Meeting the educational needs of clinical equipment users

Training equipment users to operate medical equipment effectively and safely is one of the most important and difficult tasks of clinical engineers. As medical equipment proliferates and becomes more complex, the task of education also becomes more difficult. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires that all equipment users be trained annually in proper operating procedures for the equipment they use and that the training be documented. Therefore, each hospital must develop educational programs to meet those needs. This paper illustrates the use of an interactive computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program, entitled EquipTeach, to provide an effective, standardized and cost-effective method of training equipment users at the John Dempsey Hospital of The University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut.