Continuing Education Opportunities

Rainbow provides a wide range of educational offerings for professionals and non-professionals. For those seeking continuing education credits, Rainbow is an approved continuing education sponsor for the following disciplines: APRNs, nurses, social workers, counselors and nursing home administrators.

To request a Continuing Education Opportunity listed below, please contact the LIFE Institute at 847-653-3250 | Lisa.Miller2@amitahealth.org

Clinical Care Issues

Advanced Symptom Management

The goal of this activity is to explore additional symptoms of patients at EOL. Participants will be able to Identify symptoms quickly and learn to become proactive to help alleviate discomfort, increase knowledge of the interventions that clinicians can implement for comfort, and recognize through role play how to problem solve when symptoms other than pain arise. #110

Developing Cultural Competence and Humility in Healthcare Settings

The goal of this seminar is to increase the knowledge of clinicians on the meaning of illness, suffering and dying to patients and families, the ways in which cultural beliefs influence decision-making about medical and end-of-life care and strategies for supporting the delivery of culturally sensitive care. #058

Essentials of In-Patient Hospice

This session focuses on the specialized care within an inpatient hospice setting and differentiates it from end-of-life care in other settings. #043

Living with Chronic Illness

Participants will learn about the impact of chronic illness and pain, and interventions to improve patient function and quality of life. #tbd

The Power of Music and Massage Therapies

Attendees will learn interventions that may be used for symptom management with dementia patients as well as self-care interventions and their benefits. #057

Palliative Wound Care

The purpose of this session is to provide education regarding recommendations for wound care at end of life. Participants will be able to identify when aggressive treatment of wounds is futile, understand the importance of establishing goals of wound care with the patient/caregiver, and explore current products that can best meet the needs of the patient/caregiver. #109

Pain Management

The purpose of this activity is to provide education on current pain management modalities. Participants will be able to understand pain as it relates to chronic or acute pain and nociceptive or neuropathic pain, demonstrate knowledge of a comprehensive pain assessment, and recognize side effects of pain medications and identify interventions to help alleviate them. #108

Substance Abuse, Healthcare and Grief

Participants will be able to identify indicators of substance misuse, the role of grief, loss and shame in substance use, implications for pain management, and intervention strategies. #tbd

What if I Can’t Tell You About My Pain?

Participants will improve their skills in assessing and treating pain in non-verbal patients. #028

Patient & Family Care

Children and Trauma

This interactive presentation is designed for mental health professionals and counseling staff. It is available in a minimum 90-minute format. The workshop provides an overview of types of trauma and the identifiable behaviors associated with traumatic emotional injury in children. The presentation offers key steps in differentiating grief from trauma and outlines best practices to respond to both. #tbd

Death Ends a Life, Not a Relationship: Dealing with Continual Loss

As a patient or resident nears end of his life the caregiver’s role shifts and becomes more complicated – medically, professionally and emotionally. Focuses on the issues that arise for caregivers as they journey with dying residents and the effect repeated loss has on the caregiver. How to access better support and care for themselves. #tbd

Establishing Rapport

Participants will learn strategies for establishing rapport with anxious and resistant people and engage them in care. #023

Having Difficult Conversations

This presentation will focus on strategies for having conversations about care preferences including phrases to use to assess patient understanding about their health, what quality of life means to them and how they want to be cared for if they have a life limiting illness. #tbd

Helping Families Make Tough Decisions

Participants will learn how to address common challenges faced by the families of older adults, with a focus on dementia. #039

How to Have a Good Visit

This presentation provides information on the impact of dementia on a person’s ability to interact with others, strategies to decrease behavior triggers, and ways to engage the person in meaningful activities. Non-CE

Leaving a Legacy

One of the most important tasks we have as we age is coming to an understanding of the impact we have had on others, how we will be remembered, and what we are leaving for the next generation. #056

Not Such “Small” Talk: How to Communicate with People in the Toughest Times

Interactive presentation/workshop for all professionals who encounter people in difficult, anxiety-producing circumstances. Learn to re-visualize tense encounters, strategies to ‘turn down the volume,’ ease stress and get communication back on track. #tbd

Advance Care Planning and Ethics

End-of-Life Care Decisions: Advanced Directives and Power of Attorney

Participants will learn how to have conversations with patients and families so that their choices will be honored in the event of incapacity. Planning tools will be identified and used in this session. #018

Ethical Boundaries for Healthcare Professionals

Ethical issues are inherent in care provided to patients and families facing the end of life. Participants will learn how to be better advocates for patients and to use professional codes and standards in ethics. #004

Ethical Dilemmas in End-of-Life Care

Moral distress is the leading cause of burnout in health care.  This session will help participants develop strategies for approaching complex cases, improve outcomes and reduce clinician distress through the use of ethical frameworks, case consultation and ethics committees. #102

Five Wishes

This session focuses on Five Wishes, the first living will that outlines personal, emotional and spiritual needs as well as medical wishes. The Five Wishes lets patients dictate exactly how they wish to be treated if they get seriously ill. #Non-CE

