Strategies for success with digital learning tools in long-term care, skilled nursing, and assisted living, post-COVID-19, need to be carefully considered and launched, as all of 2020 revealed the depth of need for staff and administrators.
As many long term care facilities and organizations battled, and in many cases continue to battle, the spikes and fatalities due to COVID-19, the strategies of learning, culture development, and talent management have taken a back seat to more pressing concerns.
However, this doesn’t mean that administrators in long-term care should let those pressing concerns overshadow the need to develop and implement learning strategies for staff that are on-demand, seamlessly integrated into their work approach, and that provide the necessary content for those staff to be successful leaders.
During times of crisis, regulatory, compliance, and safety training are only the Band-Aid that gets a staff through the moment. In order to effect lasting change following a massive disruption, long term care administrators need to take a few points into consideration when thinking about how to leverage the LMS and learning tools they have now.
Any strategies for success with digital learning tools in long term care will have to focus on navigating and overcoming three key areas impacting frontline and mid-level facilities staff and administrators:
These areas can initially be navigated through a combination of the practical application of learning and knowledge from the science of emotional intelligence, the practice of empathy, and the implementation of brief, micro-training, focused on practical tips for success.
Once the hard work of initial navigation is completed, a follow-up strategy involving micro-coaching based on text messaging, supportive messages, and engaging and interactive break periods from work, can also help to reduce caregiver burnout.
Using a standard LMS to accomplish the first part—brief micro-training focused on practical tips for success—can be an easy way for a facility administrator to demonstrate immediate impact on a long-term problem.
Once strategies have been designed and implemented using digital learning tools, the last area, which is the most overlooked, is the consideration for the learner experience and the implementation of practices that will embed the learning into action.
Embedding learning into action is the point of leveraging all digital tools, because, without actual implementation, all the strategies to avoid burnout and increase retention won’t move the needle with staff, regardless of your LMS provider.
