Skills Education Ideas

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Specializes in Cardiac Transplant.

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Hi everyone! I’m hoping to get some ideas. I am an RN in the float pool at a hospital in Washington state. Our float pool is med surg, telemetry, and step down units.  I am a member of our float pools Unit Based Council(UBC). We have decided to pick a monthly education topic or skill  to Add to our units newsletters. The idea being that we pick a topic that maybe is something a nurse is not 100% comfortable/familiar with and then do a breakdown of the steps required to perform that skill as per our hospital policy and EBP. For example,  this month we did drawing blood cultures from a central line. My question for my fellow nurses: what topic or skill  would you find helpful and would like to know more about if it was you reading these newsletters? 

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
  • Blood Collection Lab Tubes and Order of Draw
  • EKG review
  • Telemetry lead placement
  • 12-Lead ECG Placement Guide + Color Coding Standards for the 12-Lead ECG
  • What do I need to know about the monitors + adjusting to minimize alarms
  • What are some of the common emergency situations that come up in the units
  • Psychiatric situations
  • What do I do if I think the doctors are telling me to do the wrong thing; How should I go up the chain of command if the doctors aren’t listening to me?
  • Code review and documentation

Off the top of my head from time I worked these units

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If it were me, I would send out an email to everyone who would typically be receiving the newsletter and ask them what they would like to see and / or think others may need to learn more about.  You could also use a survey service such as Survey Monkey or unit-based suggestion boxes (which would both promote anonymity and, thus, the most honest responses).  

While we may be able to provide you with ideas about what we might personally want to learn more about, knowledge gaps and / or infrequently used skills tend to vary from workplace to workplace.  

Soliciting ideas from your own people will likely yield more applicable subject matter and also provide others with the opportunity to participate :)

Either way, I applaud you for being so involved and helping to educate others!

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Specializes in oncology.

Please disregard if this is not an issue in your units. I would suggest how to present to the attending when a consult doctor orders a very expensive combination drug to fill after discharge (or even talking to the consult themselves). I live in a rural area and sometimes a consultant will prescribe an expensive drug post discharge. I do understand the concept that having a patient take one pill versus 2 ensures better compliance.  But on a limited income ....the patients cannot afford a Cadillac drug/ 

Rereading the initial post I am wondering if I missed the boat by not suggesting a SKILL?

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.
34 minutes ago, londonflo said:

Please disregard if this is not an issue in your units. I would suggest how to present to the attending when a consult doctor orders a very expensive combination drug to fill after discharge (or even talking to the consult themselves). I live in a rural area and sometimes a consultant will prescribe an expensive drug post discharge. I do understand the concept that having a patient take one pill versus 2 ensures better compliance.  But on a limited income ....the patients cannot afford a Cadillac drug/ 

Rereading the initial post I am wondering if I missed the boat by not suggesting a SKILL?

In this case, the physician needs to consider that compliance drops precipitously when the patient cannot afford the drug.

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Specializes in oncology.
2 minutes ago, Kitiger said:

In this case, the physician needs to consider that compliance drops precipitously when the patient cannot afford the drug.

Yes, I so agree. But we have had some real prima-donnas who put the patient on some very expensive (new combination ) drugs in the hospital and never consider the patient's ability to pay.....we all know drug reps love to push these new combination drugs. 

 

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

The patient could consult their pharmacist to figure out a cheaper drug regime, and then bring this info to the attention of their specialist. If that doesn't work, they could also ask their primary doctor to intervene. 

This presupposes, of course, that the patient? realizes that a cheaper drug regime is even possible. The discharge nurse could put that bug in his ear.

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Specializes in oncology.
On 9/11/2022 at 8:07 PM, londonflo said:

I live in a rural area and sometimes a consultant will prescribe an expensive drug post discharge.

In my  area (very rural) what the Big City Doctor says is like 'something from the Bible'.  our patients drive from 60-90 miles for cardiac care.  Years ago ago I lived in an urban area...but here there are who  patients drive hours to see the the specialist their GP refers them to.  It is a forgotten part of America.  And please don't get me started on when these patients are discharge after 7 PM....with a prescription in hand. They usually  get their prescriptions filled at a pharmacy that closes in their hometown at 5PM. And because of Medicare reimbursement for RX they need to go where their Medicare number is at. ..24 hour pharmacies like Walmart., and Walgreens don't work. And they will have no pain pills until midmorning tomorrow. But does the BIG TOWN SPECIALIST know or care? It is just so sad that that rural patients who are working to provide the food on your table.....get treated poorly. 

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