Healthcare providers receive a variety of types of training depending on their specialty – from basics like CPR and AED education to rotations in psychiatry, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Still, despite all this pre-career training, medical education doesn’t stop on graduation day. In fact, to provide the best care possible, all medical professionals should be receiving ongoing training in different supplementary skills. Though the most appropriate training will vary depending on the provider, programs like these can help doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals offer the best care possible.
Seeing Through Bias
In recent years, bias – particularly racial bias, but also gender-based discrimination – have been hot topics in healthcare. That’s because, while healthcare training generally emphasizes providing compassionate and ethical care, basic discussion of these topics fails to account for ingrained habits and prejudices that can compromise how patients are treated.
What happens when medical providers work from a place of unaddressed implicit bias? Racial and gender bias have many detrimental consequences; for example, Black patients are often undertreated for pain and women have historically been referred to psychology or psychiatry for physical ailments. Healthcare providers now regularly seek out training to address implicit bias so that they can provide more equitable treatment to all patients.
Act In An Emergency
Emergency medicine doctors, paramedics, and trauma surgeons working on the front lines of conflicts all react to critical situations every day. For other healthcare professionals, though, emergency situations arise less frequently. They might be called on in the event of a major incident, like a multi-car accident or earthquake that causes many injuries, but it’s not within their daily routine.
Since it’s easy to get overwhelmed in emergency situations, other healthcare professionals should undergo regular casualty training for critical situations to ensure they’re prepared to respond if called upon. This can be done using a realistic training mannequin since it’s not possible to practice critical care skills on medical actors. The more regularly that staff practice these skills, the smoother emergency scenarios will run.
Training With Tech
One of the most remarkable things about today’s healthcare environment is the speed at which innovations enter the mainstream. Under the right circumstances, these changes can substantially transform care, making surgical treatment safer and more efficient, for example – but without proper training, they can put patients at risk.
In order to minimize injuries and complications related to use errors, it’s important for surgeons to undergo thorough device training in order to master the intricacies of new tools. This may include skills lab-style training, simulations, and telementoring with surgeons who have more experience with the new tool. Device representatives may also offer valuable support.
There’s no end to the types of training that healthcare professionals can benefit from, and it’s worth going above and beyond the required continuing education courses if you want to perform at the highest level. And, as always, self-awareness is helpful. When you know where you’re struggling or need more support, then pursuing more training is a bold and responsible decision that will make you a more confident and skilled provider.