Online Training For The Healthcare Sector: What eLearning Professionals Should Know

While all professionals should be well-informed, regardless of their industry or niche, it is especially important for members of the healthcare sector to be fully qualified and properly trained. After all, they tend to patients whose lives may very well hang in the balance on a daily basis, and being knowledgeable and skilled can make a world of difference when it comes to the care they provide. For this very reason, online training is steadily on the rise in the medical field. Here are just a few of the benefits of switching to online training for healthcare professionals and organizations.

4 Benefits Of Online Training For The Healthcare Sector

1. Cost reduction.
   Online training can significantly reduce L&D costs within healthcare organizations, primarily thanks to the fact that there are no on-site instructors or printed material fees. Rather than paying for an instructor to go from location to location to teach healthcare workers, each employee can simply access the online training program and participate in online training activities, virtual presentations, and even live events.
2. Decreased training time.Time is money, and spending valuable time training employees via face-to-face instruction can be a costly endeavor. Fortunately, online training can drastically cut training seat time by condensing learning materials and make the most of every eLearning minute. For example, rather than sitting through a half-an-hour presentation, employees can simply engage in an online scenario that teaches them the same skills and knowledge.
3. Easy to update and expand.
   The healthcare sector is constantly changing, as new procedures are discovered, new prescriptions and treatments are introduced, and compliance procedures expand and evolve. With the help of eLearning, healthcare organizations can update their training materials quickly and cost-effectively, giving their patients the best possible treatment and their employees all of the online tools they need to do so.
4. Rapid employee orientation.A significant percentage of the training budget is typically dedicated to new employee onboarding. However, online training can make new employee orientation quicker and less costly. They can also access online training materials on-the-job via their tablets or mobile devices, especially if the learning management system is cloud-based, so that they are able to learn about company policies and updated procedures immediately.

Online Training For The Healthcare Sector: 5 Tips For eLearning Professionals

1. Make it visual.Employees simply aren’t going to get excited about the online training process if they have to sift through an abundance of text to get the information they need. This is why it’s essential to make your online training course as visual as possible, such as including images, graphics, and multimedia presentations that are compelling and attention-grabbing. Healthcare workers often have to work with complicated equipment or carry out complex procedures, and including visuals can help them to better comprehend the subject matter.
2. Know your corporate learners.Conducting surveys, focus groups, interviews, and online assessments is an absolute must if you want to develop an effective online training strategy. You must know what your healthcare corporate learners need to take away from the eLearning experience, what skills they need to acquire, and what they expect from the online training course. Their prior knowledge and personal experience levels are also essential, as it gives you an indication of how you can fill the performance gap.
3. Improve skill and task mastery with online scenarios.Online scenarios and simulations are invaluable teaching tools, particularly in the healthcare sector, as they give corporate learners the chance to master skills and tasks without the real world risks. For example, completing an online scenario that teaches them how to use a new piece of equipment can ensure that they can properly utilize the equipment, without putting the patients at risk or compromising the diagnostic data. Try to make the online scenario or simulation as realistic as possible to improve immersion and interactivity.
4. Create an easy-to localize online training course.Chances are that your online training course is going to be seen in a variety of different locations, especially if you are creating an online training program for a global healthcare company. Thus, you need to make certain that your online training course is easy to be localized from the very beginning, so that you can avoid costly updates and modifications later on. Subtitle your online training course so that it’s accessible for the hearing impaired, and so that you can translate it when it’s time to take it to international audiences. Also, avoid using images that are culture-specific, such as those featuring currency or signs with lettering.
5. Keep them up-to-date with webinars.
   Webinars are virtual training events that are typically live, but can be recorded for later viewing. They can cover a wide range of topics and give healthcare employees the chance to interact with their online instructors and peers remotely. If they have a question, they can simply ask it during the webinar and get an answer within a matter of minutes, or share their opinions and insights. Just make sure to schedule your webinars for dates and times that are most convenient for your online learners, and keep in mind that healthcare employees, especially those who work in hospitals, often have irregular schedules.

As is the case with all eLearning endeavors, a healthcare online training strategy is only effective if you know your audience, can clearly state your goals, and know which materials can best convey the information. So, use these tips to reap all the benefits of an online training program in your healthcare organization.

