Planning a nursing skills fair? 11 tips to engage your team

Many healthcare facilities have experienced high turnover in their nursing staff during the past few years. With formal nursing education typically covering only basic wound care, it’s more important than ever to keep caregivers updated on the latest skin and wound care tools, resources and guidelines. Nursing skills fairs are one way to achieve that.

What is a nursing skills fair? A nursing skills fair is an educational event that’s both fun and effective. It provides training on best practices and usually entails multiple booths, tables or nursing skills stations.

In this article, we’ll give you tips to host your own successful event, including ideas for nursing skills fair stations. The best part is, you can get as creative as you want, even on a low budget.

We’ve rounded up some practical tips and creative inspiration to help get you started on hosting your own nursing skills fair.

1. Form a team. Involve leadership to secure top-down support for your plan. Plus, with more people helping, you’ll have better word of mouth, and more hands on deck to help with everything from promotion to day-of execution.

2. Set up the space. If your skills fair includes multiple booths or stations, be sure the space you choose has a flow that encourages participants to visit each one, so everyone gains the intended knowledge.

3. Give it a theme. Skills fairs lend themselves well to creative themes. Here are some to consider:

• Circus, amusement park or carnival: Each booth can be a different show, ride or game. For example, bean bag toss that requires participants to answer wound care trivia; pin the pressure injury risk on the patient; or biofilm bingo
• Around the world: Hand out “passports” that participants get stamped at each booth. You can deck out the booths as elaborately as you want to represent different countries and even offer a coordinating snack.
• Marvel or D.C. comics: Costumes are easy, and, after all, wound care is a super power
• Train journey: Everyone gets a ticket to stop at each “station”
• Outer space: Star Trek, Star Wars or just a trip around the planets
• Holiday time: Plan the event around Halloween, Valentine’s Day or another holiday, and the mood can be extra-festive

4. Make it a party. Create an upbeat atmosphere with music from a smart phone and speaker. Creating a play list could be a task assigned to someone who’s helping plan the event. Decorate, whether coordinating to a theme or simply some streamers and balloons 

5. Hand out awards. Combine the event with an awards ceremony to honor unit or department successes, such as reduced pressure injury rates.

6. Motivate with treats. If budget or time are limited, simply hand out a different candy after participants complete each task or educational session. It’s a sweet incentive and reward for their efforts.

7. Reward with raffle prizes. Nearly any theme can also include raffle prizes. For instance, if participants visit every station or complete every task, they’re entered into a raffle. Raffle prizes can be as simple as a $5 gift card to a nearby coffeehouse. Or ask local retailers and service providers to donate.

8. Designate a rest station. Depending on how much time and effort is involved with your skills fair, participants might want a quick break. Give them a space to chat with snacks and water. Or boost the fun with a photo booth or popcorn machine.

9. Work with a partner. Vendors often have ready-to-go skills activities, so before creating something from scratch, reach out to your vendor partner to see how they can help.

10. Add a self-care station. Let your nurses know you care about their health and wellbeing with an area designated just for them. You might consider offering them flu shots, chair or hand massages, or other comfort measure. Ask your human resources department if they can contribute wellness program materials, stress balls or simply reminders of what health benefits are available.

11. Encourage evaluations. Printed evaluations of the skills fair should be quick and easy to complete before attendees leave. Include a checkbox to invite future volunteers and a section where they can suggest topics or themes for next time. You can also consider a QR code that directs people to an online evaluation.We hope you’ll use any and all of the above suggestions to help make your nursing skills fair a success.

When starting to plan your skills fair, here are some questions to answer:

• Do you want to combine the event with other online or in-person training?
• Will vendors be included or the primary focus?
• Do you envision the skills fair limited to one unit or open to all units?
• Will you focus on a specific topic?
• Do you want to make it intimate or open to everyone interested?

When done right, skills fairs can help fill knowledge gaps, especially now when your caregivers may have varying levels of experience. “Skills fairs give caregivers the opportunity to review skills, integrate new skills into their practice, and learn about the latest tools and resources that help them deliver safe and consistent care,” says Medline Director of Clinical Resources Patricia Turner, BSN, RN, CWOCN, CWS.

Here are just some of the benefits:

• Update caregivers on new best practices, education or facility standards
• Refresh product usage competency
• Show appreciation for nursing staff
• Build morale and camaraderie to re-energize staff
• Provide hands-on wound care training for new nursing graduates

Whether it’s knowing the right dressings to apply to help prevent pressure injuries, choosing compression wraps to manage venous stasis disease or understanding how to manage biofilm, a skills fair can help ensure caregivers feel confident in their practice. “It’s a chance for someone to come in and provide true education and true benefit for a specific product,” says Medline Director of Clinical Services Chrystalbelle Rogers, MSN, RN, CWCN, CENP.

Another important benefit of a skills fair is that it can be part of your push to help attract and retain caregiver staff.

According to a LinkedIn report, the number one ranking of a great work culture is that it offers opportunities to learn and grow.¹ Use nursing skills fairs to not only build best practice habits and knowledge, but also to add value to your work culture.

No matter how you develop your nursing education skills fair, it can help empower caregivers with the skills and education to help standardize care and improve outcomes.

Successful skills fairs build caregiver confidence to do the right thing every time. They offer a break from routine and an opportunity to present information in an interactive setting. Whether simple or elaborate, a nursing skills fair can be an important and effective part of your education and training programming.

References:

1. B, A. (2019, November 25). Short, sweet, teach and repeat: A competency-based skills fair. https://www.hilarispublisher.com/proceedings/short-sweet-teach-and-repeat-a-competencybased-skills-fair-18618.html
2. Moot, L. (Ed.). (2022a). 2022 Workplace Learning Report: The Transformation of L&D Learning leads the way through the Great Reshuffle. In com. LinkedIn Learning. https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report.