Why is the site’s name PEEPity?
This service is for one profession, Respiratory Therapists (RT). Since the site only serves RTs the site name needed to include something special to the group. What is more special to an RT than PEEP?! Unfortunately, PEEP.com was not available, so a domain name including this critical term was found, PEEPity.com
The site name represents a community and education aspect since many come here to support RT students, but also that critical alveolar expanding concept of – PEEP. The slogan for PEEPity soon became – Optimally inflating minds and alveoli.
Who is behind the site?
Nicole Bernd MHA RRT
Respiratory Therapist
Former Clinical Director of Education
Owner & Founder of PEEPity.com
When I started PEEPity, I did it out of a dire need. As a newly promoted Clinical Director of Education (CDE) at my college, I found that the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) was coming out for our inspection in just a few months. CoARC is the accreditation body that ensures respiratory schools are providing good education to students and following best practices. They usually only do on-site evaluations of schools once every ten years.
When assembling the required documentation for the CoARC inspection, I quickly found that our school records were in paper format and difficult to locate. Additionally, the electronic system that was in use for clinical tracking was entirely down at the time with no indication of when its services would resume.
I had an idea for a method to reduce my workload, improve reporting mechanisms, and make the clinical experience simpler for students and preceptors. My college would not fund or support me spending time on the project, so I built PEEPity in my spare time outside of work, and with my own funds, during the Christmas break in 2018. I needed a solution to reduce the overwhelming new workload of being a clinical director while also meeting CoARC’s guidelines.
The CoARC visit occurred in 2019, and we had zero violations and eleven listed strengths. It was our fantastic site visitors that recommended I offer PEEPity to other programs.
Thus, later in 2019, PEEPity became available to a few schools upon request and entered testing phases to ensure the system was meeting the needs of other schools, privacy standards, and security guidelines.
Current day, and I make improvements every weekend based on my own experience using the system as a Clinical Director, and the feedback and input I get from the educators, preceptors, and students also using PEEPity.
I have one goal, make it easy and fun to use. I know that is a tall order for a regulatory tracking program, but that doesn’t mean I can’t work towards that goal with every update to make it a little better for everyone.
I take your input seriously, and I get the most improvement suggestions from my educators. To make it easier to use for students and preceptors, I need to hear from you about your experience. I don’t use the system as a preceptor or student, so I can’t find the best ways to improve those aspects of PEEPity without you. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way for consideration.
If you have suggestions, send me a direct email at – [email protected]. I can’t always implement every recommendation, but I do implement many of them when code structure or security limitations do not prevent it.