Skill's Fair for the E.D.

Angelsmom354 · Jun 6, 2012

Our critical care skills fair is set up with one big open room and lots of stations. Some are interactive, have hands on with equipment, quick question/answer or lastly posterboard topics. You carry around one checklist of stations and have it signed by whomever is running that station. The big plus at our fairs, they have a bowl of candy at each station. Definately makes it enjoyable.

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Jun 6, 2012

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okay, grammar police ... this is a staff request to stay on topic, please. thanks.
back to the subject: agree with the others that themes, etc., are distracting and annoying. pretend your learners are all kids with add. :) give them what the army calls "bluf" -- bottom line up front.

:yeah: thank you lunah, i thought i would have to be first to say something. i can honestly say that sometimes i turn into the spelling police, probably because spelling comes very naturally to me, and have been known to go through registration in our er to edit the original chief complaint when spelled so goofy that it doesn't need to be a permanent part of any patient's records.

i also find that i get annoyed when it comes to their, they're, there etc, yet i am guilty of throwing commas wherever it sounds like it needs one, regardless if the rest of the world cares.

apr 25 by brillohead a member since aug '08 - from 'sw michigan'. posts: 599 likes: 742

age: 43

awards:

quote from merlee

it's a skills fair, no apostrophe. otherwise, no one is very good at it!!!

amen! definitely have someone proofread all of your printed materials and any signage.

it's really frustrating to be expected to learn from someone who doesn't have a command of the most basic language skills. (i have a nursing instructor like this.... hard to take someone seriously when they can't even pay enough attention to put a period at the end of a sentence... that's a skill taught in kindergarten for crying out loud!) quote

[color=#663366] [color=#663366]for the love of god, it's an apostrophe!, whether or not she meant to put it there, or posted via cellphone which mine is known to add apostrophes to most conjunctions.. hardly gives you all guys any right to pick on her about it and make such a big deal of it.

after reading the op question, i'm kind of annoyed that after the grammar debate , the suggested responses were basically telling her "make it short and sweet, no one wants to be there anyways".

i'm assuming that your skills fair must be similar to our facilities annual competences we must complete as well as the techs. i'll admit that the long videos that are usually unchanged from year to year will get tedious and will lose their interest. besides the re-certification for using glucometers, tb mask fitting, and hazmat suit application etc, the part's that i found most interesting included learning on each other how to measure the bladder w/a normal ultrasound (too cheap to give the er bladder scanners), which we now use this method for post void residuals if possible to avoid risk of uti.

my other fave was the simulation room with a sim patient, and our group was then the code team. you can actually start iv/see blood return the sim pt's arms, he moans and breathes etc. then we ended the night with a stoke/pain/shock/lvad etc jeopardy game, winners were given some decent hospital apparell/bags/umbrellas. i guess their methods to keep us current is working b/c every year jacaho praises us immensely for our level 1 trauma center, stroke/mi care pathway, as well as our management of sepsis. we kinda made it into a competition to see which team could save the patient with the most complicated symptoms.

p.s. lunah... i just so happen to be one of those adhd learners and i'll forget the bottom line 2min. after you say it, unless i can relate it to something else, i.e. simulator competition, jeopardy, hands on stuff etc..

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brillohead, ADN, RN · Jun 6, 2012

[color=#663366]for the love of god, it's an apostrophe!, whether or not she meant to put it there, or posted via cellphone which mine is known to add apostrophes to most conjunctions.. hardly gives you all guys any right to pick on her about it and make such a big deal of it.

the op stated "

i need your help!!"

and "

i need to come up with how i'll present it."

well, for a whole lot of people, seeing an apostrophe for every. single. plural. word. would be a huge distraction. that means that it is a "big deal" in regards to her intention of offering the best skills fair experience possible to the employees at her facility.

not everyone has grammar/spelling skills, just like not everyone has athletic ability or math skills or whatever. fact of life.

my bosses at work have all of their correspondence checked by one of the underlings, because they don't have spelling skills. my husband works for another firm and if he has an important letter to write, he emails it to me for me to proof/edit it for him, because those things are "invisible" to him but jump off a page like a flashing beacon to me.

on the other hand, i let him take care of vehicle maintenance because even though he can't see pee splatters on a toilet seat, he can see the tiniest smudge of grease/oil inside the engine compartment of a vehicle. (he literally washes the engine off!!!!)

i offered constructive criticism to the op -- have your printed materials proofed by someone skilled in that craft in order to have the full message delivered to your audience. i'll offer you some constructive criticism too -- use a font size that doesn't require a magnifying glass, and more people might read your message.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Jun 6, 2012

"Themed" training is lame, it's just polishing a turd. If you want my attention create an immersive, challenging simulation that really teaches me something. Otherwise let's just get it over with so I can get back to my life. I believe that the educative value of a four hour battery of training is very low. Most of the time it is just verification of things we already do. I would encourage you to replace the skills fair with year-round training that focuses on one thing at a time. I know, this is more work for you, but your job is create effective training, not punch a bunch of checklists. Just my opinion...