Continuing education and the RNO journal.

Over the past several years we have tried periodically to provide contact hours to all of our readers and constituents through the online RNO journal. This has primarily been accomplished through questions that can be completed after reading a selected article in the journal and then submitting those completed questions to RNO. All of the materials are available within the journal and can be completed electronically or faxed/mailed to RNO. After the questions are received, corrected and processed, a certificate of completion delineating contact hours is sent to the individual. This activity has had a very poor response from readers and after three attempts, it is time to reevaluate this practice and consider other options. This was supposed to generate revenue for RNO but without any respondents it has been a complete failure. Therefore, in the interest of attempting to not only increase revenue as well as provide educational opportunities, it is time to reassess needs. It may be content that is a problem. It also may be cost.

As you may know I was mobilized in support of the Global War on Terrorism on March 21, 2004. I served as the Senior Case Manager for the Southeast Regional Medical Command and in that capacity I had quality oversight of case management activities of 50 case managers at 8 different hospital in the region as well as 10-20 case managers at community health centers and mobilization stations. My specific role was to facilitate the transition of ill or wounded Reserve and National Guard soldiers through the military health care system. This system had traditionally handled and was staffed for active duty soldiers and was ill prepared for the additional patient workload.

In addition to the hospitals and facilities being widely dispersed, the level of expertise in and among case managers varied a great deal. This prompted a great deal of oversight and education on my part. Because that situation is similar to that of RNO, I would like to explore some activities we incorporated and then examine these and others to increase our participation in CE by RNO members.

* Programs offered through video teleconferences. One of the vehicles we used to provide CEUs in the military was a bimonthly or quarterly videoteleconference (VTC).

* Online courses could be made available at the website. These can be developed by members and made available to other members for a fee.

* Continue providing some sort of CEU activity through the journal. I can be reached at [e-mail], and I would appreciate you taking a few minutes to provide some ideas and feedback.

Marietta Stanton

Editorial Board Member