Learning and Training in Modern Healthcare

Over the past five years, training in the healthcare setting has had to evolve to meet the needs of individual staff and providers, as well as overall health care systems. From the strains of COVID to ongoing staffing shortages, training departments had to get better at “meeting staff where they are” by offering less traditional classroom style trainings, and more engaging and interactive trainings.  To remain effective and relevant, health care trainers had to get better at assessing educational needs and creating training that both fulfills learning objectives and engages the learner, no matter the platform or length of training.  One size certainly, no longer fits all, and knowing when and how to pivot away from traditional classroom trainings to quick and engaging platforms like TikTok will be the way to success with your end-user.

The pandemic caused healthcare to evolve and develop in a myriad of ways, including creating new venues and ways of learning “at a distance”.   In 2019, classroom training was the “go-to” method of learning.  Scheduling the room, building the slide deck, and registering individuals were simple yet effective.  However, as we moved into 2020, meeting in groups was no longer acceptable.  We had to learn to pivot and train through TEAMS, Zoom, or WebEx, depending on the organizational preferred platform.  Finding innovative ways of engaging participants became a creative challenge for the trainer, because not having your camera “on” implied you weren’t paying attention.  We found that giving attendees the information and asking them to review prior to class was a great way for us to then just facilitate the discussion.  All cameras were required to be “on” for all participants.  The screen was filled with faces instead of slides.

Fast forward to 2023, where the constant strains of the pandemic have been replaced by the almost constant stress of recruiting, training, and retaining staff.  In the short-staffed world of healthcare, employees have neither time to sit in the classroom to learn, nor attend a virtual training that takes more than a lunch break. Instead, trainers are becoming more quick and agile with training and learning.  

For example, TikTok is a current favorite for all types of individuals and can be accessed through many devices.  Small educational videos such as hand hygiene, identifying a stroke, urgent care versus an emergency room visit, changing sheets in a hospital bed are just a few that can be quite effective in short bursts of information.  A YouTube channel can also be a creative way to manage training and education.   Videos have been very effective with our staff to soak in information.  Another example is podcasting, which can be quite informational and effective.  We are launching ours in January of this year.  Equipment can be of good quality, yet inexpensive.  Publishing is also quite simple and can be done for free on several platforms. Let your creative staff take it and run. 

In today’s healthcare environment of burned out and tired staff, we cannot stop training.  Instead, we must create less didactic learning environments.  For example, many organizations are still counting on the learning management system (LMS) to push out education.  Although an LMS is valuable for compliance and accountability with regulatory bodies, it is the system through which very little is learned.  Clicking through slides and taking the subsequent quiz–no matter how many times–is effective for “checking the box” that it is completed. 

Health care must assure that training needs are met by creating learning opportunities that fit within the fast paced health care environment, while meeting staff and providers “where they are at”.