Each summer around the country there is an influx of new graduate nurses into the workforce. Many new nurses, as well as seasoned nurses, decide to work for the first time in units that require monitoring and analysis of electrocardiography (ECG). It becomes the responsibility of the hospital’s clinical education department or the unit-based educator to ensure adequate training of nurses in ECG recognition. My hospital has a clinical education department to which this responsibility falls.

The ECG course is provided for my hospital, as well as the other hospitals within the same healthcare system. The course, offered several times a year, is required for anyone who wants to work as a nurse or monitor watcher in a unit that provides ECG monitoring.

Eighteen months ago, there were many challenges with this course. The principal challenge was how to increase the overall first time pass rate. To address this issue,...

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