Emergency Education

Short, focused inservices during shift start can hit the high points of cardiac alert or trauma activaton criteria for example.

Thanks for the idea.... we already have long shift reports and also our staff meetings are quite long which is why its hard to know when to fit education in even though I think its important.

The ENA has numerous courses on difeerent sub topics of emergency nursing. They pack a lot of material into a short period. Why re-invent the wheel? Nobody does it better than the ENA, and by scheduling people for the classes you can assure the those less motivated to learn get it.

One of the many education strategies my unit does, it having an education book. It is a three ringed binder, with education material in it. Each month, a new education topic is placed in the book. It is always designed in PowerPoint and printed out in single slides, then put into the book. That way while waiting for shift report/huddle to begin, you can flip through that month's inservice and read the info. Then there is a sheet to sign off on each month.

I find it helpful because you can have just a few bullet points of information on each page, and include pictures. And if there are any new/revised policies regarding the inservice, the information is covered in the powerpoint print out, and then the official policy is placed at the end. And all of the previous month's inservices are left in the book, so you can read over something again or make up anything that was missed.