Annual Education Days

[QSNurse]

I am responsible for planning the annual staff education day at my LTCH.

I need some suggestions as to themes for the day or new and fun formats. My goal is to get everyone up and moving and as involved as much as possible and to minimize the amount of classroom time.

Any suggestions would be very very welcome!

[Rosett12]

Rewards work best from the very young to the very old. Whatever you do give out "gifts" for participation. This might seem like bribing but it works the best. This will get everyone motivated (especially) if the rewards are wrapped or hidden. I would suggest candy, items from the dollar store or everyday tools for the nursing environment. This will get everyone up and moving. You don't have to spend a fortune, but it will spark the inner child of many and that is always fun.:)

[SitcomNurse, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN]

How about how mobility increases feelings of well being and releases hormones/endorphins!

You could use the wii for different games, wii ski, yoga, party games, darts etc.

talk about how people who are active are less depressed, have greater satisfaction in their day and sleep better at night.

There is all kinds of research on it out there, look up nursing rehabilitation, look up culture change, look up methods for alleviating depression in the elderly.

Good luck.

[dreamyjean]

When I have run education days I have had a real mix of things. Quizs, research discussions, DVDs playing excepts from a well known movie that relates to health care makes it light hearted. And discussion around that. Yes and chocolate bribes are great too.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

LOL on the rewards but it works! Pen or sharpies are good rewards for the nurses.

People don't always volunteer to participate, but I find picking the "ring leaders" or the "popular" well liked staff to be volunteers gets everyone interested and involved.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

We had a "in their shoes" annual manditory inservice one year. For whatever the topic was, the employees experienced what our residents would. It really hit home with a lot of the employees when they experienced what the residents did. We tend to forget so easily since we are (for the most part) healthy able-bodied people.

We were going through what most of our residents did throughout the day. For example to understand and find ways to help our residents to eat (many of the CNA's that fed our residents would not understand why they had to assist residents that were A&O..walkie-talkie to eat..but many had severe cases of arthritis..they was unable to grip and use utensils..so..we were made to try to do difffent things with heavy gloves on. Much more difficult to use fine motor skills when your hands are now several times the size they usually are and you aren't able to use your fingers as easily.

Some we had to put on very blurry glasses and attempt to do certain things. We also had to put on heavy earmuffs and then attempt to have a conversation.

Those were all for the sensory portions of the inservice.

We had to use the wheelchairs with the heavy gloves on while sitting on a lumpy chair pad..to show its not as easy as it looks.

I could go on..but I'm sure you all get the gist of how it worked.

All in all..THAT was the one annual inservice that really sunk in with ALL staff.

[IdrilRN, BSN, RN]

We once did an inservice day with different stations per subject around the nursing home. After doing a task, or having the mini inservice, (like proper donnnig of PPE, etc.)we had to answer a simple trivia question about the subject to advance to the next one.

Another place we did stations for the different tasks we did. We had a couple of different days, one for nurses and one for LNA's. We got our "passport" stamped when we finished a station.

As for rewards we got things like pens, scissors, little flash lights and such.

One place our anual fire inservice involved us putting out a fire the fire guy had set on his lap. Everyone had a turn.

much more exciting then sitting a class room.