Online CE and Professional Development

Utilization of a Transthoracic Echocardiogram or TTE is imperative for a patient who lacks current cardiac information and presents with a questionable hemodynamic status. The TTE offers real-time information on the cardiac function that will alter the anesthetic plan. If the provider finds that the patient is currently hemodynamically compromised, the option to cancel surgery should be considered depending on the urgency, necessity, and available resources from the facility.  

Target audience: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs), Anesthesiologists, Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, and members of the healthcare team.  

The understanding of cardiac functions as well as the basic understanding of how an ultrasound probe works is a prerequisite for this course.

Epidural anesthesia has been used as a practical approach to pain management in various hospital settings, partially the obstetric unit. Labor pain is one of the most profound pains a woman may encounter in her life and if left unmanaged, it can cause anxiety, increased blood pressure, decreased fetal perfusion, and lead to a traumatic childbirth experience possibly leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (Su et al., 2023). Addressing a patient’s pain during labor is crucial. 

Chest X-ray interpretation falls within the scope of practice of several healthcare professionals including physicians, physician assistants, and a variety of advanced practice nurses. Despite being a skill expected of these healthcare providers, research shows that there is an overall lack in knowledge, confidence levels, and formal education on basic chest X-ray interpretation skills among healthcare professionals. This module aims to enhance your knowledge and diagnostic abilities and broaden your clinical toolkit for more effective patient care.

Opioid-use disorder (OUD) has become a national crisis, killing over 100 Americans daily and costing 78 billion dollars annually. The current therapy for opioid abuse has limited success with significant side effects, illicit use, and high attrition rates. However, research has demonstrated that immunopharmacotherapy a new treatment for opioid addiction in the pre-clinical phase, elicits an immune response which lacks abuse potential and decreases related mortality. Compared to current treatments, immunopharmacotherapy against a targeted opioid could offer suppression of addiction liability and overdose potential over an extended period of time without placing excessive compliance demands and adverse effects on the person.

This course was designed to assist healthcare practitioners in developing a solid understanding of serotonin toxicity including the knowledge to identify, prevent, and manage cases of serotonin syndrome as well as utilize a consistent diagnostic tool to promptly recognize and treat this potentially life-threatening condition. Application of this knowledge in practice will decrease the risk of serotonin syndrome as well as reduce the number of misdiagnoses. In turn, this will increase safety when caring for patients already taking antidepressant medications presenting to the perioperative setting and to pain clinics where opioid analgesics are commonly administered or prescribed.

This program is designed as a self-paced course for sonographers seeking continuing education in pediatric cardiac sonography. An overview of heart anatomy will be included including heart development, orientation, planes, and segments. Imaging protocol specific to the pediatric patient will be demonstrated, and anatomy unique to pediatric cardiac imaging will be explored, including congenital variants. A number of cardiac heart defects will be described, and interventional procedures and surgical repairs will be explained. An introduction to imaging the fetal heart will be provided to include basic biometry and fetal anatomy and survey.

POINT-OF-CARE-ULTRASOUND Gastric Assessment or POCUS gastric assessment is a new method of ultrasound testing that allows the provider to obtain real-time, objective results at the bedside to improve patient care. While the current NPO guidelines may seem adequate, the low rate of actual aspiration has given a false sense of security, leaving providers to rely on a generalized protocol. The literature identifies POCUS gastric assessment as a quick and effective method yielding high benefits with low harm to the patient. POCUS gastric assessment can be applied to surgical patients to determine the exact amount of stomach content and the risk of aspiration before anesthesia. This course provides education on performing a POCUS gastric assessment and highlights the high-risk populations and circumstances that typically overestimate current NPO guidelines.

Target Audience: Healthcare professionals involved in preoperative care. This list includes but is not limited to CRNAS, SRNAs, MDs, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, RNs, or Preoperative nurses. The recommended prerequisite is a basic understanding of ultrasound equipment.

This course will expand your ability to understand and interpret the 7 basic views of a TEE. In this learning module, we will learn how ultrasound technology, in the way of a TEE, can be used to detect and diagnose structural abnormalities of the heart and its effects. TEEs are widely used in guiding cardiovascular disease treatment, especially during cardiovascular surgery. A growing body of evidence underscores the usefulness of TEEs in Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), where it enables medical providers to detect the effectiveness of life-saving interventions when circulation is severely impaired, such as in ventricular fibrillation or asystole. Having this understanding will enhance patient care and overall medical services.

There are an estimated 1.4 million adults in the United States that currently identify as transgender and 61% of those transgender individuals have pharmaceutically transitioned with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and 25% have undergone Gender Affirming Surgery (GAS). These therapies and practices lead to potential perioperative complications. This course is designed to increase awareness and evidence-based knowledge regarding perioperative complications in the transgender individual undergoing surgery and offer recommendations regarding the anesthetic care of this population.

Target Audience: Healthcare professionals involved in perioperative care. This list includes but is not limited to CRNAS, SRNAs, MDs, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, RNs, or Preoperative nurses. 

The purpose of this module is to educate anesthesia providers and the healthcare team regarding the benefits of periferal nerve stimulation (PNS) prior to induction and intubation.  This course will cover the criteria for adequate depth of neuromuscular blockade (NMB), the proper application and use of objective train-of-four (TOF) as well as the clinical and financial benefits associated with adequate NMB. Increasing the use of TOF monitoring on induction of anesthesia will lead to improved patient outcomes and safety profiles.