To say it is vital that healthcare workers receive training during this time is an understatement. Healthcare workers have been on the frontlines, providing care services, creating new medical treatments and products, working tirelessly with insurance companies, and much more. And all the while, the industry itself is changing at a prolific rate.
Providers are using telehealth instead of seeing patients in person. Without ongoing training, healthcare workers across all aspects of the industry are simply not able to function effectively in their roles. eLearning trends in healthcare training are also changing, and it’s important that healthcare company leaders stay aware of these trends.
Some of the top eLearning trends in healthcare training include remote training, increased cybersecurity for training, microlearning, and quick dissemination of training, according to Simon Cooper, CEO, Interactyx. In many cases, employee training software can enable healthcare organizations to adopt these helpful trends.
Remote healthcare training is one of the top eLearning trends in 2021
The most obvious, and important eLearning trend in healthcare this year is remote training. Due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic, almost 27 percent of U.S. employees will be working from home throughout this year.1 This number of individuals includes healthcare employees.
Not all healthcare workers are care providers who must work from an office, clinic, or hospital and see patients in-person. Many healthcare employees work in billing and coding, customer service, IT, product development, scheduling, and a host of other roles that can be performed from home. And some healthcare providers are choosing to work from home by providing telehealth services.
All of these individuals must have access to ongoing remote training. Healthcare companies should develop robust online employee training strategies and implement technologies, such as employee training software, that enable remote training.
Remote training is an eLearning trend no healthcare company can afford not to adopt. Healthcare training:
- Improves employee performance
- Closes skills gaps
- Promotes uniformity and consistency
Home CEU said healthcare training improves retention and increases staff morale, “thereby creating a positive, motivated, and competent workforce.”2 All of these benefits can improve a healthcare company’s bottom line. This is welcome as healthcare organizations recover from the financial hardships the pandemic has caused.
Healthcare companies may find that a learning management system (LMS) is invaluable during this time because it makes remote training not only possible, but also simple for employees as well as administrators. TOPYX healthcare training software/LMS optimizes patient care and trains staff. At the same time, it ensures they meet all regulatory compliance requirements. This is key since Cooper said “staying compliant with ever-changing regulations is a top eLearning trend for healthcare training in 2021.”
TOPYX LMS also:
- Tracks staff training
- Trains volunteers and patients
- Streamlines onboarding
- Can be used to speed online training for healthcare
- Makes compliance training and certifications management easy for administrators
With employee training software, healthcare companies can fully embrace the remote training eLearning trend in healthcare training.
Related Reading: Speed Online Training for Healthcare with an LMS
Disseminate information quickly to keep everyone up-to-date
Speed is the name of the game when delivering training to healthcare employees, volunteers, and patients. “I would say disseminating training quickly is one of the primary eLearning trends in healthcare training this year,” Cooper stated. This eLearning trend is showing up because healthcare employees must be quickly trained in order to meet the demands placed on them due to the global health crisis. The American Hospital Association explained that treatment for COVID-19 has created an intense demand for specific medical supplies and equipment as the coronavirus pandemic has been disruptive to supply chains.3
There are several ways healthcare organizations can implement the eLearning trend of quickly distributing training. For example, healthcare companies can organize their online training content, mobilize healthcare training, and better manage certifications and compliance. All of this can be done using employee training software.
Cybersecurity for remote healthcare training
Healthcare cybersecurity breaches are more costly than those of any other industry. They equal $7.13 million per breach, according to IBM.4 The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for a record number of U.S. employees to work from home. This has left healthcare organizations more vulnerable to data breaches than ever.
“Remote work became a major security consideration of study participants due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” IBM explained.
