CE Classes

This class examines CNA-sponsored, uniform, safe-staffing standards, which mandate staffing by individual patient acuity with the RN ratios as the minimum, and identifies strategies for implementing and enforcing these standards.

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

1. Concisely outline the statutory mandates on staffing by scope, ratios, and acuity.
2. Recognize patient care standards and assignments which place your patients at risk.
3. Initiate steps or actions necessary to promote safe assignments.
4. Activate collective patient advocacy strategies including the use of Title 22 ratios and acuity mandates and the staffing provisions in the contract.

Making the New Cal/OSHA Standard Work for Nurses

Workplace violence has reached epidemic proportions in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Healthcare workers in inpatient facilities are five to twelve times more likely to experience non-fatal workplace violence than workers in the United States overall. Studies have shown that nurses who experience workplace violence report high levels of stress and symptoms of trauma, decreased job performance and efficiency — all of which can reduce the quality of patient care in addition to impacting nurses’ lives and health. One study found that 61 percent of nurses who experience violence on the job consider leaving their jobs.

Employers can — and should — prevent workplace violence in healthcare settings. California’s state OSHA program, Cal/OSHA, recently passed the Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Standard (Calif. Code of Regulations Title 8 Sect. 3342). With a final effective date of April 1, 2018, this standard requires that employers create comprehensive, unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans with the active involvement of direct-care employees. This class will review the expansive requirements of the Cal/OSHA standard. We will then discuss roles for nurses in ensuring that employers provide a safe environment with appropriate and effective workplace violence prevention.

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

1. Describe the elements of the Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care Standard.
2. Discuss nurses’ role in ensuring a safe environment for patient care.

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.

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.