Making the Most of POLST: Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

Participants will learn how to have conversations with patients and their legal representatives regarding end-of-life care decisions and to put their preferences into actionable orders. #008

Hospice and Palliative Care: Medicare’s Best Kept Secrets

Participants will learn the differences and benefits of these related types of care, who can benefit, ways to approach discussions about care preferences, and the best time to make a referral. #027

Dementia-Specific Care Issues

Creative Responses to Challenging Behaviors

Participants will learn to identify physical, emotional and environmental triggers and learn effective care giving strategies. #007

Learning to Speak Dementia

Participants will better understand communication barriers posed by dementia and how to overcome them through changes in communication and behavioral and sensory interventions. #012

Making Sense of Memory Loss

Participants will learn to distinguish between normal cognitive changes in aging and many types of brain disorders. Current research about risk reduction will be explained. #041

Preparing for Comfort in Advanced Dementia

People with dementia may be subjected to burdensome medical interventions. This session focuses on ways to promote their comfort until the end of life through best care practices. #020

Intimacy and Sexuality in Dementia

This presentation provides staff with creative approaches to bathing with a focus on patient comfort and strategies for responding to patient fear and resistance to care. #tbd

Bathing Without a Battle

The purpose of this program is to educate professionals about the challenging issues of intimacy and sexuality that pertain to people with dementia and their caregivers. #009

Anti-Psychotic Medications: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Upon completion of the program, nurses will be able to accurately identify when to administer anti-psychotic medications in elders with dementia after intervening with non-drug strategies and only when therapeutically necessary. #010

Living with Loss

Communicating Compassion

The purpose of this activity is to increase the knowledge of clinical and non-clinical staff on strategies to comfort and counsel bereaved people. #002

Communication Issues Within Bereaved Families

This presentation is available in two formats: for the bereaved or for those who encounter/coach/treat bereaved families through the grief process. The presentation focuses on the bereaved marriage and ways we can help families to recognize the ways that grief affects each of them differently. Finally, new ways of connecting and fostering real, meaningful communication will be discussed. This workshop focuses on marital issues and includes relationships with surviving children. #tbd

Compassion Fatigue

Participants will learn strategies for coping with the stress of being a professional care giver, including signs of compassion fatigue and approaches to creative self-care. #022

Discovering Strengths for the Grief Journey

Grievers, and those who care for them, often feel exhausted and empty, wondering what to rely on in the darkest times. To steal from Shakespeare, “The[answer]lies not in the stars, but in ourselves…” We’ll discover how the best things about ourselves can get us through the worst of times. #tbd

Grief in Schools

Consultation and support to any school community facing a critical incident related to illness, injury or death. To assist school personnel with crisis management at all levels, from administrative decisions and actions to classroom interventions. We can provide parent or community meetings as necessary or provide preparation and support for those facilitating the meetings. In addition, we are available after the incident to facilitate de-fusing interventions for staff – to aid in minimizing stress and encouraging appropriate communication and support and effective self-care. #tbd

Grief in the Workplace

Rainbow offers consultation with employers related to how to handle workplace environments after a death. This service also includes immediate intervention at the workplace (for example, death of an employee) to assist employees and/or educational presentations for managers on Supporting the Grieving Employee. #tbd

Growing Resilient Children through the Loss Experience

This presentation is designed for school staff, youth leaders and mental health professionals and offered in a minimum 90-minute format. The workshop identifies diverse experiences that can cause a grief response in children. The seven steps to building resilience are outlined along with helpful interventions and activities that foster and support resilience. #tbd

Losing a Loved One to Drug Overdose: The Unique Journey Through Family Bereavement

As the number of communities feeling the effect of opiate overdoses grows, mental health professionals are faced with how best to work with surviving family members. This session will provide an understanding of issues specific to bereavement when a loved one dies from drug overdose. Understand how to assess and treat such clients appropriately and compassionately. Small group exercises and case discussion will be integrated throughout the presentation. #tbd

Responding to Public Traumatic Loss

This presentation is for individuals or organizations that provide assistance and have found that public tragedies can overlay and exacerbate the issues that the people they serve are dealing with. This presentation provides an overview and deeper understanding of how public events can affect us personally.

While there are well-established emergency and disaster plans and trained personnel available to most communities, this workshop is informational and helpful to those in a helping and supportive role – or until the trained responders arrive. This workshop provides an explanation of the steps and examples of how to execute them for a timely and effective response. If providing emergency response is a goal for an organization, formal training in critical incident management is strongly recommended. #tbd

The Bedside Toolkit: Helping Children through the Loss Experience

An educational module for healthcare professionals who encounter children during the end-of-life experience of a loved one. Empowers staff to aid families walk with children through a difficult and confusing time. Helpful interventions from less than 5 to 45 minutes in length; based on the belief that there is always some time and some way to help. #tbd