Paying People To Do Meaningless Online ED

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I was talking to a former coworker from the ER who retired about four years ago. We are going to get together. She told me that she used to pay the ER techs and unit secretaries cash to do all the stupid online bs that is worse and worse every year. Of course we were talking about how idiotic the so-called education modules are. It's absolutely ridiculous. I told her that I I have another friend who retired right before all the education was due, because she was so fed up with the stupidity that is spewed out by regulatory.

Specializes in ER.
23 hours ago, hherrn said:

I would argue that taking drivel and calling it education, rather than actually educating nurses, is on ethical shaky ground.

Brilliant!

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14 hours ago, hherrn said:

Lazy is a bit more subjective

Yeah, especially when such a move could be called efficient, time-wise anyway. If the nurse eats BON-bons* while the unit clerk does the modules, maybe that is lazy (maybe). But if the nurse is running around taking care of patients then I guess she found her own way to finally make admin's efficiency-related fantasies come true (simultaneously doing two things that are impossible to do simultaneously). ?

*If you type lowercase BON for any reason, you get BON

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I guess I am on the side of those thinking this is very unethical.

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Specializes in Community health.
23 hours ago, hherrn said:

Well- Assuming that the "training" is a pointless waste of time with absolutely no benefit, where is the breech in ethics?

I would argue that taking drivel and calling it education, rather than actually educating nurses, is on ethical shaky ground.

My husband is an attorney and one of his coworkers tried to pull this.  He went to a paralegal and said "Can you just click through this video for me so I can get my required CLEs?"  The paralegal, because she had a spine, said Hell no, are you kidding me?

You don't get to decide that it is ethical to lie about your educational modules just because you think the modules are stupid!  That isn't what "ethical" means...

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Specializes in ER.

I'm wondering if any of the people who are saying it is unethical ever just skipped the education part, and took the test, and maybe took the test more than once just to get it over with. I've done that on non-essential, ridiculous modules.

The thing about this newer style of 'education' is that it serves one of two purposes. It is either to protect the facility from legal liability, or to satisfy regulatory agencies.

When I first got into nursing all the education was designed to improve our skills, and/or familiarity with equipment and procedures. Now 'education' is mostly useless hogwash.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
4 hours ago, Emergent said:

I'm wondering if any of the people who are saying it is unethical ever just skipped the education part, and took the test, and maybe took the test more than once just to get it over with. I've done that on non-essential, ridiculous modules.

The thing about this newer style of 'education' is that it serves one of two purposes. It is either to protect the facility from legal liability, or to satisfy regulatory agencies.

When I first got into nursing all the education was designed to improve our skills, and/or familiarity with equipment and procedures. Now 'education' is mostly useless hogwash.

Nope, I either tested out or did the education, no matter how useless it really was. I must be naive because it did not cross my mind to pay someone to go under my name and do this for me.

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Specializes in ER.
2 hours ago, SmilingBluEyes said:

Nope, I either tested out or did the education, no matter how useless it really was. I must be naive because it did not cross my mind to pay someone to go under my name and do this for me.

Yeah I never thought of doing that either. I'm too cheap. But sometimes people would pass around answers. They were kept up at the nurses station.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
On 12/1/2021 at 10:46 AM, Emergent said:

She was just trying to get through the last years of her career, and it was a great way to give a little extra money to some less paid coworkers. It was a win-win for everybody.

Not a “win win” if either gets caught. Pretty sure it would result in termination for both.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I found it to be tedious.  But I really disliked when they moved ACLS to an online computer game.  At first I couldn't pass the stupid simulations because I couldn't hit the right keys fast enough.  After I finished them I found out there was a way to pause it that I wasn't aware of.  Also I think it is a terrible way to learn as opposed to the real teamwork and hands on approach.  I would actually look forward to ACLS renewal back then as a break and an extra day off from the hospital! LOL

