common medical device used as barrier protection in the medical field. This continuing education discusses how latex surgical gloves are being replaced with synthetic alternatives to create latex-safe environments.

Because there are various types of detergents available today, all personnel involved in the care and cleaning of surgical instruments must be knowledgeable about these agents and the proper instrument cleaning process. This continuing education activity will provide a review of the key considerations related to the selection and use of detergents and disinfectants for instrument cleaning.

Become an advocate for surgical smoke evacuation by gaining knowledge on the current legislative status for surgical smoke safety, AORN recommendations, and how to implement smoke evacuation in your facility.

Embracing a zero-narcotics approach post-surgery accelerates recovery, improves outcomes, and reduces hospital stays. See how this and other robotic surgery advantages drive a paradigm shift toward a culture of efficiency and financial stewardship.

As cost containment initiatives continue to be a top priority in healthcare, you will acquire insight into how to take these efforts to new levels in robotic surgery. Through analysis and creation of transparency tools, you’ll be able to identify areas for cost savings in your robotic surgery program.

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) after total joint arthroplasty is a significant complication, and diagnosis and treatment are challenging, which makes prevention the most compelling strategy. This program defines PJI and explains its incidence, pathogenesis, risk factors, clinical consequences, and financial costs. The implications of biofilm formation for the diagnosis and treatment of PJI are discussed. Preoperative, perioperative, intraoperative, and postoperative preventive strategies are described in detail, focusing on the benefits of irrigation with high-osmolarity surfactant solutions.

An overview of the types of chest drains, indications for effective use and key management factors will be described. The safe and effective use of chest drainage systems will be discussed so that nurses can provide high quality care for their patients to achieve optimal care outcomes.

This educational activity provides an overview of gender and racial/ethnic musculoskeletal disparities, the relationship between obesity, osteoarthritis, and other comorbidities, and the potential impact of the AMA recognition of obesity as a disease. Also discussed are cultural and health literacy considerations of the patients most at risk for disability from osteoarthritis – obese African American and Hispanic women.

This program explains why the accurate detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) is so important. Symptoms of and risk factors for AF are outlined, and methods of detecting it are described, including short-term (up to 30 days) and long-term (up to 4.5 years) cardiac monitoring.

All patients and members of the perioperative team deserve to be protected from the byproducts of surgical smoke and the potential complications that can follow. The decision about whether to evacuate surgical smoke is often left up to the surgeon’s discretion. But consistently using smoke evacuation equipment in the perioperative environment creates a safer environment for all.

This continuing education activity will address the role of environmental contamination in the transmission of HAIs, describe the latest research on environmental hygiene in the operating room (OR), and list the monitoring methods available to objectively evaluate environmental hygiene. Process improvement methods and new technologies such as self-disinfecting surfaces and “no touch” area cleaners utilizing ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and hydrogen peroxide vapor will be described.

This education activity will describe the criteria defined by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for classifying a drug as hazardous and the types of health risks that healthcare works could experience relate to exposure. How and when an exposure to hazardous drugs can occur and the nursing implications for reducing exposures to hazardous drugs will also be discussed.

The perioperative nurse is responsible for collaborating with team members to ensure the safety of the patient as well as colleagues during the positioning process. This program focuses on correct patient positioning to avoid patient injury to the respiratory, circulatory, neuromuscular, and integumentary systems.

A collaborative effort and trust between OR and SPD staff is paramount to effective instrument care and infection control. Strategies for effective communication between departments and opportunities for improved relationships between OR and SPD staff will be discussed to help promote safe and efficient patient care.

This educational activity will clarify US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for preoperative skin preparation drug products and discuss recent FDA Safety Communications. The differences between sterile and nonsterile antiseptic solutions will be described as well as issues related to sterilizing antiseptic solutions.

The intraoperative transfusion of blood and blood products is associated with increased healthcare costs and negative patient outcomes. To address these concerns and limit unnecessary transfusions, a variety of patient blood management strategies are available, including the use of topical hemostatic agents.