(Pictured in the Education Center's simulation lab and classroom are hospital president, Gary Riedmann, with Education Services Director, Katie Towers, and Clinical Educator, Sara Fleecs.)

The annual ISHET award recognizes the efforts of St. Anthony’s Education Services for original and innovative educational programming. “We believe our commitment to educational services for our staff at St. Anthony supports our efforts to provide quality, compassionate care for our patients,” added Gary Riedmann, hospital president.

Since the opening of the Education Center in January 2009, the focus of training efforts at St. Anthony  have been to improve patient care, patient safety, and healthcare education using a balance of classroom training, online learning and medical simulation. Professional learning opportunities in a variety of healthcare topics are offered to both St. Anthony and area healthcare professionals.  The curriculum includes skill building, clinical problem solving, competency evaluation using the METI- simulation, core training exercises in the classroom, and online access to reference tools to meet the needs of physicians, nurses, EMS and others who provide care for infants, children and adults. A newly organized ‘Journal Club’ for nurses encourages sharing a continual flow of research-based ideas aimed at improving patient care practices.

“Applying these advanced technologies to our learning programs has dramatically increased our capacity to prepare healthcare providers and students to meet today’s challenging hospital environment,” said Katie Towers, Education Services Director. “Our goal is to provide the variety of programs, along with the technology necessary, to make access to quality healthcare available to meet the future needs of our area.”