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Quality, reliability and safety are primary concerns in your professional world—and in ours. At SiTEL of MedStar Health, we provide a comprehensive education and training solution to those who work in healthcare. As seasoned professionals, we have many years of experience in the practice and management of medicine and healthcare, respectively. We understand how training impacts performance in hospitals.
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We created and continue to manage two of the nation’s largest simulation centers.
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Our integrated learning services are designed to empower healthcare organizations by combining Instructional Design, Clinical Simulation, Live Events, and On Demand Learning.
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Blog
23
Jun
2010
2010
Blended Learning: Training Optimized for Results
Posted by Todd Borghesani
The price of medical errors is high emotionally, professionally and financially. In 2005, the Washington Hospital Center saw three sentinel events related to obstetrical emergencies. The root cause analysis of these events mimicked that of the research conducted in root causes in maternal deaths and injuries. These include:
- Communication breakdowns
- Organizational cultural barriers to effective communication and teamwork
- Staff competency issues
- Orientation and training processes
- Inadequate fetal monitoring
The MedStar Obstetrical Safety Training (MOST) course was born out of the need to enhance team coordination to reduce these medical errors. It is a course that allows teams to focus on a complete set of tasks in rapid order in an effort save obstetrical patients’ or neonates’ lives. The course trains obstetricians, anesthesia, neonatologists, nurses, and others to work together to deliver patient care in emergent situations. Participants are challenged to work together to understand the rationale for team training and how it fits into a quality patient safety program.
Fundamentals of high-reliability teamwork (with an emphasis on cooperation and communication) and the importance of practice are heavily emphasized. To appreciate the underlying principles of high-reliability teamwork, the participant’s confront a series of different crisis events related to medical units in which they work. High-reliability medical teams are adept at quickly building creative responses to the unpredictable.
The MedStar Obstetrical Safety Training (MOST) Course
To maximize resources and minimize cost, a blended approach was instituted. The MOST program consists of online and live components. The online portions of the training include registration for the course, a pre-survey, an online module, as well as a post-survey and an evaluation of the MOST course. The live training portion consists of a live didactic session instructed by the MOST Medical Director and then a live simulation. This allowed practitioners to learn about roles, responsibilities, communication, and processes in an online environment at a time that was more conducive to their learning. This process also prevented less disruption to normal patient care activities.
Training in real hospital settings posed challenges that required creative solutions. The blended learning approach seemed like a natural answer. In an attempt to create a scenario that is both safe and true to the environment, the live team training events took place in actual patient care units including the Labor and Delivery unit, the NICU, and the Operating Room. The potential disruption to normal patient flow, resource availability, and coordination of participating members were identified as major barriers and required careful consideration and planning to resolve. There was also a concerted effort to overcome potential disruption to normal patient flow and resource availability. In order to address these concerns patient rooms were blocked, case loads were reduced, and time was set aside to focus solely on the training.
Blending online learning with live training in a clinical setting offers several benefits and serves MOST’s participant needs. MOST’s core course components: Essentials of Communication, Escalation and Teamwork can be repeated and practiced ad infinitum in an online world. With regard to learner needs, when a medical team trains together they need to be prepared to execute as a team. Each member of the team must understand their individual tasks, intimately, in order to execute as part of a coordinated, high- reliability team. When the team comes together for training, each member shares a common mental model, a common mindfulness. Patient rooms are premium real estate in hospitals and training ROI is maximized by blending individual learner needs (online) with “real-world” team training (clinical simulation).
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Authors
Hollie Adejumo
Hollie Adejumo has been a high school intern at the SiTEL Clinical Simulation Center since 2010. Her principal areas of academic interest include chemistry, calculus, and global health. She is interested in providing medical services to the public and serving as a health advocate for underrepresented populations. Hollie hopes that her research will help to reduce unnecessary deaths in the future. She will pursue a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, which will enable her to combine her interests. Proceeding to obtain an MD/PhD will give her the ability to have autonomy in the practice of medicine. This year Ms. Adejumo will be assessing the need for orthopedic simulators, and hopes to begin designing a program for an orthopedic simulator by the end of the year. Outside of school, Hollie participates in a variety of activities. Although she has been a competitive swimmer for most of her life, she also enjoys running cross country and track.
Joyce Donnellan
As the Director of Learning Management, Joyce Donnellan brings over two decades of experience in critical care nursing education and professional development to SiTEL, Medstar’s Simulation and Training Environment Laboratory. She oversees the development and operation of SiTEL’s learning management system. Ms. Donnellan specializes in the development and integration of the learning management systems in complex and decentralized environments. She has extensive experience in education and training, including the development of curricula for both live and e-learning platforms. Ms. Donnellan enjoys collaborating with program directors, educators, and other stakeholders to develop training events and effective curricula. Her research endeavors include studying the impact of online learning on organizational behavior, as well as the integration of educational games into curriculum development. Joyce has presented nationally on e-learning topics, and on innovation in emergency preparedness training. She earned her Master’s of Science in Nursing degree from George Mason University.
Pamela Leonard
Pamela Leonard brings over 15 years of experience in critical care nursing and management to her role as the Director of the SiTEL’s Clinical Simulation Centers. Pam established the first simulation center for MedStar Health and now oversees the operations of several clinical simulation centers in the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore areas. She leads the Clinical Simulation Consulting Services at SiTEL, leveraging best practices pioneered at MedStar to integrate simulation training and education programs into healthcare operations. Pam works closely with Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation. AIMS is a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to promoting medical simulation as a way to improve patient safety, reduce medical errors, ensure provider competency, train people to respond to public emergencies and combat situations, and reduce health care costs.
