Hypermobility: How to Assess, Support, and Treat Safely (CNE)
Course Description
This course helps nurses understand joint hypermobility as more than an interesting physical trait. Hypermobility may be benign, symptomatic, or part of a broader heritable connective tissue disorder. Learners explore flexibility, instability, recurrent sprains, subluxations, pain, fatigue, proprioceptive difficulty, sleep disruption, dysautonomia-type symptoms, mast cell-type symptoms, tissue fragility, procedure considerations, and referral pathways.
The course does not ask nurses to diagnose hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, hypermobility spectrum disorder, vascular EDS, dysautonomia, mast cell activation syndrome, or other complex conditions independently. Instead, it gives nurses a practical framework for recognising patterns, asking better questions, screening for safety concerns, validating symptoms, documenting functional impact, supporting conservative management within scope, and coordinating appropriate medical or specialist referral.
What You Will Learn
Clinical Pattern Recognition
Recognise when pain, recurrent injury, dizziness, fatigue, poor sleep, gastrointestinal symptoms, allergic-type reactions, and normal tests may deserve a broader view.
Hypermobility and Instability
Distinguish flexibility, hypermobility, and instability using patient-centred language that supports safer documentation and referral.
Screening and Safety
Understand Beighton score and five-point questionnaire literacy, systemic clues, red flags, tissue fragility, procedure concerns, and escalation priorities.
Support and Coordination
Apply validation, pacing, symptom tracking, safe activity principles, medication awareness, referral quality, and coordinated care within nursing scope.
Course Pathway
The learning pathway moves from recognising hypermobility relevance into screening, symptom pattern interpretation, conservative support, escalation, referral, and coordinated care.
Important scope note: Nursing scope varies by country, region, register, employer policy, job role, training, competence, consent requirements, supervision arrangements, and indemnity or insurance. Some nurses may be authorised to provide selected assessment support, education, conservative care guidance, or referral coordination in specific settings. Others may not. Completion of this course does not authorise the learner to diagnose complex heritable connective tissue disorders or provide specialist treatment outside their own professional scope.
Who This Course Is For
This course is suitable for nurses working in primary care, pain management, rehabilitation, rheumatology-adjacent services, orthopedics, sports medicine-adjacent care, community care, urgent care, perioperative care, wellness, supportive care, and interdisciplinary settings. It is especially relevant for nurses who encounter patients with recurring injuries, unexplained pain, dizziness, fatigue, instability, or multisystem symptoms that may not yet have been connected into a clear care pathway.
About the Presenter
Dr. Linda Bluestein, M.D., is a board-certified anesthesiologist, integrative pain medicine physician, and former ballet dancer with a special focus on dancers and athletes prone to hypermobility disorders. After earning her medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, she completed an anesthesiology residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
A prominent figure in the study of connective tissue disorders including Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, Dr. Bluestein serves as Director of Education for the nonprofit EDS Wellness. She also contributes to academia as an assistant professor and RISHI Healer's Art Program course director at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
In support of improving patient care, this course has been planned and implemented by AKH Inc., Advancing Knowledge in Healthcare and Neil Asher. AKH Inc., Advancing Knowledge in Healthcare is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive 5.50 Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credit for learning and change.