Are Monthly In-Services an Option in your Facilities?
by Tim Gieseke MD, CMD
Chairperson of Education at CALTCM
 

As a long time Medical Director, I have made a commitment to my facilities to provide a monthly in-service on a topic of their choice.  I’ve found that adult learning is more enjoyable and effective if the subject addresses areas of education important to active clinical problems in the facility.  Because I have 5 facilities, I usually will pick one subject area from my discussions with nursing administration, which seems applicable to most of my facilities.  Since I’m a busy clinician, I need resources and curriculum readily available to meet this commitment in a time efficient way.  Fortunately, the digital age has filled this need.  In a recent issue of the WAVE*, I identified web based materials available from AMDA, AGS, and CALTCM.  In addition, our collaboration with state stakeholder organizations like the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, California Culture Change (lead organization for California Partnership for Dementia Care), and CAHF (California Association of Health Facilities) has provided access to their educational materials in digital format.

Using these resources, I have built an electronic library which I can quickly access that addresses a myriad of subjects.  For example, I recently developed a presentation on “Heart Failure” in the SNF setting.  I found the AGS Review Syllabus chapter on Heart Failure (GeriatricsCareOnline) and accompanying teaching slides particularly helpful.  I also used the search engine for AMDAs annual meeting presentations (www.prolibraries.com) to find the latest presentations on this subject, which I then downloaded to my laptop.  I then moved all these materials and the new AHA/ ACC Heart Failure Guidelines (see attachment) into a teaching file on this subject in the In-service document section on my lap top.  From there, I right clicked and sent the file to “dropbox”, a wonderful app that puts these material in the cloud available to all my devices.  I now have the pleasure of scan reading these material quickly on my IPAD to identify issues important to my facilities.  In this case, I found the AGS teaching slides to be the most helpful basic resource, which I was quickly able to update for my teaching purposes.  From the AHA/ACC Heart Failure Guidelines, I also identified a helpful teaching resource, the “Heart Failure Stop Light” (see attachment).  I’m now ready to send this helpful material in electronic format to my facilities.  Once this is done, they have the option of sharing the material with appropriate staff for their future use, key materials can be printed by them for the actual in-service, and I’m now ready for the scheduled presentation.

This process for learning and curriculum development is not the exclusive domain of the Medical Director, but can be done by attending physicians, NPs or PAs, House Staff, and nurse educators.  As we do this together, we will raise the “Clinical Excellence” bar in our facilities.

*Click here for article mentioned above.

Attachments:

AHA CHF 2013 Guidelines

Heart Failure Stoplight

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