Training Videos For Healthcare Digital Learning Are The New Standard

When was the last time you picked up a hefty training manual and reviewed it cover-to-cover? For many of us, the closest we get to a training manual these days are the painfully simple directions that come with IKEA furniture. On the technology front, the expectation is that apps are developed to be so intuitive in their design and flow that an end-user can drop into it and just start using it without even so much as a quick start guide. For whatever reason, healthcare IT is still often implemented with the assistance of lengthy written documentation that beguiles busy clinical users. Today we’re going to highlight why training videos for healthcare digital learning are not only nice-to-have but the new standard for implementations.

Meeting A Digital Generation Where They Are

Many folks in the workforce now have grown up with screens as far back as they can remember. Given this generational shift, it’s important to respond to changing mechanisms for imparting information and encouraging engagement with content. Lecture-style approaches to EHR training, for example, are employed less and less to pave the way for more interactive formats and mediums. Quizzes are built into training videos, for example, to accommodate a dynamic medium preference while still measuring mastery and retention.

Training Videos Done Well For Healthcare Digital Learning

We recently shared some tips for creating microlearning videos, and it’s important to remember that there are some best practices when it comes to using training videos for healthcare digital learning. Just as no one wants to work through a giant printed training manual, so too will end users balk at having to sift through lengthy training videos. Content should be offered in small doses, with focused topics and clear labeling to help clinicians find what they need when they need it. Remember: hospital end users didn’t sign up to be technologists; they’re clinical professionals first, so technical support must be simple and clear to serve any purpose in busy health system settings.

How To Deliver Digital Learning To Busy Clinical Users?

Here are a few tips that will increase adoption and decrease friction and help desk tickets:

1. Keep videos under 3 minutes and focused on a single function or brief use case
2. Make training videos easily accessible by hosting on YouTube or Vimeo (no special accounts required) or hospital intranets
3. Track frequently reported questions or issues to inform future training content or workflow optimization
4. Train Help Desk and Customer Support resources to refer users to the knowledge base whenever possible to encourage self-sufficiency

For more advice for making EHR digital learning more productive, check out this post during the planning process. (Spoiler alert: you’ve got to start well before the actual training takes place to be successful.)

Consider Custom Digital Training Content For Better e-learning Outcomes

Many EHRs and healthcare IT solutions come with a library of training materials to support end-users. While this is certainly of value to equip Super Users and key stakeholders in the implementation process, we encourage large health systems to consider custom digital training content for their clinical teams. Folks these days are more aware of branding and turned off by standard marketing tactics given their relative media savviness. Creating custom content for the users of a health system can go a long way in presenting relevant training against real-life scenarios that resonate and warrant attentiveness. A partner like 314e can help craft quality digital training videos that are tailored for a hospital or care organization, from scripting to production and hosting. When in-house marketing and training teams are often stretched thin, consider outsourcing this task to leverage the benefits of training videos for healthcare digital learning as the new standard.