“Personnel need to ask themselves, ‘How do I take this information I've learned and go help my residents?’
Tamar Abell
Upstairs Solutions
With the wide array of online continuing education (CE) choices, where does an administrator or training staff start to choose what's best for personnel?
Even before choosing the type of continuing education you want or the provider, an administrator or training staff must first assess needs and how those needs relate to the organization's strategic plan and goals, says Mike Mutka, president and COO of Silverchair Learning Systems.
“Once you find out where the gaps are, then you can acquire content that gives you the ability to fill those gaps,” Mutka says.
Tamar Abell, principal, Upstairs Solutions, and a third generation nursing home owner/operator, also believes that having programs where the student interacts with the content is extremely important. “Personnel need to ask themselves, ‘How do I take this information I've learned and go help my residents?’”
Bradley Smith, healthcare account manager for Care2Learn, also a licensed nursing home administrator, says his company has great courses to help teach staff corrective action for F-tags. “Not only does the staff learn how to correct the problem, but the facility has a plan of correction to show the state and government how that plan was carried out,” he says.
Ease of access
Ease of access is another important factor to consider. Mutka says it's really all about what is easy to use, what is clear and simple, easy to understand, and very accessible. “The people you are providing CE for typically have extremely busy lives and they are trying to fit these things in, so simplicity and ease of access should be paramount. The program shouldn't be a labyrinth to get through.”
Besides ease of access, Abell says to make sure you know who the subject matter expert is who developed the content. “Otherwise, how will you know if it is best practices, relevant and current?” she asks. It also needs to be written at the level of the frontline staff. “Eighty percent of your care is done by your frontline staff,” says Abell. “Make sure the programs are written at the right grade level, that they are understandable, and relevant.” Ask online education providers what support they provide, what kind of references they have, and if they are serving any facilities like your own. Mutka says if providers are doing continuing education well, those types of answers should be easy to provide. “If they give you a tap dance, I would be suspect,” he says.
Smith says six questions are important to be asked and answered when considering online CE. “Make sure you ask how large their library is, and ask questions about the quality of their content. How many accrediting boards are they affiliated with and what type of relationship do they have? How easy is it for someone to go online and take the courses? Is it user-friendly and intuitive? Can an administrator assign courses and then run reports tracking them? And lastly, can the education be built and personalized to your facility?”
Trackable content
Bradley Smith
The content also needs to be trackable to make sure personnel are doing the work and that management can see where they are in the continuing education program. “There are a zillion and one places online to get free CEs. If an employee is just cherry-picking courses here and there, how do you track all that and, more importantly, how do you know what they're choosing is fitting your goals?” Mutka asks. Administrators know training is important but not urgent. It's easy to get cost-focused rather than goal-driven. As far as the free online training programs, Mutka says you get what you pay for.
Tamar Abell
E-learning should also have a place for competency testing, according to Abell. “If there's a tutorial on hand washing, the person administering the test needs to know the student is able to perform hand washing properly,” she says.
Mike Mutka
Mutka, Abell, and Smith believe a blended approach of online continuing education and live presentations is the best way to train employees. Online continuing education can be used for the basic, routine subjects, theory, or regulatory issues, or for laying the groundwork for larger topics. For topics that will benefit from group interaction and talking to peers, the classroom setting can be very valuable. With online learning, peripheral costs such as travel, mileage, and time out of the office is mitigated. “I'm an online education provider, but I'm going to be the first person to tell you that I don't think we're the sole way you should get your CEs. A blended learning approach is best,” Mutka says.
“Online learning is very cost-effective,” Smith concludes. “It's very expensive to send people out to CE courses. In today's economy it's simply cost prohibitive.”
