About DSD Certify

This course is not assembled from a template. It is written and maintained by a practicing California nurse and Director of Staff Development, from the regulations and from the job itself.

Who writes and teaches this course

Damien Draconum has been a licensed nurse in California for more than 21 years. Over that time he has served as a Director of Staff Development, a nursing instructor, a NATP (nurse assistant training program) instructor, and an EMS instructor — the same roles this course prepares nurses to step into.

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.

He is also the CEO and chief content developer of Draco Staff Development, Draco Learning, the Draco Learning LMS, and several other online education platforms built for healthcare professionals.

Why this course exists

Most of what a Director of Staff Development is judged on is not the teaching itself — it is whether the program behind the teaching is built correctly, documented, and defensible when a surveyor asks. That is difficult to learn from the regulation alone, and it is easy to get wrong in ways that only surface during a survey.

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 is designed to satisfy the education a new DSD needs and to make the person who finishes it genuinely ready for the role — not merely certified.