Also interested in learning more about how to design online training courses for other sectors? Read the article 7 Benefits Of eLearning For Charities: What eLearning Professionals Should Know to discover the benefits of eLearning for charitable organizations.

https://elearningindustry.com/online-training-healthcare-sector-4-benefits-5-tips-elearning-professionals

E-learning in healthcare: benefits, challenges and limitations

What are the benefits of e-learning for organisations and staff?Colin McEwen, account manager, eCom Scotland: One of the major benefits is the flexibility e-learning offers ... This can help ensure learning is more accessible and is not overlooked. There are also benefits when it comes to managing compliance and continual professional development, both from an individual and organisational perspective ... There can also be budgetary and time saving benefits for the organisation.Emily Newlands, development and support manager, National Skills Academy for Health: E-learning can be cost effective, time efficient and a flexible way to access training. In a sector like the health sector where people can be quickly pulled away it is something you can dip out of and go back to – you aren’t locked into a classroom.What are the limitations of e-learning?Anonymous: There are some topics where healthcare professionals can only scratch the surface and aren’t able to talk through issues with individuals so they truly grasp the subject matter. A lot of diversity training is now done by e-learning, but generally it doesn’t allow a space for individuals to explore the concept in an interactive way to allow people to work through their internal dialogues and achieve real change. E-learning should never be the totality of the training provision and one of the sad things of the pressures of the current workload for clinicians is that often it is the only type of learning they can do because of time and funding resource issues.Dr Dirk Pilat, medical director for e-learning, Royal College of GPs: There is ongoing duplication of resources right across the sector, with varying educational institutions creating similar content which results in reduced take up. There is definitely a need for an intelligent meta-site which accumulates all available resources.Beth Britton, campaigner, consultant, writer and blogger: Well thought out e-learning is fine for some aspects of education, particularly theoretical elements. However, I don’t think it is suitable for aspects that require a far more sensitive, personalised approach, for example dementia care. E-learning in dementia care is never going to get to the heart of seeing the person, and issues around individuality, communication, problem solving etc in the way that face-to-face training that is interactive and based on group learning and discussion can. Also, I have severe reservations about any e-learning programme that offers obvious multiple choice answers to questions. This is not learning – it’s box ticking.What are the challenges of implementing e-learning?Newlands: Not scheduling time, not engaging staff, not picking the right e-learning, not having a proper roll out plan. But there are things we can do about it – making the managers e-learning champions for instance.Dr Julie Gripton, deputy director head of multiprofessional education, Medway NHS foundation trust: Dispelling fears around using IT based courses and IT itself, for non-pc users and those trying to complete with a second language.Tracy Smith, Healthcare Financial Management Association: Having someone to take ownership of e-learning within each organisation is a challenge in itself. Then identifying who would benefit from what training and allowing time to complete the training becomes a secondary challenge.Bryan Kessie, head of technical development, Skills for Health: Organisations need champions and to make sure the messages get through to staff. Once staff see the point of doing the learning and see what good quality e-learning looks like many of the barriers are overcome.Pilat: I think the constant stream of innovations that happen on the infrastructure (hardware/software/instructional design) side of things make it difficult for providers to constantly re-create their existing content. E-learning as an academic subject is only 40 years old, so both the andragogy and pedagogy of e-learning are in constant flux and the evidence on how best to successfully engage learners is still in its infancy.Lia Ali, consultant psychiatrist and clinical lead for digital health, south London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust: Underfunded IT infrastructure, lack of protected time, thinking that e-learning is the only way, getting data to show that behaviour change is produced – particularly in certain topics.Are healthcare staff given scheduled time and space to learn properly?David T Evans, national teaching fellow and senior lecturer in sexual health, University of Greenwich: Sadly, many would probably say “no” to this, except for the mandatory stuff. I suppose it depends on the topic and how they are scheduled.Kessie: This varies across organisations – many organisations do prioritise training and allow staff time and resources to keep their skills up to date. We work closely with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust who use simulation to train staff team. It can be a double edged sword, e-learning allows staff to do training at work and fits with shift commitments etc, but this can also mean staff undertake training in their own time and this becomes the norm.How can e-learning cut the cost of healthcare and divert resources to more staff and better working practices?Pilat: E-learning can save costs on infrastructure and personnel which can be reinvested in patient services. Just imagine the carbon footprint a whole course can create if all members have to travel to a venue, have to be kept warm/cold and fed instead of sitting at home or in the workplace, learning online.Gripton: One of the benefits of e-learning is rapid accessibility. If we release a classroom course it has to be planned at least six to eight weeks in advance for clinical schedules. With e-learning staff can access courses immediately. This stops delays in the system and is not reliant on the staff member being available for a specific session.Polly Pascoe, works with the NHS as a knowledge and intelligence coordinator: E-learning can only begin to cut costs once a large investment (of not only money) goes into the design and delivery of it. Creating e-learning simply to gain a quick win of saving costs elsewhere will eventually produce staff who are not experiencing true and valuable development.
https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/may/11/e-learning-in-healthcare-benefits-challenges-and-limitations 

eLearning Tools website

The purpose of this website is to explore some eLearning tools that can be useful when instructing online courses. Here you will find information about three commonly used online tools: Prezi, Pictochart, and Podcasts. As well some helpful resources about how to use each of these tools.

https://sites.google.com/view/elearningtoolsbygloriaandjas/home

Moodle Resource

A helpful resource on how to use moodle as a manager, teacher, student, or parent! 

http://school.demo.moodle.net/

Tools to create on-line courses

A fantastic blog post with some unique tools to help create on-line courses:

https://blog.thinkific.com/low-cost-tools-create-online-course/