Rebecca Smallwood

Healthcare Learning and Development Specialist, Relias

As a registered nurse for more than 27 years, Rebecca has experience across a wide spectrum of settings, including: rural and urban hospitals in medical/surgical, and ED clinical roles; school nursing; public health epidemiology; ambulatory surgery center; infection control; quality management; organizational development; and education in hospital, academic, and commercial organizations. She has authored a myriad of live and web-based courses on over 50 regulatory topics, patient safety, patient experience, and others. Her passion for education developed over the course of her career while helping patients, professionals, and organizations leverage learning to achieve their goals. Improving patient care by helping others gain new knowledge, skills, and attitudes is her mission and the driving force behind her work.

Posts by Rebecca Smallwood

Hiring the Right Nurses: 5 Characteristics to Look For

These skills and characteristics are essential to success and managers should seek to identify them in nursing candidates when filling a seat on the bus.

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woman taking mandatory training on computer

Getting the Most Out of Annual Mandatory Training

Here are four ways leaders can get the most out of annual training and make the process more meaningful for staff.

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15 Behavioral Interview Questions for Nurse Candidates

Behavior-based interview questions will help identify those nurses who possess the necessary characteristics and skills for success in today’s complex healthcare environment.

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11 Actions Leaders Can Take to Develop a Safety Culture

Strong leadership is needed for a patient safety program to be successful. Leaders must make patient safety a priority and consistently communicate that message through words and actions. Here are 11 ways leaders can improve their safety culture.

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February is All About the Heart

As part of American Heart Month we take a look at the growing number of tools that healthcare professionals can use to help make a difference in awareness, management, and treatment of heart health.

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nurse with water bottle sitting in hospital

5 Ways to Reduce Horizontal Violence in Healthcare

Did you know that while about 10% of all professions report disruptive behaviors in the workplace, reports for healthcare professions are 3x higher?

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Heroin Alert: A 3-Part Response

People addicted to prescription pain medications often switch to heroin because it offers a similar high, doesn’t require a prescription, and is cheaper to buy.

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3 Steps to Assess and Respond to Suicide Ideation in Acute Care Settings

All clinical staff, regardless of setting, needs to be comfortable with identifying risk factors and screening all patients for suicide ideation.

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Why is Preparing Preceptors Related to Improving Patient Care?

Preceptorship bridges the gap between the classroom and independent practice. They also prepare nurses for demanding practice environments.

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High Costs of Poor Cultural Competency in Healthcare

Did you know that 18% of the U.S. population speaks a language other than English at home? By the year 2042 there will be no single ethnic or racial majority in the United States.

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Hospital Readmissions. They’re Kind of a Big Deal

Potentially 27% of all readmissions are potentially preventable, and up to 50% of those are linked to interventions that could have been provided during initial hospitalization.

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Strategies for Effective Patient Communication

Did you know adverse events are a high risk for patients after a care transition from inpatient hospital care to home—and, many of these events are preventable through good communication and education before discharge?

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Care Transitions: A Bridge over Troubled Water

Care transitions have been described as a bridge connecting patients from one healthcare provider or group of providers to another. , ….

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