Your Course Is Written! Now What??!?

Some of you have taken my advice and written out a draft of Things-You-Teach-Every-Day. Let’s take, for example, the subject of Chest X Rays.

And let’s do this: Raise your hand if you feel like you’re really good at reading Chest films. Back in the day when patients got daily CXR’s, we then had daily CXR rounds.  Some residents got good at it, some relied on us. Some nurses were good at it, some not. Some RT’s were good at it, some not. What  a team [smirk] …. but between the 6 or 7 of us gathered ’round the light board ( yes, I’m that old…) we found what we needed to find ( ET tube in proper position, chest tubes in place, chest clear). Or not (is that a …… sponge? A needle? Why is that chest tube all the way up his neck?)

Great, I just gave you another idea. You’re welcome.

Meanwhile,  you’ve written your draft, organized it, found lots of references less than 10 years old, and have an idea of how you want to present it: Written course? Live presentation?

You’ll need to pull images and pictures. REMEMBER to get permissions if you’re lifting images off the web/social media/ patient files. I wrote up something that, in my best legalese, said, “I hereby give Kelly Welton permission to use my photo/X Ray/ picture for a medical presentation”.  Have them sign it, send it back to you, and keep it on file someplace.

Now, do your storyboard. I do mine in PowerPoint. For CXR’s for example, I would start with what a normal one looks like. Then go into some classic ones such as pneumonia, emphysema, fibrosis, and dilated cardiomyopathy. Then go into some rare ones. Then into CXR markers, such as ET tube, sternal wires, gastric tube, PICC lines, anything you find interesting or are pointing out to others every day.

Add your Course Objectives at the beginning, tack on your references at the end, and voila!

When I send course outlines to CSRC or AARC, I send the powerpoint as well as a Master Speaker’s copy, which is the word document with the corresponding powerpoint slide. This is what I go by during my presentation, to make sure I hit all points about a particular slide.

DO NOT put all of what you’re going to say on the slide. BORRRRRE-ing!  You will have to do some run-through’s,  to see how long it will take you to explain all you want to about each slide.

On the application, it will ask how many ceu’s you are asking for your course. Make your best guess, the granting body will help decide if it’s to long or short.

And…. off it goes to approval-land! Don’t fret if it comes back with a comment such as, “Too elementary” .  Thank them for their opinion, and let them know you will expand on your content. For example, if your CXR talk came back as ‘too simple’ you could change the  title to something like, ” How to compare Chest X Rays to CT scans and get the picture right every time” ….  then just add to what you have.

Get those finishing touches on there, and let me know what your publisher says!