Resources to change your life

There’s an overwhelming amount of resources on the internet to help you to learn and grow, some free, others at a cost. On this page I have come up with some of the resources that every professional nurse and caregiver really should browse through to improve confidence and competence in the workplace. At the end of every learning activity you should have learned something or some perspective that you did not know, you should be reinforcing knowledge that you have previously learned, but was lost somewhere in your memories, and you should have developed skills to make you more effective in your work.

Most of the training providers listed here have at least one free on-line course that you can have a go at, so do it!

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Free Online training resources

There are heaps of online training programs that you can do to improve your knowledge and skills, enabling your confidence to educate others, discuss patient medical issues, and work more effectively as a part of a team. I have not yet listed the many excellent CPD providers that charge for education, but have listed a few free learning resources that can be used as CPD, understand complex conditions, and demonstrate a commitment to learning. Keep checking back to see what I come up with in the future.

NPS Medicinewise - www.nps.org.au/cpd/professions/nurses - National Prescribing Service digital portal for delivering evidence based medicines information for health professionals and consumers. topics include antimicrobials, diabetes, pain management, and mental health treatments.

palliAGED - www.palliaged.com.au - Palliative care and aged care learning resources. From this site you can find links to over fifty organisations that deliver online learning courses suitable for CPD.

CareSearch palliative care knowledge network - www.caresearch.com.au - Lots of learning resources and links for palliative care in all health care settings.

Advance Care Planning Australia - learning.advancecareplanning.org.au - Learning modules for advance care planning.

mdBriefCase - www.mdbriefcase.com - More advanced learning on specific medical treatment topics. Make sure you choose Australia in the drop down box at the top of the screen.

Beyond Blue Professional Education to Aged Care - peac.beyondblue-elearning.org.au - A course for all aged care workers to teach about anxiety and depression in residential and community aged care.

Training providers for remote nursing skills

I have included here remote nurse training because the skills developed enable and empower nurses to work more confidently and more effectively in any health care situation. Do you find yourself constantly consulting other professionals with simplistic questions or inappropriate requests that you later regret? Do you find that medical practitioners become less responsive to your requests or criticise you for calling them unnecessarily? Do you perform poorly in a medical emergency? Developing skills in remote practice can help you to become more structured and effective in clinical assessment, clinical documentation, and clinical communication.

CRANAplus are one of Australia’s leading providers of training for care professionals working in rural and remote Australia. They provide training for nurses who are work in remote practice, but the skills and knowledge these courses provide are valuable for anyone developing clinical leadership skills in any health care setting. Some starting points are:

Remote Emergency Care course is essential for any nurse working remotely and is of high value for any nurse working in the rural health care setting. This includes basic life support (BLS) certificate, and skills stations in intermediate life support, airway management, chest decompression, intravenous/intraosseous cannulation, spinal immobilisation, patient assessment, as well as essential training in structured assessment and clinical decision making pathways, clinical communication, and clinical documentation. This course is suitable for Enrolled Nurses and Registered Nurses.

Online learning packages are designed to meet the needs of nurses working in remote settings. They provide mandatory competencies, Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Life Support (ALS), basic counselling skills, clinical upskilling, physical assessment, and free learning modules to help professionals maintain safety.

Centre for Remote Health provides valuable training for rural and remote health practitioners, with everything from free online learning modules, short courses, training workshops, student placements and post-graduate education. They also provide free access to the Remote Primary Health Care Manuals which are the definitive clinical practice manuals for remote health care and make for some interesting reading.

Conducting Medical Telephone Consultations is a free on-line course to help nurses develop the skills to effectively consult medical practitioners and emergency transport services over the telephone by reinforcing structured processes and communication practices.

Pharmacotherapeutics for Remote Area Nurses is an online or face-to-face course that trains nurses to understand medication use, interactions, and risks in a remote care setting.

Transition to Remote Area Nursing is a two week workshop to provide Registered Nurses with foundational skills for working in remote health settings, and is considered to be invaluable for nurses wishing to transition to remote practice.

There are many elearning options available for nurses and health professionals.

Stay tuned for a comprehensive list of free elearning resources…