Free Buprenorphine X-Waiver Training

The most recent opioid law, Chapter 208 of the Acts of 2018, requires acute care hospital emergency departments to have the capacity to initiate opioid agonist treatment, including buprenorphine.

To aid hospitals in implementing this policy, Boston Medical Center Office Based Addiction Treatment Training and Technical assistance (BMC OBAT TTA) offers free addiction trainings across Massachusetts for health care and social service providers. Scheduled trainings, including buprenorphine waiver trainings, are hosted in various locations around the state.

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 requires physicians to complete 8 hours of approved training to be eligible for a waiver, and nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse specialists (CNSs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), and physician assistants (PAs) to complete 24 hours. NPs, CNSs, CNMs, CRNAs, and PAs are able to complete these 8-hour trainings and then do a supplemental free online 16-hour training to meet the 24-hour requirement.

The dates, locations, and registration links for the trainings can be found here…

IHI’s WHITE PAPER – Framework for Improving Joy in Work

With increasing demands on time, resources, and energy, in addition to poorly designed systems of daily work, it’s not surprising health care professionals are experiencing burnout at increasingly higher rates, with staff turnover rates also on the rise. Yet, joy in work is more than just the absence of burnout or an issue of individual wellness; it is a system property. It is generated (or not) by the system and occurs (or not) organization-wide. Joy in work — or lack thereof — not only impacts individual staff engagement and satisfaction, but also patient experience, quality of care, patient safety, and organizational performance.
This white paper is intended to serve as a guide for health care organizations to engage in a participative process where leaders ask colleagues at all levels of the organization, “What matters to you?” — enabling them to better understand the barriers to joy in work, and co-create meaningful, high-leverage strategies to address these issues.

The white paper describes the following:

  • The importance of joy in work (the “why”);
  • Four steps leaders can take to improve joy in work (the “how”);
  • The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work: nine critical components of a system for ensuring a joyful, engaged workforce (the “what”);
  • Key change ideas for improving joy in work, along with examples from organizations that helped test them; and
  • Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work.

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Transforming Your Workplace with Gratitude

“THANK YOU.”

We’re taught this phrase from the time we learn to talk. It’s as common as “Hello” or “How are you?” Maybe that’s why so many of us tend to dismiss it as an unnecessary gesture. So, how does this seemingly insignificant phrase have the power to change you, your employees and your business in a profoundly positive way? Actually, it’s one of the easiest things you can do to transform your work environment. And that’s what this guide is all about.

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Reducing the Cost of Caring: 7 R’s for Battling Compassion Fatigue

If you work in the wellness industry, I’d like you to consider yourself part of a “helping profession”. Just like nurses, teachers, counselors, first responders or nonprofit leaders, you come to the office every day with the overall mission of helping those in need.

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Surviving Sepsis Campaign

The international Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) is a joint initiative of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), led by multidisciplinary international experts who are committed to reducing mortality and morbidity from sepsis and septic shock, which are leading causes of death worldwide.

Click here for more information.

Sepsis Alliance

Sepsis has been named as the most expensive in-patient cost in American hospitals in 2014 averaging more than $18,000 per hospital stay. With over 1.5 million sepsis hospital stays in 2014 per year, that works out to costs of $27 billion each year. Studies investigating survival have reported slightly different numbers, but it appears that on average, approximately 30% of patients diagnosed with severe sepsis do not survive. Up to 50% of survivors suffer from post-sepsis syndrome. Until a cure for sepsis is found, early detection is the surest hope for survival and limiting disability for survivors. Read Sepsis Alliance’s Sepsis Fact Sheet for additional information.

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Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium

Every 2 minutes someone dies from sepsis in the U.S. – that’s more than from prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined. Sepsis is a medical emergency in the Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium brings together leading experts and advocates from across the state to raise awareness and save lives.

The Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium brings together a group of organizations essential to planning and executing an effective public health response to sepsis. It also provides ongoing strategic direction for statewide initiatives to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sepsis, and supplies the administrative backbone necessary to sustain progress. The consortium model is well-suited to addressing multifaceted, persistent challenges like sepsis that require the focus of dispersed parties with expertise and authority but whose impact would be limited if acting alone. Read the Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium charter.

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Global Sepsis Alliance

Global Sepsis Alliance has produced a library of Sepsis Information Guides on dozens of topics. These guides are high resolution and can be printed and distributed to patients, co-workers, and other professionals.

Available guides include Life After Sepsis, Aging, Amputations, Appendicitis, C. difficile, COPD, Cellulitis, Children, Dental Infections, Diabetes, Flu, HAI, HIV/AIDS, Immune System, Kidney Stones, Liver Disease, MRSA, Meningitis, Necrotizing Fasciitis, Paralysis, Pneumonia, Pregnancy & Childbirth, Strep B, Surgery, TSS, UTIs, and other fact sheets.

Access the guides here.

Introducing Job Stress: A Continuing Education Program for Today’s Nurse

CPH-NEW is a NIOSH Total Worker HealthTM Center for Excellence. This  program was supported by NIOSH Grant Number U19-OH008857.
A free online continuing education program on causes, impacts, and prevention strategies to deal with job stress.

The online program consists of 4 modules to educate nurses on the latest research on job stress concepts, stressors in the healthcare workplace, the impact of stress on nurses and patients, and coping and prevention strategies at the individual and organizational level. Materials were developed by faculty at UMass Lowell Departments of Work Environment, Nursing, and Community Health and Sustainability.

  • Earn continuing education credits—This program meets the MA Board of Registration in Nursing requirements for 4 contact hours.
  • Assess your workplace and health behaviors—Identify sources of stress in your work environment; understand how stress impacts quality of care, as well as your own physical and mental health.
  • Learn coping and prevention strategies—Stress reduction in the workplace must focus on both individuals and the organization.

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Falls Prevention Awareness Week – September 22 – 28 2018

Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths, unintentional injuries, and hospital admissions for trauma. Falls can take a serious toll on older adults’ quality of life and independence. To recognize this critical issue, at the state level, SCR 77 (D-Lowenthal) was passed in 2008 declaring the first week of Fall each year as Fall Prevention Awareness Week.

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