Professional Development Resources Announces New Video Streaming Course on Preventing Medical Errors in Nutrition and Dietetics

    JACKSONVILLE, FL, September 10, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Professional Development Resources, a national provider of accredited continuing education units for psychologists, social workers, counselors, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and registered dietitians, has announced a new addition to its continuing education (CE) curriculum for health professionals: Preventing Medical Errors in Nutrition and Dietetics. The course is a recording of a live presentation from the Annual Symposium of the Florida Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The company's new video streaming format is the latest in ease and convenience for busy professionals who wish to obtain high-quality CE credit while conserving their most valuable resource - time. Imagine attending a live seminar at a time, location and dress code that works best for you. This is exactly what video CE courses allow you to do! Courses are available 24/7 from any computer, tablet or smart phone, providing the easiest way yet to earn CE.

The speakers - Catherine Christie, PhD and Susan Mitchell, PhD, both experienced dietitians and fellows of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, have presented this course for many years. They update it several times per year, and it is now - they say - in its 65th iteration.

What is a medical error?

According to the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM), a medical error is either (1) the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (known as an error of execution) or (2) the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (error of planning). Common medical errors include wrong-patient surgery, wrong-site surgery, wrong procedure, drug overdose, wrong prescription, taking the wrong drug, and accidents involving medications during surgical procedures.

Medical errors are conceptualized in three tiers: the lowest level is known as a "near-miss safety event," in which the error is caught and does not reach the patient. The next level is called a "precursor safety event," which reaches the patient and results in minimal harm or no detectable harm. The highest level is a "serious safety event," which reaches the patient and results in moderate to severe harm.

How common are medical errors?

In its 2014 report, the IOM noted that:

- 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors at a cost of $29 billion dollars
- Medical errors are the sixth leading cause of death - higher than breast cancer, HIV, or car accidents
- 40,000 mistakes are made daily affecting an average of 1 in 9 patients who develop a hospital-acquired infection
- 44% of these errors are likely preventable
- Patients have a 1 in 5 chance of dying as a result of a medical error

Why do medical errors happen?

Root cause analysis of medical errors reveals that human errors happen, but they are most often due to system failure. According to the IOM, most errors are not due to individual negligence or misconduct, but to system breakdown. Examples of system breakdown are communication problems, lack of training, incomplete patient assessment, environmental safety or security issues, lack of compliance with procedures, and poor care planning. Individuals who work in environments where these issues occur are more prone to make mistakes.

How can medical errors be reduced?

While practice errors cannot be prevented altogether, they can be greatly reduced with a concerted effort to address the major reasons they occur. In Preventing Medical Errors in Nutrition and Dietetics, the speakers focus on communication, which is always among the top three causes of error revealed by root cause analysis. When health professionals fail to communicate accurately with their patients and/or their colleagues, errors are much more likely to occur. One solution - according to the speakers - involves the use of reflective listening and caring communication to build partnerships between providers and their patients. The results are improved patient satisfaction and a significant reduction in the occurrence of medical errors.

Professional Development Resources has recently published another CE course that is related to error-free and ethical practice Ethics for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists, which satisfies the requirement of the Commission on Dietetic Registration that registered dietitians complete a minimum of 1 CPEU of Continuing Professional Education in Ethics.

About Professional Development Resources, Inc.

Professional Development Resources is a Florida nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) founded in 1992 by licensed marriage and family therapist Leo Christie, PhD. The company, which is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) - as well as many other national and state boards - has focused its efforts on making accredited continuing education units more cost-effective and widely accessible to health professionals by offering online home study coursework. Its current expanded curriculum includes a wide variety of clinical topics intended to equip health professionals to offer state-of-the art services to their clients.

Our mission is to provide busy health care professionals with accredited continuing education units on topics that are vital to contemporary clinical practice. In addition to our staff, we have a Professional Advisory Board consisting of accomplished professionals representing disciplines for which we offer our CEU credits. We are located in Jacksonville, Florida. Federal Tax ID 59-3138625.

Contact:
Leo Christie, PhD, CEO
Professional Development Resources, Inc.
904-645-3456
http://www.pdresources.org

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