Health Care Highlights: Success Stories
Effective, Engaging and Measurable: Computer-based Training at Baylor Medical Center
With 80-90 percent of its contract staff being Spanish-speaking, Baylor Medical Center of Irving, Texas faces an ongoing challenge in training its employees effectively. As a result, English-based programs are difficult for them to understand. This leads to emploees not fully knowing what is expected of them - a problem for maintenance staff and management alike, says Jim Henry, director of environment services at Baylor.
Since the beginning of environmental services, the 308-bed facility's training program consisted of a supervisor, in a classroom setting, guiding workers through a lengthy slide show while narrating each picture. According to Henry, "This method of training was time-intensive, un-engaging and left no way of proving employees learned, let alone retained, any of their training."
Not only was it a task for employees to learn so much information in one day, it was even more difficult for them to retain all of that information. Baylor found itself without any way to measure and prove an employee's knowledge, which was a problem when teaching employees industry requirements set by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and JCAHO (Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations).
"To bring our staff the complex training they require, we began shopping around for an advanced training program that would not only train our employees in an engaging way, but provide a means to measure what they learned," says Henry. Baylor's search led them to an interactive, customizable, computer-based training program from 3M, called the 3M S.M.A.R.T. Employee Education and Training Program.
Baylor Medical Center has been using the CD-ROM program for the past two years. Henry explains, "In this time, supervisors say employees find training more enjoyable and have a better understanding of maintenance policies and procedures." The program has allowed Baylor to provide a more efficient and engaging training program for its employees.
The training program is customizable for a wide variety of training modules. "I am modifying and adding modules all the time," says Tim Dalgleish, supervisor of environmental services at Baylor. In addition to customizing the training modules' information, Dalgleish is also able to incorporate photos of Baylor's own employees performing various maintenance tasks correctly. "Our employees look forward to having their picture taken. It's a real morale builder for them and excites the staff to see people they know during the training."
As training instructor, Dalgleish is always on the look-out for new ways to add on to the program. He is now using a digital camera to create short movies and is able to load them onto the program and feature them during the training process. "Tim has built a dynamite program. There are a lot of training programs out there, but the customization capabilities in 3M's S.M.A.R.T program make it stand apart," says Henry.
Baylor has loaded the program onto its network and makes it available on four personal computers. Employees are able to sit down to train on any number of modules they need to complete. Baylor always has a supervisor in the vicinity to answer questions during the training.
"One of the most valuable features of the program is its ability to be customized into different languages. Because 80-90 percent of our contract staff is Spanish-speaking, this has been a very valuable link to get across our expectation of services," explains Henry. "The staff is better able to interact with the program and relate to it in their own language. They are retaining more. There was no guarantee before."
Baylor offers three basic training modules, which are available in Spanish:
- Orientation to Healthcare Cleaning
- Cleaning Patient Rooms
- Cleaning Check-Out
Henry continues, "We are now able to provide our maintenance staff with a solid knowledge base, which is more comprehensive than what was offered in our old program." The time Baylor spent supervising employees with its previous program has sufficiently decreased with use of the CD-ROM program.
"Prior to using the 3M's training program, it took us 9-10 hours to train our staff. This included our preparation, training and a question-and-answer session," explains Henry, "Scheduling such a large chunk of time was difficult. Now, it only takes 30 minutes to an hour to complete a training module." The program allows each worker to train in a number of different segments. Henry continues, "We'll tell some of our staff to take an hour to go through training modules, and to get as far as they can in that amount of time."
Employees can study at their own pace, which allows them to retake courses or review material as many times as necessary. The program supports a variety of learning approaches and can be customized to teach employees at various skill levels. "A key benefit is that it allows our employees to feel in control of the learning process and pace by allowing them to take control of how fast or slow they learn the material," adds Henry.
Another feature of the training program that Baylor has put to good use is its measurement function. After employees have gone through a training module, they are tested on its applications. Their scores are automatically captured and stored on the program. Maintenance supervisors can then review each worker's scores and recommend any additional training.
"We're able to determine where employees may be lacking in training and help them achieve their education goals by recommending follow-up training," says Henry. "Additionally, because the program allows us to document and record employees' test scores, which is perfect for proving our compliance with OSHA and JCAHO industry requirements."
"Also, because the effectiveness of the training is so easy to prove, we're doing more training. We're been able to customize training to very specific jobs our employees work on," explains Dalgleish. "Workers are even able to take the course again in the future as a refresher, if they like."
With such great success in training employees, the environmental services department is serving as a model for the entire facility. Administrators of the program are being asked to prepare customized, measurable training modules for departments outside of environmental services.
Henry concludes, "3M's training program is user-friendly and exactly what the industry needs. It has been a time-saver for administrators and maintenance workers alike. The ease of understanding it offers is a great benefit. As we look into the future, our successes lead us to believe we will be able to develop a training module for every job."
For more information about 3M's S.M.A.R.T, call 1-800-404-8930.
SIDEBAR
The ideal computer-based training programs are customizable to allow for the variations in practices between and within facilities. Therefore, the ability to customize the content to the area and the worker's responsibility is critical to ensure that environmental services workers receive information applicable to their work.
Other benefits of some computer-based training programs, such as those listed below, can be realized:
- Workers can learn at their own pace; they can go forward or back to review materials as often as needed.
- Employees can assess their own understanding of the content with spot checks and post-tests.
- The training is interactive, which helps facilitate learning.
- The training is often in small units that relate to job tasks. Trainers can combine the units or train on only selected topics depending on the worker's job responsibilities.
- It's a fun way to learn. Employees can interact with the content to facilitate learning.
- It can generate reports of participation, assist the trainer in evaluating their employees' competence and maintain records of training.
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