Continuing Education (CE) class catalog

Course Description

Nurses and other health care workers experience some of the highest rates of work-related injuries and illnesses of any occupation in the United States. Most nurses experience back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders at some point in their career. Workplace violence continues to accelerate and can cause both physical injuries and significant anxiety, stress, and trauma for nurses. Both musculoskeletal injuries and workplace violence are major contributors to nurses leaving the profession. And the reality is, when nurses are at risk, patients are also at risk.

Health care employers have a legal and ethical obligation to provide a safe and healthy care environment free from hazards. This class will analyze the issues of workplace violence and back injuries and how they threaten nurses’ health and safety at work. We will examine the evidence on available prevention measures that would effectively protect nurses and patients. The class will conclude with a discussion regarding the tools that nurses can use to advocate for safer patient care conditions.

This is a two-part, in-person CE Class from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (6 hours of CE credits). If you're a UC nurse, an extra hour will be available from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Participants must be in attendance all day to receive the full 6 CEU CE credits, even if they have taken one of the classes prior to the sign-up date.

Part 1: Our Patients are Safe When We Are Safe: Workplace Violence and Back Injury Prevention in Health Care Facilities

Description

Nurses and other health care workers experience some of the highest rates of work-related injuries and illnesses of any occupation in the United States. Most nurses experience back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders at some point in their career. Workplace violence continues to accelerate and can cause both physical injuries and significant anxiety, stress, and trauma for nurses. Both musculoskeletal injuries and workplace violence are major contributors to nurses leaving the profession. And the reality is, when nurses are at risk, patients are also at risk.

Health care employers have a legal and ethical obligation to provide a safe and healthy care environment free from hazards. This class will analyze the issues of workplace violence and back injuries and how they threaten nurses’ health and safety at work. We will examine the evidence on available prevention measures that would effectively protect nurses and patients. The class will conclude with a discussion regarding the tools that nurses can use to advocate for safer patient care conditions.

Part 2: Environments of Harm: How Health Care Facility Buildings Can Endanger Patient and Nurse Health & Safety in a Changing Climate

Description

Hospitals and other health care settings should be places of refuge and healing in which nurses play a vital role in providing care to patients. But the reality is that nurses and patients can face hazards associated with poorly maintained and aging hospital infrastructure, including waterborne pathogens, poor air quality and ventilation, extreme temperatures, and slips, trips, and falls. Human-induced climate change is only amplifying those hazards through increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heatwaves, winter storms, and hurricanes, as well as the increased emergence of infectious diseases. Increasing extreme weather events and other emergencies can disrupt critical power and water supplies, damage hospital infrastructure, and overwhelm and prevent health care systems from delivering lifesaving care when facilities are not prepared.

This class will investigate building-related hazards that can impact the health and safety of nurses and patients, including water and air quality, the safety of the physical environment, and disaster preparedness. We will discuss the measures needed to ensure that health care facilities provide a safe care environment for nurses and patients.

Course Description

Health outcomes for Americans are among the worst in developed countries, from maternal mortality to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more. Decades of scientific research show that these health outcomes are directly related to toxic exposures, environmental factors, and the social determinants of health—we know that tobacco causes cancer, air pollution cause asthma, opioid painkillers are addictive, and systemic racism causes health harm. This science should form the basis for robust regulatory protections and systemic change, yet corporations have cast doubt at every turn to undermine health and safety protections.

This class will explore the tactics that corporations have used to undermine science-based protections over the past century and how they are still being used today to undermine public health protections for patients. We will analyze how pivotal health standards have been won and saved patients’ lives. We will apply our analysis to current events, where we are facing attacks on our public health and safety protections for nurses and patients. As the most trusted profession, nurses have an essential role to play in the fight for the right to health and formulating powerful advocacy to win health protections for patients.