Healthcare technology and the requirements for educating your nursing staff are rapidly changing. The Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals, written by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), requires hospitals and nursing leaders to “assess, maintain, demonstrate, and improve continually” the competency of their staff.  The Joint Commission recognizes the fact that a “qualified and competent staff” is required to fulfill the hospital’s mission and to meet the needs of their patient population.  One of the standards (HR. 4.2) written by JCAHO states the need for “ongoing in-service and other education and training to maintain and improve staff competence”.  In the section on the Intent of HR.3, the manual explains that “the hospital can assess competence in many ways…the hospital uses a combination of ongoing competence assessment and educational activities to maintain staff competence and an objective, measurable system is used periodically to evaluate job performance, current competencies, and skills”.

At MorTan we recognize this need and have developed a Training Tool, a Competency Assessment, and a Sample Policy that can assist in meeting the requirements.  The Competency Assessment and Sample Protocol Policy can easily be adapted to comply with your institutional formats.  Below you will find links to the competency assessment, the emergency medicine protocol as well as an EMS addendum. We recommend that emergency departments use the emergency medicine protocol and EMS units use both the emergency medicine protocol and the EMS addendum.  Our goal is to work with you to ensure the safe and appropriate use of the Morgan Lens while maximizing positive patient outcomes.

The educational materials provided here were developed with the assistance of MorTan’s nurse consultant Dawn P. Schoenfeld RN, BS, CEN.