Background: It is a challenge to educators to assist nursing staff in maintaining up-to-date knowledge of pain assessment and management.
Method: A learning game, "The Pain Game/' was developed to deliver information on current practices and standards related to patient pain assessment and management.
Results: The advantages of using this gaming technique included minimal instructor preparation time, low cost materials, inclusion of participants as peer teachers, and a high level of participant involvement in the learning process.
Conclusions: The Pain Game has been a wellreceived educational activity. Not only did knowledge acquisition occur, but the game also provided an enjoyable alternative to more traditional content delivery methods.
Patient violence is a growing problem in healthcare institutions. Incidents of violence lead to injuries and increased operating costs. An innovative organizational approach to this problem is inclusion of interdisciplinary competency-based staff education and practice, as a key component of a comprehensive violence prevention program.Interdisciplinary competencies include a variety of behavioral responses, aimed at prevention, environmental, interpersonal, and physical interventions and postvention techniques for aggression and violence. Methods to maintain, monitor, document, and improve staff performance and skills are delineated. Organizational investment in such interdisciplinary competency-based education and practice evolves over time. Results include fewer incidents and injuries and enhanced interdisciplinary cooperation.
Staff development educators can better control their workload and provide a more comprehensive employee education program when the organization adopts a formal five-step process that culminates in the publication of an annual employee education calendar. This article describes the five steps of organization-wide learning needs assessment, resource allocation, priority setting, documentation of the educational plan, and calendar development, including elements and timelines. The annual calendar reflects involvement of staff throughout the facility in the identification, planning, and delivery of education programs. Its publication enhances staff and supervisors' awareness of learning opportunities. Its longer-range perspective assists managers and employees to better plan to meet learning needs and improves participation in staff development activities.
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