4 Critical Considerations for Just-in-Time Training Tool Implementation in Healthcare

The use of software in healthcare has become all the more prominent with COVID-19. In fact, health information technology is even believed to improve healthcare by reducing the number of errors, enhancing clinical outcomes, easing care coordination, improving practice efficiencies, and tracking data over time.

Having mentioned the importance of technology, it is critical to note that when technology is not used well, it tends to become an additional burden. A survey conducted by the National Institute of Health on physician burnout states that among EHR users, 70% reported Healthcare IT-related stress, with the highest prevalence in primary care-oriented specialties, often the front line. This states the importance of having a solution that could help your physicians beat the burden of technology.

In this article, you will discover:

• What Does a Just-in-Time Training Tool Do for Healthcare?
• Why Is It Important for a Healthcare Organization?
• 4 Considerations for Just-in-Time Training Tool Implementation

What Does a Just-in-Time Training Tool Do for Healthcare?

A Just-in-Time (JIT) training tool is a digital solution that supports the adoption of enterprise applications and improves end-user performance by providing “just-in-time” training in the workflow through self-help resources. It also boosts the end-user satisfaction as it walks them through the application using step-by-step instructions that help them easily address any specific issue in the workflow. A supportive tool like this could be the key component of your Healthcare Application Support Strategy.

Why Is It Important for a Healthcare Organization?

When it comes to healthcare application training and support, historically, healthcare depended on Service Desks. However, one of the major issues with Service Desks or Help Desks is that there are a lot of delays in responding to questions, and issues are routed to different agents on different occasions, often lacking a cohesive approach. Another important aspect to consider is that service desks are costly, sometimes as high as $20 per call!

Historically, individual training and At-the-elbow (ATE) support have been very effective and positively received. While this was very convenient for the clinicians, it came at a huge cost and did not scale well. Considering practical and financial difficulties that come with these application training approaches, it is best to consider a modern and cost-effective solution like a Just-in-Time training and support tool for healthcare organizations. It is designed in such a way that it facilitates seamless application adoption by providing just-in-time, in-workflow, contextual training & support.

For a deeper dive into how Just-in-Time training can transform healthcare organizations, check out The Ultimate Guide to Just-in-Time Training for Healthcare Leaders.

The following are some reasons that emphasize the importance of implementing a Just-in-Time training tool in a health system:

• Hospitals deal with a lot of complex applications like EHRs, ERP, and HRMS
• Physicians spend nearly 35% of their time on EHR documentation and much more working on software applications
• Clinician fatigue and burnout associated with EHRs have become a common phenomenon in healthcare

A Just-in-Time training tool can help your health system in the following ways:

• It provides training and support within the application through just-in-time, self-help resources and thereby reduces the need for a separate support training team
• It makes question resolution simpler and thereby helps increase the adoption of proper workflows and processes
• It brings down the support training costs while improving the user experience
• It saves the time of the training content creators and users by enabling faster content creation and consumption
• It also cuts down the errors with EHR documentation and enhances patient care

When the right healthcare Just-in-Time training tool is implemented, it could do wonders for your healthcare organization. Therefore, if you are considering a Just-in-Time training tool for your organization, you should review the considerations listed in the next section.

4 Considerations for Just-in-Time Training Tool Implementation

Even before thinking about implementing a Just-in-Time training tool for healthcare, it is important to have some clarity on quite a few nuances. Everything that needs to be considered can be categorized into four major categories which are:

1. Training and support resources

The ability to provide resources that are easily accessible in the moment of need is one of the key benefits of a Just-in-Time training tool. The intent here is to simplify the use of the enterprise application. Therefore, when it comes to the resources that the Just-in-Time training tool offers, it would be better to ensure the following features are available:

• The ability to embed the resources in the application to ensure that training and support is provided close to where the work is taking place
• The resources must be provided in the form of short videos and easy-to-use documents, with both being available in the same tool
• The resources should load in less than 3 seconds and be accessible within 3 clicks or less
• The resources should be accessible using Single Sign-on (SSO) so that the extra steps of signing in do not become a barrier to the learner

2. Search capabilities

A Just-in-Time training tool is expected to be fueled by an AI-powered smart search that:

• Suggests search results based on the title, content, keywords, and other meta-data of the resources
• Recommends better results considering the previous searches
• Recommends better results considering what other similar users might have searched for and viewed
• Orders the search results by considering factors like date created, popularity, and so on

3. Content requirements

The training and support content that the Just-in-Time training tool provides also plays a very crucial role in guiding the users of the enterprise application. Hence, taking a look at the creation and use of the content, form two important aspects that need to be considered before implementing a Just-in-Time training tool in healthcare.

a. Considerations for creation

When it comes to the creation of content for the training and support resources, your Just-in-Time training tool must ensure the following:

• Enable crowdsourcing in content creation through built-in video recording, so that super users in your organization can create and edit content
• Follow a self-help micro video strategy that suggests creating bite-sized content for easy consumption and retention
• Ease tipsheet creation with screenshots
• Simplify metadata tagging
• Allow AI-generated closed captions to ensure ease of creation
• Ensure AI-powered automated indexing based on the search terms

When discussing the creation and edits of content using user-generated videos and documents, it is important to think about having a built-in approval process that would establish governance over all the training content made available through the Just-in-Time training tool.

b. Considerations for use

To ensure the flexibility of use in all work environments, the training content must ensure the following:

• Enable the option to use closed captions for the times when the user doesn’t want audio playing or doesn’t have access to speakers
• Offer place-markers in the video to connect to the location of the search word or phrase
• Build an interface that is adaptive and responsive to mobile devices
• Add QR codes to equipment to enable quick reference

4. Reporting considerations

Reporting generally helps you understand who is accessing the information and indicates how well the Just-in-Time training tool is adopted in your healthcare organization. When considering reporting, the following must be ensured:

1. Provide insight into what assets are being used
   - Look at the month-over-month usage
   - Identify and evaluate the top searches
2. Identify who is consuming content
   - Find the most active user roles
   - Spot top content by roles
3. Analyze the quality of training provided
   - Most commonly searched topics
   - Searches that produced no results

These are the four key considerations when it comes to the implementation of a Just-in-Time training tool in a healthcare organization. One important aspect to keep in mind is that the task doesn’t end with the implementation; rather, the implementation is just the starting point of the support strategy, and there are a lot of other things that require attention, like keeping your users informed and prepared to work with Just-in-Time training tool, keeping all stakeholders involved, establishing governance over the content created and considering the key metrics to measure the success of the Just-in-Time training tool.