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Ambulatory care takes a day for training Annual mandatories due again? Try a new approach.  That’s what the Rutledge Tower clinical ops coordinators did in Ambulatory Care Services.     Nurses in Ambulatory Care Services respond to a mock mayday that simulates the procedures to be taken in a real emergency. This new approach was the brainchild of Cindy Kicklighter and involved turning the usual tedious two months of scheduling mandatories into a one-day training extravaganza. The clinical creation and design was fully supported by a team of her peers, Sharon Vendrick and Lisa Murphy.    There was so much enthusiasm about the idea that clinical manager June Darby was only too happy to clear the way with an approving “go” decision.    This clinical team led the way and recruited the collaborating efforts of the Performance Improvement and Staff Development Department, M.E. Canaday, Susan Hamner, Jackie Lacey, Sue Cammer and, new to the team Linda Randazzo.    Organization and impeccable detail would be needed to pull off this feat. Processes included everything from coordinating and securing schedules for training instructors, obtaining equipment, through to implementation and follow-up of various classes.   Major players participating in this all-day activity were RNs, LPNs, other clinical and administrative staff from med-surg clinics, RT 136, RT 160, and ancillary at RT. The training options were so varied that staff members could train in one class at a time, half the day, the whole day. Pool nurses were scheduled to be present, and there were those who even stayed late after working a night shift. By days end nearly 200 staff members were trained.   What kept them coming? Of course putting mandatories behind them for the year. Or was that it?   Could it have been that there was an N-95 mask fit-testing station and another station for  conscious sedation competency? OSHA briefings seating nearly 40 at a time were a hit and there was also a one-to-one review of pain management.    Kicklighter’s vision was clear; if we build it they will come. Add other training opportunities that allow the practice of skills, like, IV push and mock maydays to the mandatory routine and they will come. The expertly simulated mock maydays included patient scenarios affording the opportunity for everyone to participate using crash carts, EKG strips, ambu-bags, and oxygen tanks. You name it, they thought of everything.     It is important to keep up skills that for some may not be utilized very often. This concept keeps the whole clinical and administrative team up to speed and working together.    Timing is everything. Graduation day at MUSC has typically been used by Ambulatory Care for education purposes because many of the clinics are closed to accommodate parking for the graduates and guests.  So they took full advantage of this opportunity to blitz as many staff members through mandatory training as would be interested in participating.     The turnout was great, and, as noted by Mary Elizabeth Canaday, “Getting the bulk of the required training done this way in one day makes it fun and interactive and then it’s not nearly the chore it used to be to get the rest of any scheduling done.”     It was more than obvious by the turn-out and enthusiasm alone that this staff knows that their first responsibility is to patient care. What better way to exhibit that than to maintain and sharpen skills.