CE Classes & Workshops

Testing for COVID-19 is used to make decisions that impact nurses and other healthcare workers—testing is used to determine precautions for hospitalized patients and when positive workers can return to work. Testing builds the data used to make decisions around public health precautions, such as stay-at-home orders and when to re-open safely.

But testing for COVID-19 has also been plagued with issues from the beginning. Access to testing was initially severely restricted and has been inequitably available. High false negative and false positive rates have cast doubt on what results mean. Many employers have stopped using testing to determine when it is safe for a COVID-positive worker to return to work. The health and safety of nurses, healthcare workers, and their patients is directly impacted by testing and how COVID-19 tests are used.

Understanding issues surrounding testing is important to advocacy for safe care. This CE course will discuss issues related to COVID-19 testing, how they impact nurses and their patients, and what advocacy for safer care can look like.

Objectives:

• Discuss issues surrounding PCR and antibody tests for COVID-19.
• Describe steps participants can take to advocate for safer care.

Instructors:

• Jane Thomason
• Rocelyn De Leon-Minch

Course Information

This will be a 2-hour online course via Zoom that can be completed for 2 hours of continuing education credits. After registering at the link below, you will receive an invitation to the Zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the Zoom class prior to the day of the class. If you have any questions, please contact Susie Gonzalez at sgonzalez@calnurses.org.

Times of crisis often trigger an avalanche of emergency measures ostensibly designed to help healthcare systems adapt to novel conditions. History teaches us, however, that changes implemented during a disaster often become the norm after the crisis has subsided. Whether pertaining to the hospital industry or to community health more generally, the long-term implementation of emergency measures can have devastating consequences for patients, as well as interfere with nurses’ ability to provide safe and effective care.

This class will examine the crisis measures currently being implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will look at changes both to the health care industry and to policies affecting the structural and environmental conditions that impact community health. We will examine what potential long-term consequences such changes could have for patient care, and—crucially—discuss how nurses can identify such measures and fight back against their permanent implementation.

Objectives

• Identify COVID-19 crisis measures and their impact on patient care
• Articulate how policies that respond to social crisis impact—positively or negatively—the structural determinants of health
• Formulate actions to prevent industry-specific and socio-economic developments from degrading health and healthcare in the long term

Instructors

• KB Burnside-Oxendine
• Michelle Mahon

Course Information

This will be a 3-hour online course via Zoom for 3 hours of continuing education credits. After registering at the link below, you will receive an invitation to the Zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the Zoom class prior to the day of the class. If you have any questions, please contact Valerie Gonzalez at vgonzalez@calnurses.org.

Time

Unless otherwise specified, all classes are from 10am – 1pm PT (1pm – 4pm ET).

This two-hour online course will delve into the issues faced by nurses and other healthcare workers around personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19. The course will present the most up-to-date scientific evidence regarding the virus and how that impacts healthcare workers’ PPE needs. We will compare different PPE standards, including standards from National Nurses United, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). This course will also analyze different methods to decontaminate N95 filtering facepiece respirators and other PPE. We will conclude with a discussion about steps nurses can take to ensure the highest level of protection in their workplaces.

Objectives - after completing this course, participants will be able to:

1. Discuss PPE standards that apply to US nurses and other healthcare workers for COVID-19. 
2. Describe steps nurses can take to advocate for safer workplaces.

Instructors:

• Rocelyn De Leon-Minch
• Jane Thomason

Course Information:

This will be an online course course with 2-hours online via Zoom for 2 hours of continuing education credits. After registering at the link below, you will receive an invitation to the Zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the Zoom class prior to the day of the class. If you have any questions, please contact Susie Gonzalez at sgonzalez@calnurses.org.

Nursing has been described as both a science and an art. What is the science of nursing?  How do we express the art of nursing? Is the humanitarian nature of nursing in danger? How do these elements help us actualize the essence of nursing practice in the context of widespread societal, political, and health care delivery changes? 

This online course and associated home studies will examine these questions as we look at the central role of Registered Nurses during the current global pandemic. 

Course Objectives:

• Articulate the unique patient advocacy role RNs hold in the health care delivery system, both historically and during health care crises such as the current pandemic 
• Define the critical role RNs have in maintaining the science and defending the art of nursing to preserve holistic patient care 
• Recognize the potential of technology and restructuring to supplant RN critical thinking and independent clinical judgment with rigid clinical pathways or RN displacement 
• Discuss the historical and contemporary roles of RNs in the face of infectious disease and public health threats 

Instructors:

• Gerard Brogan, RN
• Patricia Gonzalez, RN

Notice!

Due to the social isolation edicts necessitated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, we will be holding upcoming CE classes online. We will be using Zoom as the online platform. Register as usual and we will send you an invite to the Zoom class.

This will be a hybrid style class with 3 hours online via Zoom followed by two 2-hour home studies that can be completed on the same day for a total of 7 hours of continuing education credits

We will be sending everyone who registered for the class an invitation to the zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the zoom class prior to the day of the class.

We realize this is yet another change in your stressful lives at the moment, please email Susie Gonzalez at sgonzalez@canurses.org if you need any clarification of these changes or have any questions.

As the world responds to the uneven impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a second threat follows in its wake: a xenophobic reaction that stigmatizes migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and foreigners as the cause of the outbreak.  Such responses to the crisis are not only deceptive and vicious but also a threat to public health.  Decades of research proves that islamophobia, sinophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric causes illness and premature death.  In general, exposure to discrimination can be traumatizing, causing long-lasting mental and health effects.  In contexts of global health crises, falsely blaming groups who are already health compromised and often under-resourced to prevent contagion, threatens public health by driving the virus underground and making it more difficult to maintain.