Remote work, as well as remote training, puts companies at risk of cyber attack for several reasons. One of the top reasons is that working from home makes employees more vulnerable to phishing attacks. The same can be said for training from home. Security Magazine said 78 percent of employees reported that they had received a phishing email “while working on their personal laptop between March and July 2020, and 68% admitted to clicking a link or downloading an attachment within that email.”5
Like remote work, remote training puts organizations at risk of cyber attacks. If most individuals are using their personal laptop to work from home, they are probably also using it, along with their personal smartphone and/or tablet, to complete online training. This means they are spending a lot of time accessing company applications and learning platforms on unsecured devices that could be infected with malware. The results of this could be financially disastrous to healthcare companies that have thousands of customers’ and patients’ personal records and payment methods on file.
Since 75 percent of business decision makers believe companies will implement hybrid learning moving forward, it makes sense that increased cybersecurity for healthcare training would be trending in 2021.6 Some companies will align with this trend by hiring in-house cybersecurity experts, increasing their cybersecurity budget, or creating newer, more effective cybersecurity strategies to keep data safe while employees learn from home.
An LMS keeps training resources together in one secure online location, which can promote data security. To increase security further, choose an LMS Solution with complete authentication features, such as password policies, account lockout after several failed login attempts, and two-factor authentication.
Related Reading: How to Support a Successful Healthcare LMS Implementation
Simplify training to stay competitive
Cooper said another one of the top eLearning trends for 2021 is simplification of training. This is a trend healthcare companies should strive to adopt since it can encourage healthcare workers to engage in training. According to Cooper, implementing microlearning is a great way to make training simpler for healthcare employees.
Microlearning is a form of learning that is delivered in short spurts. It is easy for learners to digest and can almost always be accessed via smartphone. It’s especially helpful to use microlearning to break down complex concepts in training. Microlearning boosts knowledge retention, triggers behavioral change, and upskills employees.
In healthcare, short spurts of training are usually not used to relay technical information, such as how to perform a task or offer a service. It is more commonly used to deliver soft-skills training, which compliments technical training and helps employees implement it.
ATD said microlearning is “quick and simple.”7 A contributor explained that microlearning questions, which are often delivered through video, can be “completed within the daily flow of work—on participants’ smartphones. Since challenges can be completed in as few as two to three minutes, microlearning is the perfect tool for busy healthcare professionals whether they’re sitting in their office or making rounds. All they have to do is simply take out their phone, answer a few questions, and return to what they were doing.”
Why Microlearning is the Future of Online Training offered some practical tips for implementing microlearning:
- Use short videos to train workers.
- Break full-length eLearning courses into shorter sessions. Consider using audio clips to deliver some of the training content.
- Gamify training nuggets to make microlearning more engaging.
Organizations can implement this eLearning trend in healthcare training using employee training software, such as an LMS. Employee training software for healthcare allows LMS administrators to create bite-sized pieces of training, deliver it to learners, track it, and report on it. LMS reporting gives administrators insights into how well training is working, which allows them to make necessary changes to training.
TOPYX LMS helped Convey Health Solutions, a healthcare technology and services company that is committed to providing clients with healthcare-specific, compliant member support solutions utilizing technology, engagement, and analytics, automate compliance training and speed up onboarding. Download the success story to discover how a customizable employee training software solution can meet your organization’s needs.
Align with eLearning trends in healthcare training using employee training software
By adopting eLearning trends in healthcare training, such as making training remote, disseminating training quickly, upping cybersecurity initiatives, and simplifying training through microlearning, your company can stay ahead of some of the challenges this year will bring. Employee training software for healthcare can help you align your company with each of these trends. Request a free LMS demo of TOPYX to learn more.
Sources:
[1] https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/remote-work-statistics
[2] https://www.homeceuconnection.com/blog/lack-of-training-in-healthcare-opportunities0the%20practice.
[3] https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2020-05-05-hospitals-and-health-systems-face-unprecedented-financial-pressures-due
[4] https://www.ibm.com/security/digital-assets/cost-data-breach-report/#/
[5] https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/93505-half-of-organizations-experienced-security-incidents-while-working-remotely
[6] https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/93505-half-of-organizations-experienced-security-incidents-while-working-remotely
[7] https://www.td.org/insights/5-ways-microlearning-can-make-a-difference-in-healthcare-training
