COVID-19: Iskin have smoothed the transition to e-learning for hundreds of organisations
Healthcare E-learning
Here we look at the benefits of healthcare e-learning, with online training
solutions that make content more adaptable and more accessible to
medical staff and health workers who work across various shifts, and under
constant pressure.
The healthcare sector is one in which the implementation of an effective e-learning strategy can have huge benefits to staff and patients alike.
The reality is that having properly trained staff can quite literally be the difference between life and death for patients, so there are few industries where training is more important.
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"Iskin knew what they were talking about and only said ‘yes’ when they meant ‘yes’ – there were no empty promises." Debs Woodcraft at Mountain Healthcare
Healthcare is also an industry that comes under a great amount of scrutiny. It can be a politically charged sector held to high social, fiscal and administrative standards. With that in mind, ensuring that all staff are properly trained is a top priority for L&D managers working in the healthcare sector.
E-learning can become a powerful part of a healthcare organisation’s training armoury and implementing it successfully is all about choosing the right platform.
"The availability of social functionality (such as Forums, Chat and Wiki) within Moodle allows the organisation to generate feedback, discussions and for use internally for its mandatory training requirements."
Healthcare Training challenges:
Time and staffing constraints
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It’s no secret that healthcare organisations are often short-staffed. Nurse managers have an average of 34 direct reports, while the average hovers around ten for most other industries. Couple that with staff working long shifts on rotation and it’s clear that training sessions and classes can be difficult for employees to attend reliably.
Availability of appropriate staff
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Healthcare training often requires a blended learning approach, meaning the correct members of staff need to be available and present to provide the in-person training. This means a balancing act between delivering training and ensuring the needs of patients are met – a tough ask for under-staffed organisations.
Lack of engaging training
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Due to time and staffing pressures, some aspects of healthcare training are sometimes delivered in a blanket approach – check-box exercises with staff repeating the same courses until they pass. Such content has low levels of engagement and the need to ‘train to retain’ valuable staff makes creating engaging learning content vital.
Budget restraints
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The healthcare sector’s training requirements change constantly. Staff training can be an expensive venture for organisations and budgets are under regular scrutiny. Healthcare organisations often have to pay not only for training materials and instructors, but also for transport and site facilities if the training is off-site.
Complex training demands
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The training requirements within the healthcare sector are wide and varied. They range from compliance and competence training to improving outcomes and refreshing skills. Given the issue of under-staffing and budget constraints, time to competency needs to be low to get staff ready to treat patients as soon as possible.
Ever-changing environments
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It’s a dynamic environment by its very nature due to the need for research into technology, pharmaceuticals and best practices and all staff training must adapt to reflect new developments. In cases such as the Covid-19 pandemic there can be a huge urgency for training too, putting more pressure on L&D managers.
Why an e-Why an e-learning strategy is essential for healthcare:strategy is essential in charities:
Given the huge importance of proper training in the healthcare sector and the complexities involved in not only delivering the training but also ensuring staff engagement, L&D managers have their hands full. E-learning can address many of the issues facing healthcare professionals and revolutionise training processes. Here are just some of the ways a Hubken e-learning solution can help healthcare organisations:
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Learning Management Systems (LMSs)
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You can make use of an LMS to not only administrate and distribute formal training online, but also to report on results and, if necessary, prove that compliance regulations are being met. A charity LMS could bridge many of the skill gaps facing charities and their staff. Two leading LMSs are Totara Learn and Moodle.
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Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs)
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When it comes to informal and social learning, LXPs are king. They offer the concept of ‘learning on the job’ and collaborating to help others learn in social settings. LXPs like Totara Engage allow employees to create their own content ‘playlists’ and share useful knowledge and training with others.
Performance Management Platforms
It’s also worth mentioning Performance Management Platforms which, while not learning platforms, are useful should you need to monitor and improve staff performance. They can help identify skill gaps to address using LMSs or LXPs.
What different types of e-learning platform are there?
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E-learning can seamlessly replace existing methods and quickly become a key part of their training. Charities can deliver online training using either a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Learning Experience Platform (LXP).
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Here’s a mini-primer to each:
Read a healthcare success story
With no dedicated education team, Mountain Healthcare needed a system that would centralise training for all the learners who were spread across the country. They found that Totara Learn was the perfect e-learning solution to meet their training needs and they've seen significant time savings from online bookings and admin time.
We also work with healthcare related charities including: Midlands Air Ambulance Charity and Princess Alice Hospice.
Why Iskin Group?
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Iskin Group is one of the UK’s leading e-learning service providers.
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Since 2004 we’ve helped countless organisations to achieve their training objectives, including many charities across the UK. Get in touch today to see how we could help transform training for you.