Competency and Training for Point of Care.

Great question and I cannot wait to see how others tame this beast.
We have test on AVOX, Hemochron, RapidPoint, epoc and TEG6. Historically, all of the diploma's, training and competency forms were kept in Nursing Education within the employee file. After a few audits, I found this system had too many holes where documents could not be found. With CAP instructing inspectors to view each and every new operator (within 2 years) diploma, training and all competencies, I decided to reign in the beast. I needed a way to ensure all of the documents were retained and available. For me, this meant almost 80 new operators in the last few years and over 300 seasoned users on up to 5 systems. It was NOT easy but I have a system that works for me.

I have a competency folder in our POC H:drive and every user (yes all 450+) have a folder by name. Each folder has the diploma and all training/competency forms. It took about a year to collect all of the diplomas from HR and users. Users that did not produce a missing diploma lost access to testing. There was a lot of communication on this from HR, POC to managers and users. Between asking our Nursing Education for specific user documents and finishing up with year two and am seeing full compliance with diplomas and documents.  I did utilize the Covid downtime furloughs and home site workers for these big asks from HR and Nursing Education. Breaking it up in smaller chunks seemed to work fine.

Access is monitored by QML and POC annual audits.

Erika Deaton-Mohney
deatone@bronsonhg.org

The larger the system the less feasible it is for the POC dept to manage this documentation.  In my previous position I kept it all within the POC dept.  
We have the users complete an online eLearning course which is retrievable.  We use CornerStone as our system educational software.
The approved SuperUsers gives the POC documentation to the user's dept manager for them to keep in the users personnel file (skill-ckeck).    
The diplomas are obtained at hire as part of the employees HR records.

I know that some systems have the ability to scan-in and save the skill-check and other records within their education system.

My hospital is part of a large system.  Our process is much like Jeremy's.  All staff who perform POC testing, waived and non waived have on line learning modules they must complete.  I am lucky to have Educators who are trained as trainers to complete the "hands on " portion of the training.  Documentation of the process is signed by the educators as complete and is kept in the employee file on the unit on which they work.  Educator's send POC a copy of the completed training so the new operator can be entered in RALS. ( In the largest hospital in our system, the educators have access to RALS to do this). Competencies are performed during Nursing Skills held once a year.  6 month competencies are performed as indicated by ceritifcation expiration dates in RALS.
As for credentials, HR collects those on hire.  I have a very limited non waived test menu, so POC keeps copies of those credentials.  Audits are performed to assure POC has all of them.
POC also performs Tracers for waived testing to help us insure compliance for waived testing education.  We try to make certain no one slips by.

I have an aversion to paper now that most of what we do is electronic so I really try not to keep many papers! 

Education documents - Talent Acquisition collects based on role and uploads to Peoplesoft HR system. I have access to view these and do a review prior to activating anyone for mod complex testing. 

Training - I have training checklists that are used as a guide. They do not need to be filled out and saved. Completion is documented as part of the elearn. All of our elearns have 2 parts - one with the PPT/quiz and a second portion that the educator signs off when hands on training has been completed. The educator then emails me, I verify everything and add access in Telcor. 

Competency - All annual competencies are completed at Comp Fair each fall. Elearns are assigned in August and are given a due date of 11/30. 
Then when the operator attends comp fair in Sept/Oct and completes the hands on demonstration, that portion of the elearn gets signed off in Peoplesoft. When both the quiz and sign off are completed, only then does the final elearn file over to Telcor and operators are auto-certified according to the rules I have set up. If one or both of the parts is not completed, then the operator access is not updated and expires on 12/31. Competency requirements for that year are all documented in the comp fair materials so an inspector can see what's included if they want. 

6 month and 1 year competency for mod complex - this is really the only thing I still use paper forms for. It's just easier for us to do that more
manually. These get returned to me and I scan them to the G drive.  

Hello Sylvia - in my previous manager role I would scan and create files on my computer for staff diplomas and training. - I also created an Excel spread sheet with completed comp dates.  I would also have an encrypted thumb drive to back up material incase the files got loss on my computer.  I never liked using binders and paper it was a headache and being a laboratorian I'm very particular with my stuff.
Hope this helps.
FYI If any one is interested in epoc or RapidPoint 500e blood gas solutions please feel free to e-mail me would love to demo these great products virtual or live.
jose.ruiz@siemens-healthineers.com
Thanks,

We don't keep any paper.  We use our hospital e learning and Telcor to keep track of the competencies.  Our elearning has modules set up for each POCT which includes a link to the procedure and a couple of tasks and includes modules for 6 months (for mod complex) and annual.  The operator completes the module by indicating they read the procedure and that they will contact their unit POCT superuser for checkoff.  

We get a daily report from our learning system that has a list of the modules that were completed the day before, we verify the fake patient was really within the acceptable ranges and then we update their certifications in QML.   We also have notes created in QML to indicate a comp sample so we can filter and pull it up for inspections.
The reviewing is a bit of a pain but to not have paper I'll take it lol.

Hi Jeremy, would you mind describing 'skill-check'? Would appreciate knowing about this. We are again seeking a better solution for waived testing across 4 campuses. Nursing side offers zip that we can tie into.
Thanks!

Hi Sherilyn,
I've found a variety of 'how to do tracers' along the way so am very interested to get more info on how you do yours for waived testing. If you are allowed to describe/share.

Our healthsystem POC Program waived testing uses TJC WT Chapter (survey/accreditation). The lab-side POCCs use TJC platform to document what they consider 'tracers' for inpatient WT.

It proved to be too time-consuming to follow that path & apply their concept to the variety of WT I have to handle in 90ish ambulatories/clinics. 

Thanks in advance for any assist!

Peggy,

To start with I review the training and re-certification process with all non-waived "SuperUsers" in the system, (all of which meet the "Technical Consultant" requirements).

Currently:   (I'm completely re-building the our system this year with new middleware and systems)
New users to the non-waived system: 

I've emailed you a examples of our skill-check.

Jeremy