Creating and maintaining a climate of excellence can be a challenge for nurse managers! If you are interested in designing a quality focused work culture and would like practical strategies for improving the quality of care in the clinical setting, this program will give you the necessary tools to achieve those goals. Topics will include: current issues in health care quality, evidence-based practice, quality improvement tools, change process and quality improvement, and how to create a quality-focused work culture.

Palliative care can be fragmented among providers and provider settings, leading to a lack of continuity of care and impeding the ability to provide high-quality care. Enhanced communication among patients, families, and providers is crucial to maintaining high-quality palliative care. Knowledge gained from this course can lead to improved outcomes for patients and families. This program will cover a variety of topics of interest to individuals providing palliative care to oncology patients and will include the concept of palliative care as it relates to patients, caregivers and staff.

Care giving can always be stressful, but especially if the caregiver has other important and pressing responsibilities. If you are experiencing some of the signs of caregiving stress, consider attending this one day program. It is important that a caregiver realizes that she or he is not alone. Getting support will help reduce caregiver stress, as well as reduce the associated physical and emotional risks of ongoing stress. Remember, in order to take good care of others, you must take good care of yourself!

Do you know the hot topics that nurse practitioners face? Topics such as how the new Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) will affect your practice. Will you need to get a DNP to continue to practice? Will you be grandfathered in? Or will it take a legislative act? Do you need to take a medical board examination to practice? How does the recommendation that by 2015 there be no Master’s prepared Nurse Practitioners- only DNPs affect your ability to practice? These and other hot topics for nurse practitioners will be discussed in an open and candid environment. Speakers will be experts in the field and will challenge participants to think critically.

We are not all the same when it comes to cardiovascular disease! There are disparities in the rate, impact, and risk of cardiovascular disease various populations: women, elderly, and certain ethnic populations. This program will explore how diversity affects cardiovascular disease and offer strategies on how to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease for these populations.

Chronic diseases are a leading cause of death and disability in the United States! Although chronic diseases are among the most common and costly health problems, they are also among the most preventable. As nurses we all know that adopting healthy behaviors can prevent or control the devastating effects of these diseases. This program will assist the healthcare professional in looking at chronic disease and in learning how to help patients prevent or control them more effectively.

As Hippocrates once said, "Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity." This program gives you the opportunity to learn and implement the most current information regarding wound healing and management; as well as the most up-to-date prevention strategies. Think what that can do for your patients!

JCAHO's core values describe how our actions will be guided as we work toward provision of quality care. This program examines evidence-based process-of-care practices for five core performance measure sets: acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, pregnancy and related conditions, and surgical infection prevention. It analyzes relationships between core performance measurement data and perceptions about their value, actions taken, and the impact of interventions.

Do you need to update your forensic knowledge base? This one day workshop will focus on issues relevant to forensic care. Topics will include how anthropology and DNA fit into a crime scene, Crawford Ruling, and review of areas of forensic care given in various health care settings. The program will provide all levels of health care providers with up-to-date information related to forensic care.