What began as an ad hoc committee to work on the annual skills day evolved into a year-round program to educate the nursing staff of the critical care unit at Kaiser Foundation Hospital, Hayward, Calif. The impetus to expand a competency program throughout the year was 2-fold. One goal was to accommodate the changing mix and influx of new nurses on our unit; the other was to promote continued learning as important for professionals at any skill level. We wanted to expand a competency program throughout the year to foster critical thinking in a nonthreatening environment, yet have fun. Essentially, we wanted to raise the professional bar in our unit.

Our busy medical-surgical CCU is a16-bed unit staffed by approximately 60 nurses. The core staff has been employed for more than 12 years, and the median experience is 20 years. However, our skill mix has been changing as we have...

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