Overcoming challenges and unlocking success in EPR training

Liz Griffith
uPerform
Director, EHR Education

Welcome to the uPerform Thought Leader series, a collection of articles penned by industry leaders committed to improving health IT training and sharing their knowledge. Liz Griffith serves as the Director of EHR Education at uPerform and is a fiercely passionate champion for health IT training. Prior to her role at uPerform, Liz served as the Director of Customer Insights at KLAS Research, leading EHR satisfaction consulting and measurements.

I recently discovered a LinkedIn newsletter article from James Quirke outlining the “Challenges of Delivering EPR Training in the NHS.” It shone a bright light on a difficult task education teams from health systems across the globe face – what often feels like a dismal, uphill battle to secure resources for effective training.

It isn’t often I come across an article that is so directly in line with the work we do here at uPerform. EPR training is often an afterthought, so it’s refreshing to see another influential leader in the industry carrying the banner of the importance of EPR training and ongoing education.

With 20 years of experience in EPR and health IT training in the NHS, Mr. Quirke’s knowledge is deep, and his insights regarding the training challenges that exist for the lifecycle of EPR implementations are spot on. He outlines a framework for an EPR training strategy that all health systems globally would do well to adopt. I want to address each of Mr. Quirke’s excellent points with how utilisation of just-in-time training with uPerform can help solve these challenges and support your EPR training strategy:

1. Scale of training

“The sheer scale demands meticulous planning, coordination, and a training infrastructure that can support such large numbers.”

I couldn’t agree more. The ability to scale training to support users across all locations and clinical backgrounds is imperative. uPerform allows your training team to create a centralised infrastructure for the creation and management of learning content. This ensures that the training delivered to your caregivers is always up to date, standardised across sites, yet specific to each clinical group. With uPerform, users have a single place to go for trusted and reliable learning, no matter when or where they need it.

2. Diversity of roles

“The range of roles within the NHS is vast. Each role has distinct training needs, requiring a blend of general and role-specific training modules.”

This is where uPerform can benefit your Trust the most. The need to create massive amounts of learning content for an EPR implementation can be overwhelming. A tool that enables rapid content creation directly within the EPR with multiple training formats is the only way to scale content creation for a multitude of roles and learning preferences.

3. Tight timeframes

“Early onboarding of the training workstream is essential in enabling delivery of an effective training and support programme.”

In a return on investment (ROI) study, our education leads using the uPerform recorder saw a 50% reduction in the time it took to create content. Instructional designers develop content more efficiently, and in more formats – including tip sheets, simulations and videos – reducing the time required for content creation.

uPerform clients have seen significant time savings for not only the training teams creating and delivering onboarding, but even more importantly, for the clinicians digesting the information. With the help of uPerform, Gundersen Health onboards new hires up to 75% faster depending on the role. uPerform supports a just-in-time training strategy by providing context-sensitive learning directly within EPR workflows. This enables users to access help materials at the time of need, accelerating the adoption of new workflows, while minimising the amount of formal training that needs to be completed ahead of go-live.

Adult learning theory is clear that people learn best at their own pace. By delivering self-directed training directly within the EPR and allowing users to go as fast or as slow as they need, you can meet the needs of your clinicians more effectively than ever before.

4. Logistics and resource allocation

“Organising venues, ensuring access to necessary tech, and coordinating schedules can be a logistical nightmare.”

This is an incredibly important point when trying to strategise how to deliver the same level of training and support to smaller more rural areas with less resources. uPerform eliminates the need for physical travel to training sites. Training can be done at home or the office as the modules are completed virtually. This is one area where many of our clients have seen significant cost and time savings for their organisations and for their clinicians receiving the training.

5. Ensuring robust learning management systems (LMS)

“An efficient LMS is imperative. It must be SCORM compliant, host a wide range of eLearning modules, and act as a repository for crucial training materials. Moreover, its interface needs to be intuitive, allowing staff easy navigation and logical course registration.”

This is a tricky one. LMSs are required for many reasons, compliance being one of the most important. However, they have proven to be less effective in delivering informal and ongoing EPR education.

Requiring clinicians to remember yet another login and search through lengthy eLearning courses to answer a “how do I…?” question is a major roadblock when trying to get busy clinicians to build their EPR proficiency. Putting the education materials directly in the EPR for access in the moment of need has proven to be far more effective for training and workflow adoption.

Let your LMS do what it does best and store the compliancy for your HR systems, but don’t expect it to be a good source of on-demand microlearning.

Having a content creation and delivery system that works seamlessly with your LMS, EPR and other enterprise software is the missing link for many organisations today. Learn how uPerform complements your LMS by centralising all your sources of learning into a single source of truth for clinicians.

6. Monitoring and reporting

“Real-time reporting on attendance, pass rates, and Did Not Attends (DNAs) is critical.”

The ability to pull data from uPerform on not only who is utilising training, but what content is being utilised most often by which groups is imperative. This allows your training team to understand which areas may need additional education opportunities, which clinicians have yet to complete a required training and more.

You can also utilise uPerform’s Change Communications to target specific groups about changes or updates that may only apply to them, reducing the need to blast organisation-wide emails about things that may or may not pertain to them.

7. Post-training support

“The end of a training session isn’t the end of the training manager’s responsibility. Ensuring ongoing support, especially during the critical ‘go-live’ phase, is vital. Floorwalkers, SMEs, and Super/Champion users play an indispensable role here.”

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Trusts embarking on their first EPR implementation must consider the long-term implications of their EPR deployment – that training does not end after go-live!

During go-live, ensuring these key players understand where to direct EPR users when they need help and empowering clinicians to know where to go to receive just-in-time education is critical to your users’ success in the EPR. This central ecosystem of knowledge allows these SME’s and super users to become even more powerful and have a broader reach in the organisation. It is not only their job to answer a specific question, but to be education champions by helping the end users understand how to access help on their own directly in the EPR immediately when the need arises. Reinforcement of just-in-time learning availability ensures users are setup for success long after go-live.

8. Adapting to feedback

“Implementing real-time feedback mechanisms and then pivoting based on that feedback is another challenge. Continuous improvement should be the main driver for the training workstream.”

Your education team is likely to learn a lot from your initial go-live – what went well, what didn’t, how users prefer to learn, etc. Having a scalable, and rapidly deployable, EPR training strategy will enable your team to adapt to that feedback to build a stronger, more effective programme.

9. Change management

“Resistance to change is a natural human instinct. Training managers must address this head-on, ensuring that their training sessions instill confidence and illuminate the ‘why’ behind the EPR system, not just the ‘how.’ The Change team should not be the only workstream addressing resistance to change. It must come from all areas of the programme and training plays a major role in helping implement change practices.”

IT changes are still human changes. Keeping the people that must adopt the change at the forefront of all decisions is the only way to succeed. Andy Kinnear is the Director at Ethical Healthcare Consulting. He recently wrote an article, “Digital Board Leaders – What’s Going On?” that dives into the need for all levels of leadership, particularly the board level leaders (CEO, CMO, CNO, CFO) to not only give approval but lead the charge of digital revolution. He suggests that leaders should treat these “projects” as key strategic initiatives for the trusts, not just “a drain on budgets to be tolerated.”

Training managers can gain trust with executive level leaders by partnering with vendors who are more than a one tricky pony. Creating a learning ecosystem with uPerform enables you to scale EPR and other enterprise technology across your entire Trust. It’s a partnership that will help you reduce the cost and burden of onboarding and optimisation training, while increasing adoption and satisfaction with the EPR.