Most of the postings I read through tend to deal with either corporate environments or school. My environment is health care which I think of tending to be slightly different. (Mental note: need to find some elearning blogs from others in health care).
I’ve been considering this for a while and started a discussion yesterday with our Nurse Educators. Some of my questions to them were:
- How do we currently train our nursing staff?
- What do we expect from them in terms of time commitment?
- What about the other 800+ staff?
I’ve had a couple of responses that seem to be the norm from the nursing stand point. There is currently a mix of classroom and hands on theory. Most of this training is just orientation to specific units and “how we do things here”. Certifications are kept track of in binders/databases of all varieties. There are a few courses that staff can do online (but, are they really courses with interaction, quizzes, etc).
My department, or better yet myself, keeps getting wrapped up in let’s get this LMS out there. Get it going. If you build it they will come. The more I think about it the more I wonder will they?
We implemented a pilot elearning system here a few years ago just to managers and most logged in at home, late at night. Is this what we should expect of all our staff when the new system comes in, especially knowing the majority of them are working 12 hours shifts? If it is work related material shouldn’t they be allowed time at work to learn? If it was a course or seminar we would send them during company time to attend. This is all flying around in my head right now, not to mention the thought of who even has access to a computer on site.
I’m still waiting to hear the “YES we do have the LMS go and play.” I’m excited but at the same time extremely concerned about how this is all going to play out and work. Especially since most of the time it will be little ol’ me running the whole show. It seems that here in Ontario only a few of my counter parts have started down the elearning road, but no one has been at it for a very long time. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been through this in a health care setting or anyone else who has advice to share before I even get started.