CE Classes

Public Health, Disaster Relief, and Humanitarian Crises

From hurricanes to wildfires, natural disasters have generated an onslaught of humanitarian crises in recent years. This course will explore what factors contribute to the increasing prevalence of such crises, and how science-based RN practice and advocacy can mitigate the suffering caused by this disturbing trend.

During the class, we will hear firsthand accounts from RNs who have deployed to disaster-stricken areas. These experiences will help us understand how the core nurse values of caring, compassion, and community provide a model for addressing humanitarian crisis, and for rebuilding communities in the aftermath of natural disaster.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Provide examples of economic processes that exacerbate the health impacts of natural disasters on vulnerable communities.
2. Discuss how the core nurse values of caring, compassion, and community relate to disaster relief and humanitarian aid.
3. Describe the historic public health role of the nursing profession and why RNs must continue to advocate for robust public health policy beyond the bedside.
4. Explain the relationship among public health, pollution, and climate change.

A Closer Look at Root Causes, Impacts, and Solutions

Workplace stress is a serious concern for nurses, with impactful consequences for individual nurses’ health as well as patient care, burnout, and turnover. Usually stress is talked about as an individual problem. Solutions proffered by employers generally focus on self-care and stress relief, “I have to make the situation work”, and individual therapy/mental health treatment, “There must be something wrong with me”.

Registered nurses are responsible for and accountable to practicing safely, competently, ethically, and compassionately in accordance with their scope of practice. This class will look at how workplace stress can be a barrier to that responsibility. We will look closely at the fundamental sources of physical, mental, and moral stress in nursing — including understaffing and under-resourcing, amongst others. In looking at the bigger picture of workplace stress, we will identify effective solutions to nurses’ workplace stress.

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate root causes of nurses’ work-related stress.
2. Describe how a stressful workplace affects patient outcomes.
3. Discuss the relation between stress and organizational constraints.

Learning And Applying Structural Competency

How is our health affected by the society in which we live? Why are U.S. patients consistently among the sickest in the industrialized world, despite having the highest health expenditure per person? How has the investment of tens of billions of dollars in healthcare technology affected patients and the nursing profession? What hap- pens to health outcomes when traditional jobs go by the wayside and laws to protect workers and communities are rolled back?

This class introduces nurses to a new approach to healthcare — structural competency — a cutting edge model that addresses the interplay of biological and social factors affecting patients and communities. The course examines how new healthcare technologies accelerate the shift of care from hospitals to less costly care settings, like clinics and the home, and the effect this may have on the patient and family caregivers.

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate a biosocial understanding of U.S. health inequity.
2. Evaluate the implications of technology-driven deskilling for the broader society and, in particular, for nurses’ judgment and ability to advocate for their patients.
3. Apply the insights of structural competency to bedside nursing and community health.

This course will cover topics relevant to the practice of registered nurses in Maryland by examining how various professional models of care, nursing leadership, and management style promoted by magnet status designation, as well as the increased utilization of technology, impact the registered nurse’s ability to exercise independent professional judgment and advocate in the exclusive interest of the patient. The class runs from 9am - 3pm.
 
Objectives

1.  Describe the effects of magnet designation on the art and science of RN practice and the RN duty and right of patient advocacy.
2. Analyze the impact of evidence-based and decision-support technologies on safe, therapeutic, and  competent patient care.
3. Recognize the importance of the direct-care RNs autonomy in exercising independent professional judgment in the exclusive interest of their patients.