Elevating Resuscitation Practice at Mercy Health

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

HealthStream recently spoke with Angela Woods and Melissa Reichling, educators at Mercy Health, about their experience during the organization’s transition to online resuscitation training and manikin-based skills verification. This is the first of three excerpts from the article.

Mercy Health’s Focus on Evidenced-Based Practice

Mercy Health transitioned to resuscitation training from HealthStream to strive for excellence in resuscitation. The training program incorporates simulation-based technology that enhances the learner’s experience through active application of knowledge and performance critique tools. Active simulated learning and prompt feedback are elements not often seen in the traditional life-support learning environments.

The transition to this training is part of a larger initiative at Mercy Health. Woods offers, “Everything that Mercy Health does is moving us towards the best evidence-based research practices, and I think the e-simulation course really fits into that. The staff are able to learn on an up-to-date evidenced-based platform.” Reichling shares, “When I first learned advanced resuscitation, we attended a couple days of classes that included didactic, case studies, and videos. Our test was a written exam, and then we did a group megacode. The manikin we used did not give feedback; our instructors gave us subjective feedback about our performance.”

Transitioning to Online Training

The transition to online resuscitation training was not as disruptive as it once would have been. Educators found that staff members are far more accustomed to online learning now than a decade ago. Pre-licensure nursing programs expose those entering the workforce to online education programs and multi-modal education opportunities. Health organizations are starting to follow suit. Woods shares, “We do online education with several different programs, and I feel like it’s a platform that everyone’s gotten used to. If we would have rolled this out before 2011 when we were just starting into our electronic medical record days, I think it might have been a big shock for everyone.” Reichling offers, “For tech-savvy people the transition to the online training was smoother. It was a bit of a hurdle for those who had not been exposed to an online simulated environment before, but after some practice we all caught on.”

Master Trainers Were Helpful in Guiding the Transition

Mercy Health made a big commitment to the education and preparation of master trainers/super-users, who became experts in the new resuscitation training system. Woods suggests that this initiative, “helped secure buy-in from the other staff members who would go through the skills check off.” She shares that after the master training was completed, many of the Mercy Health sites launched the program with open houses. Her facility “set up resuscitation manikins in one of our conference rooms by the cafeteria so that staff members could pop in and practice, allowing them to see what the difference would be.”

Future blog posts in this series will contain the following advice for healthcare education professionals interested in transitioning to online training for resuscitation:

  • Learners Appreciate the Instant Feedback
  • The Pause Button Can Help with the Online Training
  • Don’t Multitask While Completing the Online Portion
  • Consider Expanding the Training to Other Disciplines
  • The Value of the Convenience of Doing It on Your Own Time
  • Automatic Certification Tracking Is a Key Benefit

Download the full article here.