Skip to main content

Upstate AHEC Leverages Blended Learning in Continuing Professional Development

Upstate AHEC is utilizing a blended education model for a portion of its continuing professional development programming to support training for health professionals. The blended/flipped classroom is beneficial because it allows flexibility and ownership in the learning process. Health professionals are able to complete much of the coursework in their own time, at their own pace, without taking time off work to attend a full day or multiple day training. The flipped classroom also encourages participants to be more accountable for the learning process and allows them to move at their own pace as needed. By blending a hands-on lab training with the lecture, participants are able to apply the skills learned in the online lecture under the in-person guidance of their instructor. This reinforces the skills learned and allows the learner to put the new knowledge into practice.

Prisma Health Lila Doyle nursing home, AnMed Health Rehab, and the Greenville County Detention Center in the Upstate have partnered with Upstate AHEC to complete IV certification of their employees via the blended learning approach: the participants complete the online lecture and post-test via AHECU and then attend a 4-hour lab to practice their skills and complete their competency check-off with an Upstate AHEC instructor.

“All of our LPNs must be IV certified to be able to place and maintain IVs in our facility,” explains Callie Urban, BSN, RN, CRRN, hospital educator at AnMed Health Rehabilitation Hospital, “This course provides them with the certification and skills they need to be successful with IVs. The course is also offered to our RN’s who are interested in improving their skills or that have limited experience with IV placement. Our staff that have attended the course come away with more confidence in placing and maintaining IV access. I have noticed a marked improvement in their skills and confidence after I attended the course.” 

Additionally, Greenville County Schools have used the blended learning modality to train their school nurses in tracheostomy care for the children in the school system with tracheostomies. After completing the online coursework and post-test ahead of time, the school nurses completed a hands-on practice and competency check-off during their back-to-school meeting in August. 

Upstate AHEC also works with Bon Secours St. Francis in Greenville to complete their medication administration and vital signs training and assessment of their outpatient staff utilizing the blended learning method. As part of the new-hire orientation week, the employees attend a 4-hour vital signs training and lab check-off at Upstate AHEC after completing the online lecture modules. The new hires then also attend either an eight-hour or four-hour medication administration lab. The length of the lab depends upon the new hire’s previous experience and training in the healthcare field. Certified Medical Assistants (CMAs), LPNs, RNs, PAs, and Nurse Practitioners attend the four-hour training while the radiology technicians, newly certified medical assistants, and unlicensed personnel attend the full eight-hour training day.  

Bon Secours St. Francis nursing professional development coordinator Trudy Ackard, MSN, RN explained the benefits of working with Upstate AHEC for training, “The consortium collaboration provides an avenue between a community-based organization and an area healthcare system, in order to provide an evidence-based blended curriculum and training to the system’s medical group clinical staff. An added benefit is that it introduces the medical group clinical staff to AHEC’s resources and continuing education opportunities to grow both professionally and personally during their healthcare career.”

To learn more about Upstate AHEC continuing professional development opportunities, please visit the Upstate AHEC website.

Popular posts from this blog

Marchek Siblings Stay Connected With Upstate AHEC Through Academic Journey

 A pair of siblings from Greer are giving back to current Upstate AHEC Health Careers students after completing the program themselves. Alex Marchek, MD is in his first year as a family medicine resident at Prisma Health Seneca. His younger sister by two years, Anna Marchek, is a second-year medical student at Edward Via College of Medicine (VCOM) Carolinas. “My mom likes to say she did good,” Anna joked. “Both of her kids are going to be doctors. She went two-for-two.” Anna (left) and Alex (right) Marchek are pictured with Nita Donald, Executive Director of Upstate AHEC. While Alex and Anna have both chosen to pursue medicine as a career, their interest in healthcare developed differently. Alex describes his discovery of health sciences as a slow realization. “It was definitely something that was on my radar really young,” said Alex. “My parents will say when I was six years old, I was talking about doing something in medicine. I had some really great science teachers in elementar...

Pee Dee AHEC Clinical Placements Help Students See Challenges – and Opportunities – of Rural Primary Care

  Third-year medical student Omar Guerrero didn’t find his passion for a career in healthcare until he began shadowing health professionals as an undergraduate student. “I just knew that I really loved science and working with my hands,” said Guerrero, who double-majored in Public Health and Cellular & Molecular Biology while at the University of South Florida. It all clicked for him once he was able to observe physicians in their encounters with patients. “I saw there was a real need for Spanish-speaking physicians,” said Guerrero. “There’s a lot of disconnect between providers and Spanish-speaking patients and I thought that was definitely an area that I could make a difference in.” Now in his third year at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Guerrero is doing a clinical placement at Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. in Richland. Guerrero was connected with Pee Dee AHEC and their Health Professions Student (HPS) program...

Simulation Training Prepares Students for Rural Primary Care

Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. Pee Dee AHEC Scholars and other health professions students pose for the camera during a simulation Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. SET uses simulation-based technology to expose students to clinical environments and scenarios that mirror what providers experience in rural, medically-underserved communities. “A lot of simulations are emergent or hospital-based and students are usually being graded as a formal assessment when they participate,” said SC AHEC Curriculum Coordinator Dawn Leberknight, who was heavily involved in the development of the initiative. “We tried to make [SET] more informal to expose students to simulations before it’s high stakes, and then to really focus on rura...