[nrsbetrn]

Has anyone ever held a Skills Fair for nurses and aides in your facility? Our annual competencies are due this month and my administrator wants us to have a fair. I need ideas and tips.

[CapeCodMermaid]

We had one once. It was a huge amount of work and those of us helping out at the fair didn't get much else done that day, but we surely got a good idea of who knew what and who needed help with skills.

[nrsbetrn]

How did you set it up? What skills did you include? Can you share with me how you set the stations up?

[CapeCodMermaid]

We had some basic things....a vitals sign station, guiac station,hoyer lift....nothing fancy and then some other information to hand out. Ours was for the CNAs only.

[nservice]

Our hospital has a skills fair yearly. It takes lots of planning because ours is rather large. We have 3 eduators from different specialties that help plan the fair. This years fair included:

Restraints
Accu check
adult Crash Cart
Peds Crash Cart / Braslow
Code Blue Recording (watch a video and record the code as it happens)
EKG
Defibrillators
Trach care
Chest Tube
Wound Vac
Difficult airway
Bronchoscope
Core Measures
Pharmaceutical waste
Organ donation
Micromedex / Medication Reconcilliation
PCA / Epidural pumps
TB and Fit testing

We also hand out folders a month ahead of time with activities/tests to hand in at the fair. I also had my nurses do 2 chart audits before coming to the fair (focused on med reconcilliation, pain, and discharge instructions).

The booths (tables) were set up around the room with room for 3 or 4 people at each booth. They rotate through the booths and get their check-off sheets signed off at each booth. It takes me several months to get things set up with vendors and collecting supplies / equipment needed for the fair. Good Luck!