“This post was written by Mary Millard who is currently an M.Ed student in HRD Online at the University of Illinois.*
Starting in the early part of the new millennium many regulating organizations such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), and the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), made quality of care data publicly available which allowed prospective patients to make comparisons of hospital performance which also provided them with a hospital’s safety record. This revelation in the consumer age made hospitals realize that patient safety and satisfaction of care made almost constant training to be no longer perceived as a luxury Item in the budget battle, but more a necessity to remain compliant and be the best at quality.
From the perspectives of a hospital C.E.O nothing is more important than understanding how human resource development (HRD) can better align with the strategic priorities within their healthcare organization. Alignment of HRD with organizational strategic plans has always been an issue within the HRD field and nowhere is this more important than in the healthcare field as rigorous quality audits require constant performance improvement; while at the same time many hospitals have to do more with less.
As a Human Resource Consultant at a hospital in North Carolina I have used the knowledge gained in the HRD program at Illinois on how to best align training and development with business strategy within budgetary guidelines and as well as ushering in the urgency of training with the new technological platforms we have today. Yes. there is compliance learning and the agencies that regulate OSHA and HIPAA send us what the newest laws and procedures are and this has to be delivered in a timely manner or we face fines and sanctions. This usually arrives with preset classroom learning along with testing and we have no choice but to use the material.
The other learning and training that is developed comes after Work Analysis of different departments and positions through interviews, observation, performance evaluation review, error tracking, as well as results of patient surveys. This data synthesis can tell us what we need development in and how to proceed with creating the right programs for training. Whether it is a better method for explaining a fatal diagnosis to a patient to a better method of delivering a dose of medication we HRD practitioners have to create a training program that is engaging and will be remembered thus becoming part of the Standard Operating Procedures.
A great example is a patient survey we received back where the patient was told she had stage 2 Lymphatic cancer. The patient was livid that a surgeon came in and told her this with no family present; not even a nurse or PA (physician’s assistant) in the room. This had happened more than once in the last year. Patient satisfaction even in dire circumstances is our main goal. We had to interview SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) such as the pastoral care team, our Hospice people, and the Psychology department on what is the best way to render this news to a patient. All department experts stated their informational surveys showed 94% of patients preferred family to be present. Furthermore 84% of people felt their shift nurse was a great advocate and wanted them present. This allowed us to develop training for better personal skill development of surgeons and physicians thus helping them grow in an important aspect of their care.
In the past several years we have moved from classroom learning (which takes groups of the job floor for extended periods of time), to blended learning, and now we have moved into all care involved personnel using tablets and smart phones to access learning. Has anyone truly ever seen a hospital healthcare provider stay in one place for more than a few minutes? With the standard 12 hour shifts and longer for many mobile learning has become imperative. This includes social media such as healthcare agency blogs, Twitter (for following other providers and healthcare agencies) along with an in-house communication system for better response and passing along solutions to problems.
Results show that perceived access to training, supervisory support for training, motivation to learn from training and perceived benefits of training were positively related to the affective and normative components of organizational commitment. Several significant differences were found on both training and organizational commitment variables with healthcare dependent upon practice scope and goals with theoretical and practical application to human resource development (HRD) outcomes and the management of HRD in health care settings.
M.Ed. HRD graduate student at College of Education, University of Illinois