A Case for Using a Learning Management System

Continuing education is an ongoing process for various disciplines within the HME industry. That said changes in specific requirements, as well as changes made due to the pandemic make managing ongoing education and employees' progress in that regard a sizable task.

• By Mike McKillip
• Jan 12, 2021

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No matter which of the many healthcare sectors employs you, one thing is consistent: You’ll need continuing education. Countless functions in health care require special training, and credentials help prove a person can provide the very best of care. Clinicians and therapists from the whole of the healthcare spectrum are required to keep their level of training current through mandatory education.

This spectrum includes home health agencies. Education does not stop with obtaining an associate degree in nursing (ADN), a Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) degree, or any advanced degree. In fact, that is just the start. You can help yourself and your employees select and track up-to-date and relevant continuing education courses with an online learning management system such as HealthTrainU™. 

Changes in best practices, procedures, patient management, and other topics make ongoing education an ever-evolving catalog of subjects to choose from. A mere 18 months ago, COVID-19 was not even making a ripple in healthcare publications. Now, we are besieged with facts, figures, and data concerning this novel coronavirus pandemic. Change, whether planned over time or implemented in crisis, is what drives the need for ongoing education for home health and other disciplines within the industry.

Selecting coursework is the easiest and the hardest part of continuing education. Employees need to choose topics that are timely, topics that may satisfy any credentialing requirements, and, lastly, topics that are interesting to them and important to career development. You might even have your company’s educational coordinator help employees make their selections.

One of the most difficult things, however, is managing your employees’ progress. Since there is a mandatory element to education, your educational coordinator will want to be able to access a single place for education, transcripts, and important CEU records. For employer and employee, trying to track down the different places that house credits can be frustrating and time-consuming.

By using a learning management system such as HealthTrainU, the educational coordinator at your company can manage the system, manage the ongoing education selected for the employees, and manage access to employees’ progress reports and records. This is critically important for handling an audit of any kind or for submitting continuing education credits for credentialing credit.

A learning management system can also supply the timely, relevant topics that you and your employees need. Before publishing content online became easy, the information was printed, and that meant parts of it were out of date by the time the content was delivered. Now, courses can be updated frequently, making the most current information available. For example, in the early days of COVID-19 information, HealthTrainU updated an infection control course at least five times in a four-day period. Being able to stay on top of developing information is an important reason for insisting on an online education platform.

Finally, when you find a learning management system that looks like it will accommodate your company’s specific needs, you can ask for a trial run. This will allow you to become familiar with the system, and if it’s the right fit, you’ll be off to a quick and efficient start in helping your employees pursue and track the education courses that will benefit themselves and the company.