help with inservices

For anyone out there that has been in staff dev. in ltc. I am looking for ideas for inservices/ meetings that would make it fun and interesting. I know from my own experience that to sit in a room listening to someone talk and talk and talk or put on a video gets very boring after the first 10 minutes. I just read somewhere to use toothpicks and pass them out for anyone that repositions themselves in the chair during a meeting/inservice, to show them that some residents are unable to do this, and need our help in pressure relief. Any other ideas.. on ANY subject. Thank you, Tracy

Activity and attendee participation. I have been more successful if there is class participation. For example: I did an inservice on Diabetes. In order to make a lasting impression on the class participants I brought some props to the class and prepared some notes for the participant. This enables the person to physically participate and have the "information" to share with others whether they know it or not. I passed out a teddy bear(tired), a bottle of water(thirsty), a bag lunch(hungry), etc. Of course this peaked their curosity. Through the course of the educational forum, I integrated these items to represent the symptoms of hyperglycemia. We had fun with it, I was able to get interaction with the class and the learning objectives were met. I like to start with a mystery and conclude with a fact. Be creative.

Hope this helps.

I did staff devel. in LTC for 3 years. I did an annual inservice "fair" to take care of all the boring repetative required inservices. I took over the whole dining room for the afternoon. Got all managment to staff a "booth" and we played games - one booth res. rights BINGO, next booth handwashing/infect. control (playing w/ the glow germ), next booth out back with the fireman and the extinguishers, etc, etc. Each booth had mini competitions and prizes. We had maint. department cooking hotdogs on the grill, circus music playing and therapy dressed as clowns and handing out balloons. Gave out a "big" door prize at end of the after noon. Another inservice I did was on communication (was a big problem in our building at the time). I posted all the info on the inservice and purposely left off the inservice TIME. Then "communicated" to 2-3 people what time the inservice was and told them to spread the word - this was an exercise in communication. Went into the inservice not knowing how many to expect and had excellent turnout for that one! LOL

I love it! Now that makes nursing and learning fun. Sometimes things snowball just in the right direction.

I did staff devel. in LTC for 3 years. I did an annual inservice "fair" to take care of all the boring repetative required inservices. I took over the whole dining room for the afternoon. Got all managment to staff a "booth" and we played games - one booth res. rights BINGO, next booth handwashing/infect. control (playing w/ the glow germ), next booth out back with the fireman and the extinguishers, etc, etc. Each booth had mini competitions and prizes. We had maint. department cooking hotdogs on the grill, circus music playing and therapy dressed as clowns and handing out balloons. Gave out a "big" door prize at end of the after noon. Another inservice I did was on communication (was a big problem in our building at the time). I posted all the info on the inservice and purposely left off the inservice TIME. Then "communicated" to 2-3 people what time the inservice was and told them to spread the word - this was an exercise in communication. Went into the inservice not knowing how many to expect and had excellent turnout for that one! LOL

I LOVE this ideas.. Im already working on schelduling a communication one for October. We too, have a BIG problem with that... it just doesnt happen. I really believe that if you make the inservice fun, interesting, etc, the staff get more out of it, it makes them laugh , which helps relieve some stress.

I have played darts with balloons, and had questions inside the balloons.. only have to be careful ... make sure not too many staff members are pissed off at you.. so they dont.. opps, miss the board.. and hit you with the dart.. ahhahaha .. thank you for the other ideas. I have been at a stand still lately with ideas. Where did you get yours from? Thanks again Tracy