Ultrasonography Assisted Peripheral Line Placement.

¶ … ultrasonography assisted peripheral line placement. This course was provided by the hospital and given to qualified nurses so that the technique could be offered at the hospital. The course outline was very helpful and very straightforward for the class. It was divided up into the five days for the training and each day was subdivided by topics covered. Each section also listed the pages in the material that would be covered and mentioned when comprehension quizzes would be given.

The only course outcome listed for this training course was that of educating nurses on the equipment and technique for the purposes of certification. This course was offered to aid the hospital in introducing this new technique, so the course objectives met that goal very well.

The syllabus illustrates best practices by being thorough in providing references for all material taught (Munby, 1978). I found this very helpful and efficient because I could easily refer back to the syllabus later whenever I had questions regarding the process or hospital procedures. The second best practice illustrated by the syllabus was the strict organization for the daily lessons (Long, 1992). This organization really kept the instructor on task and kept the class moving. Without all of the specific categories, I doubt the course would have been as efficient or effective as it was.

Overall, the course did very well at staying on task and covering all the necessary information. The only way I found that the course could have been improved was to break up the information a little more and allow one more day of absorption when it reached the hospital policy and procedures section. The reason I would say this is because these procedures and policies were the most heavily tested parts of the exam and yet were rushed through in one of the sessions, which did not allow enough time for anyone to catch everything. In fact, I had to take the material home that night and re-read everything for the test.

The course syllabus and course did an excellent job at reflecting external factors. The technique learned was something the hospital should have implemented a decade ago. It truly made insertion of lines simpler and less traumatic for problem patients, meeting a huge societal expectation. Additionally, this was one of the first hospitals in the area to offer this service, making the hospital and nursing staff appear up-to-date and educated on the current medical trends. Finally, the course covered all of the hospital guidelines and tested on those guidelines thoroughly to ensure that all nurses understood the protocol.