I really hated the online simulations and then having to test out on a robot CPR dummy was even worse.  It had to pass you.  It would always say too fast, not deep enough, too deep, no air, too much air.  I was losing my damn mind and getting exhausted trying to get the damn dummy to pass me.  I ended up needing another person to do the actual CPR just to get me to pass the first time!  My supervisor at the time told me to grab a coworker and she couldn't get it to pass either, but a strong male nurse came by to do his CPR and he did mine and finally it passed.  So ridiculous, especially when the ICU had one of those CPR machines that did compressions!  Lastly wrongway was so cheap they didn't give us our own breathing mask to do the CPR so you were left with using the ambu bag by yourself and trying to get it to pass or literally mouth to mouth with a dummy that hundreds use!   Also it will ask you do you want to continue and I would stupidly continue thinking I would get it to pass.  Don't waste your time or energy, just stop or you will wear yourself out for nothing.  It is better to stop right away and you might get lucky.  If you continue your chances of passing will actually diminish as they will want 4 out of 4 instead of 3 out of 3.

I had to renew in Sept 2020 again and I told God if I didn't pass I was giving my notice and starting early retirement.  I had already purchased my own breathing mask for the CPR dummy a few years back so that part helped, but the whole time the damn dummy said no air, too much air, not deep enough, too deep.  Unbelievably in spite of it all I passed on the first try.  First time ever with the dummy!

So I reluctantly worked a few more months before I resigned in December of 2020 when I reached my breaking point regarding the short staffing and lack of critical supplies like tele monitors and oxygen flow meters.  The last straw was once again working without a CNA and having a full assignment and a patient on an insulin drip that needed q 1 hour accu checks.  Years ago we had a good insulin scale q 2 hours and patients would be in range a few hours.  They revised it to q 1 and changed it so that people wouldn't be in range even 24 hours later, but that's another story r/t the stupid clinical ladder and someone's pet project for it.  Anyway I emailed my resignation that night gave my two weeks and I was out of there!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
6 hours ago, Emergent said:

I'm wondering if any of the people who are saying it is unethical ever just skipped the education part, and took the test, and maybe took the test more than once just to get it over with. I've done that on non-essential, ridiculous modules.

The thing about this newer style of 'education' is that it serves one of two purposes. It is either to protect the facility from legal liability, or to satisfy regulatory agencies.

When I first got into nursing all the education was designed to improve our skills, and/or familiarity with equipment and procedures. Now 'education' is mostly useless hogwash.

Wrongway's modules gave you the option to skip and just do the test to save even more time. LOL  If you passed it was all good, otherwise you had to listen to the whole module.

It is about liability and checking a box.  We actually didn't have unit educators for over a year as Wrongway laid them off and only wanted one educator in the building!  Gotta save money you know!  Teaching the new grads was left to the supervisor till she quit and the nurses on the floor.  Some nurses mentioned this unsafe situation when they quit on glasss door. 

I always tell people to read the nurses comments on glass door.  Sadly just like nurses are conditioned to say they love the job even and in spite of all the abuse and lack of breaks etc, many nurses will still give a 3 or 4 star rating, but when you read their actual comments you know it is a bad place to work.  Beware, stay away!

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
1 hour ago, brandy1017 said:

 It would always say too fast, not deep enough, too deep, no air, too much air. 

Before Wrongway got the robot CPR dummy, an elderly nurse in charge of education would give the commands, such as "Harder, harder! Deeper, deeper! Faster, faster!"

One staff member commented that that they felt like they were in a geriatric Mediao.

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On 12/1/2021 at 9:24 AM, Emergent said:

Clarification: while my nurse colleague was busy at work taking care of ER patients,  she opened up the online education program for a unit secretary or ER tech to complete in her name, and she paid them cash.

I didn’t get paid for it but my husband has these stupid credentials that each hospital system makes him complete each year to come into the hospital and fix their broken equipment. It’s like completing the orientation for new employees each year but he doesn’t work for them. Since it’s common sense and I used to have to do it all the time when I used to work in these places, I have logged on for him and completed the courses by going straight to the test and taking it and passing. It’s some stupid regulatory bull crap that the hospitals want even their vendors to complete…which is pretty ridiculous when the answers are completely employee based. I don’t think the contractor is going to help evacuate in case of a fire or find the hazardous materials manual, or have any reason to know how to dispose of chemo patient wastes when he works on OR equipment….not only do I not get paid, his employer has to pay the hospitals credentialing provider a hefty fee each year to update the testing they require.

 

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