Tick-Borne Diseases
According to the Tick-Borne Diseases working group 2018 Report to Congress:
"Tick-borne diseases have rapidly become a serious and growing threat to public health in the United States. Despite many scientific unknowns, experts agree that the incidence and distribution of tick-borne diseases are increasing. Over the past 25 years, reports of Lyme disease have increased steadily with estimated annual cases approximating 300,000. The number of U.S. counties now considered to be of high incidence for Lyme disease has increased by more than 300% in the Northeastern states and by approximately 250% in the North-Central states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recognizes 18 tick-borne pathogens in the United States. However, researchers and health care practitioners continue to discover emerging disease agents and new medical conditions associated with tick bites."
This presents a unique challenge for nursing staff in identifying, tracking, and understanding tick-borne diseases, their symptom, and treatment options.
The following course was put together with developed by the CDC and materials CDC public domain content, especially the pamphlet titled “Tickborne Diseases of the United States,” a reference manual for healthcare professionals, fifth edition, 2018.
In addition, other resources and videos not related to the CDC were used to write this course. A list of those resources plus the CDC website is included in the reference section of this course. Reference to specific commercial products, manufacturers, companies, or trademarks does not constitute its endorsement or recommendation by the U.S. Government, Department of Health and Human Services, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All materials on the CDC website are free of charge.
This course fulfills the Texas Board of Nursing's recommendation of completing continuing education relating to the treatment of tick-borne diseases.
Questions? Check out our FAQs page and How Online IV Certification Works!
Objectives
Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to:
- Identify ticks and their common habitats.
- Locate geographical locations of common disease-causing ticks.
- Explain how ticks spread diseases.
- List diseases ticks cause and treatments.
- Describe Lyme disease infection stages and their manifestations.
- Identify treatment options for tick-borne diseases.
- Explain different methods of how to prevent tick bites.
- Utilize CDC website and pamphlet on tick-borne diseases of the United States.
Curriculum
Chapter 1: Introduction
- What are ticks?
- How ticks spread disease
- Tick life cycle
- Geographic locations of disease-causing ticks
Chapter 2: Ticks That Cause Disease
- Asian Longhorn tick
- Blacklegged tick
- Lonestar tick
- American Dog tick
- Brown Dog tick
- Groundhog tick
- Gulf Coast tick
- Rocky Mountain Wood tick
- Soft tick
- Western Blacklegged tick
Chapter 3: Tick-Borne Diseases and Treatments
- Alpha Gal syndrome
- Anaplasmosis
- Babesiosis
- Borrelia miyamotoi
- Colorado tick fever
- Ehrlichiosis
- Heartland and Bourbon virus
- Lyme disease
- Powassan disease
- Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF)
- Tickborne relapsing fever (TBRF)
- Tularemia
Chapter 4: Tick Removal and Prevention
- Tick removal
- Tick prevention
Chapter 5: Tick Bite Prophylaxis
Chapter 6: References
Price: $15.00
Contact Hours: 1.5
Course Author
Brooke Lounsbury
Brooke Lounsbury, RN, has over 26 years of experience as a nurse. Her primary field was in Home Health and Hospice until leaving mainstream nursing in 2008 to teach holistic health classes devoted to helping people empower themselves through education, public speaking engagements, classes, and coaching -online and in person. Topics include digestive health, fermentation, sleep hygiene, and the effects of our technology (computers, wifi, cellphones, etc) on our health and traveled to Austria to receive further training and is an EMF consultant and home assessment mitigation expert.
Her latest project is her "Intro to Writing CE", a course to empower nurses on how to write a continuing education course!
She is available for writing course consultations, and can be reached at basicsrn@gmail.com.
Course Accreditation
See our Accreditation Statements page to view our accreditation information.