Role for E-learning in staff development

Innovate,

My organization (scattered over multiple states) has been using HealthStream as our LCMS for about 8 years now. I believe they are the largest healthcare-specific provider. They provide basic content (regulatory courses) with the basic contract, and we have added a lot more online content over the years - both from 3rd party vendors & internal authors (we use Adobe products). We currently have nearly 3,000 courses on line. Early on, we realized that there was never going to be a 'one size fits all' vendor, so we continue to work with a variety of companies to obtain eLearning courses that meet our needs.

We have found that elearning is the best possible resource for the mandatory 'stuff'. It is also the most appropriate delivery method for anything that is purely informative - "no decisions, this is how it's done".

For our application-level specialty education, we adopt a blended learning mode... coupling eLearning with traditional skills lab & practicum. We utilize online programs from a variety of specialty organziations - for nursing & other disciplines... (e.g., AACN's ECCO program, Fetal monitoring, AORN's Periop 101, etc). They all have partnerships with HealthStream, so adding them to our library is not a hassle.

Regarding CE - we have mandatory CE requirements for relicensure in most states we are in. So we have a contract with Nursing Spectrum - unlimited CE for all nursing staff. These programs are not meant to fulfill workplace requirements. They are basically informational - you can even print them out and take the post test online at your convenience. They are electronic page turners, but -- they are what they are. It's a hugely popular 'satisfier' for our nurses.

Over the years, as we added more online resources, the role of educators has changed- including adding skill sets needed for eLearning Instructional Design & course development.

Thanks for introducing this thread. I'll be interested in what others have to add.

As a one-person department, I am anxious to get the online component up and running at my organization for the regulatory stuff. I already have some additional classes that are organizational requirements put together in powerpoint format that can be easily adapted to the online format. This will free me up to do much more of the skills based education that needs to be done and to do it more effectively.

I am an organizational education coordinator and utilize e-learning for my facility. I personally would like a more expanded capability or augment Nursing Spectrum, but because of financial constraints, we are unable to make this happen. Currently, we use "Learning Harbor" web-based and self-directed. There is a fee as it is owned privately. There are pros and cons. It contains general mandatory topics (e.g., infection control, confidentiality/HIPAA, etc) and some can be customized to meet the facility's needs (fire safety, etc). The advantages are: a) you as the education manager, are able to track compliance easily and b) the learner can do the courses anytime once they have their passwords. Disadvantages are there are no opportunities to ask questions because of lack of interactions among the learners and educators. Also, and my biggest challenge is that ancillary staff (such as housekeeping, transport, etc) have a difficult time because many of them are not computer literate (they are older generation). Some only speak another language other than English. Once, I caught someone with answers written on a piece of paper and the answers were being passed on so their co-workers could just go straight to the test questions and write their answers without reading the modules! Is that really learning? Not so. So, I had to make sure that those people have alternatives to learn what they are supposed to learn. Assessment of your target audience is a must and depending on their level of skill, experience and willingness to use the computer must be taken into consideration. Tough to implement when you have learners with different levels of knowledge and computer literacy.

Lcprnc,

I feel your pain! I've been involved with eLearning for 20 years & just when I think I have seen the worst - - - another entry comes in.

We have been 'wired' for all mandatory ed for a long time now - and make sure that all new employees understand that 'cheating' is not tolerated. It can result in termination, especially if it occurs in a high-stakes test.

We do accomodate our employees with lower levels of English literacy by making the manager responsible for the education if they can't use the online stuff. Our LMS allows us to enter 'equivalent' activities to satisfy online courses, so it really doesn't cause many problems. We do offer workforce development classes (ESL, computer literacy, etc) at most of our campuses.

As for the professional staff -- we just don't tolerate computer illiterates. Everything is online, from our initial application process to annual HR benefits enrollment.. we are rapidly moving to all online clinical environment. So, we don't have room for stragglers.

Actually, waaaaay back when (several years) I used to get complaints from nurses claiming to be computer illiterates - but then I would usually find out that they were using the online CE programs -- hmmm. So - I guess it's situational computer illiteracy.. only crops up when they don't want to use it.

Hang in there!

I probably wasn't clear in my post...haven't done this yet, still waiting for the $$ from higher up so don't know the program. The company we will be using is Swank Healthcare (www.swankhealth.com) and they told me it's no problem to put my powerpoint into their system...time will tell.

Re: your company name, I like the second better-shorter!

Hi:

We use Healthstream for our hospital as well. I love it...It has its bugs and stuff but so much better than Net Learn as far as the interface is concerned, in my opinion.

We also supplement with Pearlsreview.com. It costs the hospital about 1600.00 for 250 students.. Great product, everyone loves it. It is an online CEU company for nurses.

icunurse36