The 2023 NHS staff survey found that healthcare workers are ‘overstretched, overworked, underpaid and increasingly burnt out’. While these findings emphasise the significant challenges the healthcare industry faces, they also highlight the barriers preventing L&D teams from maximising healthcare training outcomes.
For overstretched healthcare staff already working at full capacity, completing learning and development activities can feel like a burden. However, as we know, L&D is a vital function within any organisation, particularly in an industry that often sees rapid changes to protocols, procedures and compliance. With this in mind, healthcare leaders must find a way to deliver essential training and development to busy staff to ensure that knowledge and competencies are up to date.
So, how can healthcare L&D leaders achieve this? Enter microlearning.
What is microlearning?
To answer this question, let’s look at Hubken’s guide to microlearning:
“Microlearning usually consists of short bursts of content which typically takes under 15 minutes to consume. The intention of microlearning is not to overwhelm a learner with masses of information but allow them the breathing space to grasp what they have just been taught and if necessary, re-visit the content to gain a better understanding.”
Microlearning is typically delivered using an e-learning platform such as a learning management system (LMS) and may consist of content types such as videos, audio clips, short-form text, and audio clips.
If you’re looking to gain a deeper understanding of what microlearning is, be sure to check out our guide to microlearning here.
Why do healthcare professionals need microlearning?
Quick, concise content for busy staff
Research revealed that 70% of NHS workers said they were taking on more than their usual workload to compensate for staff shortages. For busy healthcare staff, it may feel impossible to incorporate training into their already packed schedules.
The power of microlearning is that employees can build fifteen (or less) minute windows into their schedules to complete microlearning modules that are short, yet concise and thorough. Rather than relying on extensive face-to-face training sessions and lengthy online courses, microlessons can be completed during a busy working day with minimal disruption.
Rapidly deploy updated training
As we mentioned above, the healthcare industry faces unique challenges regarding rapid changes to protocols, procedures and compliance. To combat this, L&D teams need to quickly deploy updated training content that reflects these changes. This is where microlearning can be an invaluable resource for healthcare L&D teams.
Microlearning means L&D teams can deploy content that focuses specifically on updated protocols, procedures, compliance etc. As this content can be distributed in a timely manner and completed in just fifteen minutes or less, L&D teams mitigate the risk of employees working with outdated information (a key consideration for healthcare compliance teams and regulatory bodies).
Boost knowledge retention with refresher courses
Microlearning can be an essential tool for healthcare organisations looking to boost knowledge retention and acquisition. Using microlearning modules to target specific skills, competencies or topic areas, these modules serve as an ideal tool for revision or refresher courses.
In a rapidly moving, high-stakes environment, healthcare staff can use microlessons to review key information before carrying out important procedures. Using microlearning that targets specific competencies to reinforce initial training, healthcare staff can refresh their knowledge before putting it into practice.
Motivate employees to complete training
Microlearning has been proven to drastically improve employee engagement from about 15% to 90%. One of the reasons for this is the ability to offer varied training content with a microlearning strategy. L&D teams can use a variety of content types such as videos, audio clips and infographics to prevent learner fatigue and poor engagement.
Why not incorporate gamified lessons into your microlearning strategy by including interactive content such as quizzes? In doing so, you can motivate healthcare staff to complete training by creating friendly competition among various departments. For example, a quiz on the latest patient care techniques or infection control protocols. LMS admins can keep track of those employees with the highest quiz scores and use their LMS to create quiz leaderboards.
Cost-effective training
For NHS and healthcare organisations with tightening budgets, delivering a strong training ROI is of the utmost importance. Microlearning can have a huge impact on L&D ROI by offering scalable training that minimises the need for ‘downtime’ across all staff members. By creating bite-sized training opportunities, healthcare staff can complete training regardless of shift patterns and without the need for face-to-face group training.
What’s more, microlearning modules are highly suitable for mobile learning, meaning staff can complete training on mobile devices so L&D teams can spend less on resource allocation.
It’s worth noting that if you’re a healthcare organisation looking to maximise the ROI of your L&D, an LMS can be your most valuable asset. Find out how to calculate the ROI of your LMS by downloading our free eBook.
Like the sound of microlearning for your healthcare organisation?
Make sure you’ve got the right technology to support this key learning strategy. With an LMS such as our Totara Learn platform or Moodle system, you can diversify your L&D to support the needs of your healthcare staff and maximise their training opportunities. Get to know our platforms here or get in touch today.
We work with top NHS and healthcare organisations like yours, helping them achieve their training goals with our powerful solutions, visit our case studies page to read some of their stories.
Visit our FREE Healthcare LMS Hub
Access a wealth of LMS resources designed to help healthcare organisations like yours successfully solve e-learning challenges.