Health Literacy Online CME Course

Health Literacy, You talk to your patients, but do they understand? The importance of Health Literacy to your Practice.

This new Health Literacy CME course on the MDcme.ca website is open access thanks to grants from various Canadian organizations. The online course geared to physicians and other healthcare professions, will

"introduce you to the concept of health literacy. It will give an overview of current knowledge about the links between literacy and health outcomes. The goal is to help you understand how health literacy affects your own practice or work setting. It will introduce some practical tools and strategies to identify and address the health literacy needs of your patients/clients, and the barriers that you may inadvertently create to patient/client understanding."

Registration is required.

Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy

A new CE module has been made available from the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (OJIN) called "Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy".
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is freely offering this course online to it's members. Non-members may still read the article and take the post-test.

"The ability to communicate effectively with patients who have low health literacy depends on our ability to recognize this problem and to create a patient-centered and shame-free healthcare environment."

Nursing CE via the Nursing Reference Center

CINAHL in partnership with EBSCO's Nursing Reference Center provides easy access to continuing education opportunities for Nurses. CINAHL [the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature] is accredited as a provider of continuing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

With your login access to EBSCOhost and the Nursing Reference Center (NRC) database, you can easily stay current in your profession by working through the interactive modules online. They contain the latest topics on patient care and drug administration. This resource can also earn you contact hours toward re-licensure.
Read more about this opportunity by clicking on the title; or just login to EBSCO [3rd link in left sidebar on Library Home page), then go to the NRC and click on the tab called 'Continuing Education'.

The Simulation Center for Clinical Interdiscplinary Practice

Announcing the launch of Dr. Robert Ross's latest brain child!

The Simulation Center for Clinical Interdiscplinary Practice

with the base of operations in our amazing, state-of-the-art Simulation Laboratory/ Virtual Hospital right here on our UMHS/IUON campus in St. Kitts! For more information and dates for uncoming training courses view the SCCIP-SK website.

Are you a 'Curious Practitioner'?

The 'curious practitioner': effective lifelong learning. Nursing in Practice Sept/Oct 2009, No.50
by Sue Spencer, Coventry University, UK

How committed are you to providing well-informed and up-to-date nursing practice? This article explores the value of being what it calls a 'curious practitioner'. It will help you to

"explore some creative ways of transferring learning in all domains of your life to your professional practice."

"If you are a curious and questioning practitioner, you cannot help but be engaged with lifelong learning, as each day generates questions that need answers. Finding the answers to those questions is the start of lifelong learning and continuing professional development."

Immune Readiness CE Courses for Nurses

Need information and/or continuing nursing education re: vaccines?
The American Nurses Association's (ANA) Center for Continuing Education and Professional Development is pleased to provide the following courses available from the Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network. Access more than 30 free, annually updated Immune Readiness Courses on immunology and vaccines, including such topics as Anaphylaxis, Botulism, Tuberculosis, Human Papillomavirus Vaccine, and Rotavirus Vaccine.
Click for a complete list of available courses.

Nursing Continuing Education Conference

The Heatlh Services Authority (HSA) of the Cayman Islands, hosted their 3rd annual nursing education conference May 15 - 19, 2008.
The conference gave local nurses the opportunity to strengthen and enhance the standard of nursing care delivered across the Cayman islands.
“There is so much that demands our attention, and there are so few of us to cover. We are working constantly, against the clock, to ease suffering and save lives”
Chief Nursing Officer Hazel Brown
Click on title for report in The Cay Compass.

Nurse Midwifery Free Online CE Modules

Designed for certified nurse midwives
& other interested health care professionals!

Modules include:
Maternal Nutrition Throughout the Childbearing Cycle
Agnes Higgins Method
Psychomotor Skills for Intrapartum Management
Birth of the Placenta
Repair of the Perineum
Nurse-Midwifery as a career

Developed by Joyce Cameron Foster
at the College of Nursing, University of Utah.

Online CEU's: A Directory for Nurses

This free online Continuing Education Directory service allows you to compare online classes from different CE providers. Grouped into areas of specialization, the directory focuses on nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Also keep in mind that EBSCO's Nursing Reference Center has a built-in CE module for those of you who have access to that database.

Cultural Competence and Quality of Care

University of California TV; 55 minutes; aired 10/24/2007 ~
"This program explores the concepts of cultural and linguistic competency in delivery of healthcare services and in healthcare workforce development. Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities presents an outline for a culturally proficient healthcare system."

This is just one of an extensive list of excellent vodcasts, available through UCTV & the Med Ed Hour; aimed at physicians, nurses and other health care professionals who wish to expand their knowledge & keep current.
The Med Ed Hour airs on UCTV every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4:00 to 5:00pm (local time, GMT-4).