Courses by Credit Type

This course will provide an overview of common healthcare-acquired infections and will offer practical information for appropriately following infection prevention practices that healthcare workers can use to protect themselves and the patients they care for.

The key aspects of care assessed in the HCAHPS survey and how these scores are measured and reported, will be reviewed. The role of the perioperative nurse in improving patient satisfaction scores for surgical patients will be explored. Finally, various interventions that are effective in improving patients’ satisfaction during their surgical journey will be outlined.

This program is designed to increase knowledge of the basics of skin health and its impact for people with incontinence. The activity will provide practical knowledge for clinicians on the care of fragile skin as well as including factors that influence skin health, how to maintain a balanced microbiome, what happens when the microbiome becomes unbalanced, and how to treat conditions related to declines in skin health.

Heat discomfort experienced by OR team members can contribute to diminished workflow efficiency and barriers preventing optimal team collaboration. This continuing education activity will describe the unique challenges associated with heat in the operating room and how it affects the surgical team.

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.

Fires in the operating room can occur in a patient’s airway, face, body surface, surgical wound, and perineal area – potentially resulting in severe pain, disfigurement and, in some cases, death. The purpose of this educational program is to review the components of the fire triangle and to describe measures to prevent operating room fires. Actions to take if a fire occurs as well as considerations for a fire safety plan will also be discussed.

While the hazards of exposure to surgical smoke in the operating room are well documented, barriers to consistent use of smoke evacuation technologies exist. This course features Dr. Lisa Hunsicker, a surgeon champion for surgical smoke evacuation, who discusses her role in advocating for smoke-free ORs in her facility and in the legislature.

Electrosurgery may be hazardous, so it is important that clinicians understand how electricity behaves and relates to electrosurgical function and applications can contribute to its safe use. Knowledge of the intraoperative and postoperative medical and nursing considerations and interventions can impact positive patient outcomes.

The operating room has traditionally been one of the highest revenue generators for healthcare organizations. This continuing education activity will provide the perioperative nurse with information on ways to improve inventory management in the operating room. It will review the challenges and opportunities associated with effective supply management, and provide specific strategies on product standardization, inventory management and reduction, reduction of waste, data analysis, and improved physician preference card management.

This continuing education activity will provide a historical review of the evolution of the use of surgical gloves as a protective barrier. The impact of occupational exposure on healthcare workers will be presented. The implications of double gloving in the surgical practice setting will be discussed, including approaches to implement a change in practice and the identification of perceived barriers.

As more elective procedures are shifting to ambulatory surgery and endoscopy centers, these facilities are tasked with reprocessing an increasing volume of reusable medical devices, while adhering to the same regulations and standards as larger healthcare facilities. This program discusses how to meet these challenges and ensure devices are properly cleaned and disinfected.

This educational activity is for the healthcare professional who is involved in the care of patients who are at high risk for arthritis and comorbidities, such as obesity and depression. At-risk individuals include women and those of African American and Hispanic descent. This group demonstrates “health disparities”, which are preventable differences in health status.

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.

This continuing education program will discuss the best practices around leveling and monitoring, challenges associated with external ventricular drain (EVD) therapy, and how evidence-based practices may impact patient outcomes.

Plan your response to growing demand for minimally invasive surgery. Identify opportunities and explore strategies for expanding service lines and surgical settings that optimize staff and investment in robotics.

This education activity reviews clinical considerations related to skin closure methods that can help meet the goal of infection risk reduction. The types of available skin closures will be presented, as well as how they can be differentiated from each other. Clinical outcomes for patients using different types of skin closures will be presented and compared.

Management of bleeding is an important part of any invasive procedure, and a wide variety of topical adjunctive hemostatic agents are available to supplement the surgeon’s application of conventional approaches to this critical outcome. This course begins with a description of the components of whole blood and the natural process of hemostasis, followed by an explanation of where topical hemostats act within this sequence of events.

Preventing disease transmission is a major concern for all members of the perioperative team. This continuing education activity discusses the triangle of concern presented by bacterial penetration of barrier fabrics (ie, surgical gowns, face masks, and sterilization wraps) through forced air currents and its implications for the perioperative nurse.

This education activity reviews the indications, contraindications, and methodology of enteral feedings and highlights the role of the multidisciplinary team in the care of patients requiring enteral nutrition. The types of feeding formulations will be discussed along with routes of delivery, common complications, and ways to mitigate these risks.

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.