Nursing

Inside scoop from our experts: Staff education

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, July 19, 2010

This week’s question on staff education comes from a discussion on JourneyTalk. The following provides some guidance on how one community hospital tackles the issue of staff education departments.

Q: I would like any information regarding staff education departments. Do you have a director over those areas? Do you do unit based/bedside competencies? How many educators do you employee? How big is your hospital? Are you educator’s masters prepared? Are they service line based?

A: We are a 250 bed community hospital. We have a Department of Education which has a director, and four educators: one med/surg, one critical care, one surgical services and one mother/baby. They are not required, by their job description, to be masters prepared, but one of them is a advanced practice nurse, and one other has a masters of science in nursing.

We also have once a year a mandatory competency day where the educators and various people throughout the organization set up tables for each topic and it is an open house for all employees to be educated, and also take the test. Their tests are then sorted by unit by a secretary and sent to the managers. it is the managers responsibility to make sure all employees who were not able to make it that day complete the test within two months.

Editor's note: On JourneyTalk you can network with your peers, discuss the new manual, share your helpful tips, and get advice on how to meet the program's expectations. Become a member of JourneyTalk when you subscribe to HCPro's Resource Center for the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®.

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