This class separates fact from fiction with a focus on the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has been politicized by xenophobic leaders to advance political gains. As health workers fight for appropriate supplies and protections, nationalist leaders across Europe and the United States are attempting to escalate repressive border policies. Meanwhile asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants around the world—who have had nothing to do with the spread of COVID-19—face increased discrimination and attacks.  Blaming vulnerable groups creates compound health risks and putting unnecessary pressure on our over-stretched health resources.  To prevent spread, the international community must band together to provide appropriate care and human rights for all patients.

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

1. Evaluate how the negative effects of the current pandemic can be deepened by patterns of racial and gendered health disparities caused by structural violence   
2. Outline the compounding health risks to people of color that are created by racist and xenophobic reactions to the crisis.

Course Information:

This will be a hybrid style course with 1-hour online via Zoom followed by a 1-hour home study that can be completed on the same day for a total of 2 hours of continuing education credits. After registering at the link below, you will receive an invitation to the Zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the Zoom class prior to the day of the class. If you have any questions, please contact Valerie Gonzalez at vgonzalez@calnurses.org.

Notice!

Due to the social isolation edicts necessitated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, we will be holding upcoming CE classes online. We will be using Zoom as the online platform. Register as usual and we will send you an invite to the Zoom class.

We know as nurses you are all very busy at the moment, so we will be offering a variety of class formats (see class dates below for specifics).

We will be sending everyone who registered for the class an invitation to the zoom class via email. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the zoom class prior to the day of the class.

We realize this is yet another change in your stressful lives at the moment, please email Valerie Gonzalez at vgonzalez@calnurses.org if you need any clarification of these changes or have any questions.
 
*Nurses are welcome to register for any class regardless of geographical location until the class has reached capacity. 

Course Description:

What will the future of nursing look like? Will the quality of patient care improve along with the quality of nurses’ jobs? Or will emerging technologies and a changing health care environment degrade the nursing profession and undermine patient outcomes? This course will survey key health care trends and help nurses understand how they can shape a future in which they will have the time, resources, professional autonomy, and safe workplaces they need to provide the care their patients need.

The first part of the course will analyze how nurses are affected by a broader crisis in care work. The second part will focus on technological change in health care, the factors driving it, and its impact on nurses and patients. The final section will explore how Medicare for All and other crucial reforms would empower nurses to reclaim the future of their profession and ensure that care work is truly valued and given the respect it deserves.

Course Objectives:

• Articulate how gender stereotypes shape the way care work is perceived, defined, and valued in our economy, and how this in turn affects the American healthcare system.  
• Describe recent technological trends in health care, and explain why technologies ostensibly introduced to complement nurses’ skills, ease workloads, and improve patient outcomes often have the opposite effect.
• Describe how a Medicare for All (single-payer) system works and identify other concrete measures nurses can take to improve job quality and quality of care in their workplaces.
• Explain how nurses can work with patients and their communities to address the crisis of care, shape technological change, and achieve health justice in America

Course Information:

This will be a hybrid style class with 3 hours online via Zoom followed by a 3 hour home study that can be completed on the same day for a total of 6 hours of continuing education credits. An extra hour of home study will be available for UC nurses.

Course Description:

Over the last several decades, the human impact on the Earth’s climate has exponentially increased, initiating an environmental crisis that threatens the sustainability of our planet and the wellbeing of its inhabitants. This course examines the implications of the anthropogenic disruption of the planet’s ecosystems for human health and health care, from changing ecologies of infectious disease to increased exposure to environmental toxins and natural hazards.

We will analyze the structural causes of environmental change by investigating how an economic system oriented towards limitless extraction, social relations rooted in consumption and competition, and cultural assumptions about human dominion over nature affect not just the natural environment, but the social distribution of health, wealth, and resources. In doing so, we will pay particular attention to how the adverse health effects of environmental change disproportionately impact already vulnerable communities, compounding systemic injustice and economic inequality. The class will reflect on the ways in which climate change is relevant to not only the health of patients, but to the integrity of clinical practice and functioning of health care systems by considering how it disrupts all conditions of care—from supply chains to infrastructure—increasing cost and undermining public health. Finally, the course will illustrate strategies that nurses are already implementing to respond to the structural causes of the climate crisis and offer tools for building a democratic and just transition to a more sustainable future.

Course Objectives :

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

1. Grasp the fundamental science and terms of climate change and familiarize students with contemporary studies of anthropogenic climate disruption.
2. Link environmental change to health and healthcare determinants and demonstrate how it disproportionately affects already-vulnerable populations, including in the Global South and economically disenfranchised communities everywhere.
3. Articulate the structural causes of climate-induced health issues and the social forces that create environmental inequalities.
4. Offer strategies for counteracting environmental injustice, addressing climate change, and “justly transitioning” to democratic and sustainable energy systems.

Times and Credits: 10am - 2pm PT. The class is worth 4 CEH

Course Information:

This will be a hybrid style course with 2.5-hours online via Zoom followed by a 1.5-hour home study that can be completed on the same day for a total of 4 hours of continuing education credits. After registering at the link below, you will receive an invitation to the Zoom class via email. Nurses who originally registered for an in-person class will also receive an email invitation to the Zoom class. It is important that you respond to the invitation and register for the Zoom class prior to the day of the class. Nurses are welcome to register for any class regardless of geographical location until the class has reached capacity. If you have any questions, please contact Valerie Gonzalez at vgonzalez@calnurses.org.