About DSD Certify

This course is written and maintained by a practicing California nurse, health-sciences college professor, and Director of Staff Development — built from the regulations and from the job itself, and kept current as both change.

Who writes and teaches this course

Professor Damien Draconum has spent more than 30 years in healthcare and healthcare education. He is a college professor in the health sciences, a licensed nurse in California, and a CDPH- and BVNPT-approved instructor and continuing-education provider. He has also served as a Director of Staff Development in skilled nursing — the same role this course prepares nurses to step into.

He is a successful, widely published author, with more than a dozen healthcare textbooks completed — original works written for the students and clinicians who train in these fields.

He developed the course content himself, drawing on three things: the text of the California Title 22 regulations that govern the DSD role, established adult-learning education theory, and years of professional experience actually doing the work in skilled nursing facilities. Every regulatory citation in the course and in our free guides was checked against the official California Code of Regulations, the Code of Federal Regulations, or the CMS State Operations Manual.

Damien is the founder and CEO of several online learning platforms — Draco Learning and its Draco Learning LMS, the Elder Dignity Project, and Draco Staff Development, the compliance and staff-development software built for skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities. DSD Certify is a service of Draco Learning.

Why this course exists

Most of what a Director of Staff Development is judged on is the program behind the teaching — whether it is built correctly, well documented, and ready when a surveyor asks. A great DSD builds exactly that, with confidence, and this course teaches you how.

This course puts the regulation, the adult-learning method, and the practical judgement together in one place, written by someone who has been accountable for all three. It gives a new DSD the education they need and the confidence to run the program well from day one.