Faced with operational constraints around releasing classroom groups of staff, a
nursing home benefits from the flexibility of e-learning, then finds ways to ...
Learning technologies in social care
Roebuck Nursing Home Faced with operational constraints around releasing classroom groups of staff, a nursing home benefits from the flexibility of e-learning, then finds ways to reinforce e-learning face-to-face. Key facts about the employer Roebuck Nursing Home provides accommodation and nursing care in Hertfordshire for up to 63 people, some of whom live with dementia. The purpose-built, independent sector home opened in 2009 and employs 45, mostly full-time, staff. Approach to workforce development Training is managed by the member of Roebuck’s management team responsible for recruitment and personnel. “Training is not a tick-box exercise here. We’ve got a stringent recruitment policy and in the interview we do discuss training; what they’ve done, what they’re looking for and how they feel about e-learning.” Roebuck takes a blended approach to learning. Face-to-face training is provided by externally commissioned trainers, by Roebuck’s own managers, and also through a local care provider association that offers open access face-to-face training. E-learning is accessed from the local authority, and the care association also provides access to content developed by a specialist care sector e-learning provider. Workforce development challenges include attracting high-calibre staff, and providing progression routes for individual staff. “When we get staff we keep them, but to find them is really, really, difficult. They need to be very motivated, so it’s not a job where you plod along. We’ve encouraged some of our carers to go into nursing, but some find they haven’t got the credits or the A-levels, or the money to pay for it and then they’ve been demotivated: ‘Oh, I was so keen and now I can’t do it, but I still want to do it’…” Releasing staff in sufficient numbers to make in-house face-to-face training cost-effective is another challenge. “When we first opened it was fine to say, ‘OK, there are seven or eight of us. Let’s just get the training done.’ As we filled up and got busier, it became very difficult to book even six people on a course. The training providers charge you the same whether it’s one person or twelve people. So we’ve been caught out that way with courses that only two people attended.”
One way that Roebuck solves this problem is by sending staff on open access courses outside the home. But even when it is only one or two at a time, operational pressures make releasing staff difficult. By using e-learning, Roebuck avoids staff having to leave the home. How technology supports training and development Roebuck uses e-learning with established staff to supplement face-to-face training. Roebuck’s personnel and training director tests each course to evaluate its content, its accessibility, and its quality as a piece of learning, including its level of difficulty, and makes sure that staff new to e-learning begin with one of the easier courses. “I look to see if it’s the sort of language the carers will understand, it’s pitched at the right level and it’s got a combination of pictures and text and videos. If it’s just reading and questionnaires, I think, ‘God, half my girls won’t be able to stay awake with this one.” Roebuck also prints out some e-learning content to use as support material during face-to-face training. Besides e-learning courses, Roebuck also values free video content on the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)’s website. “I think the SCIE short videos are brilliant. They’re in the setting that staff will be very familiar with. They have demonstrations of things within a home, so they’re not lecturing you. It’s more, ‘This is the way we do it and it works for us.’ And they have examples, real people, role modelling, so you can empathise with them.” Training delivery Roebuck has four desktop computers available for e-learning. Laptops offer a further option, as Wi-Fi is available throughout the home. Roebuck has tested other mobile devices, including smart phones and tablet computers, but hasn’t adopted them as yet, finding that the desktop computers suit patterns of working in the home. Issues that arise for staff include the lack of human interaction. “The staff need that push. They feel that it’s a computer, so it doesn’t talk to them and it feels lonely. So I ask them to come and talk to me if there is something they don’t understand, or to note down anything interesting so we can discuss it at the next staff meeting. I think you can’t do just e-learning alone. “Also we have some staff that are dyslexic and who find it quite hard, so we do one-to-one sessions with them. Not all staff are comfortable with the level of literacy that some e-learning courses require. I can’t alter anything on the course itself, but I go through it with them and rewrite some of the questions to make sure that they can be understood.”
Assessment can pose a variety of issues “I have heard staff giving each other the answer to online assessment questions. So someone may get it right but not really understand why they have. Or, the test might just want a one-word answer, ‘Report’ or ‘Record’. It has to be that exact word with the right spelling. People who actually know the answer get it wrong and that worries them. So we discuss it and after a week or two, I give them my edited version printed out with space to answer more. That’s when they can say, ‘I would report it and I wouldn’t promise confidentiality.’ I don’t want them just to pass a test. I want them to understand why they’re doing this.” For Roebuck’s personnel and training director, this mix of e-learning and discussion is essential. “The real test is to explain it to somebody else. It proves that you’ve learnt it if you can present it to somebody else. I think e-learning can only work in a mixture where you have face-to-face as well.” Managing learning and development To record and track face-to-face training, Roebuck uses a simple Excel spreadsheet. Updating, however, is laborious and Roebuck is considering using the training records function of NMDSSC, which it already uses to record staff starters and leavers. Automated tracking is one of the advantages of the e-learning Roebuck currently uses. The business case for learning technologies Operational constraints can make it difficult for Roebuck to release staff in numbers that make face-to-face classroom training economical. E-learning offers Roebuck an affordable alternative. “E-learning gives us the flexibility of not hiring somebody who will charge us four hundred pounds, then just train two people.” Through e-learning, Roebuck can train individuals affordably as the need arises. In addition to significantly undercutting the cost of face-to-face training, e-learning allows Roebuck considerable flexibility in the scheduling of training around individual’s work patterns. Lessons learned Staff who like interacting with others may find computer-based learning solitary and impersonal. The literacy requirements of e-learning can be demanding. The prospect of sitting a test may cause staff anxiety. E-learning assessment may not be a reliable guide to how well staff understand learning content. Not all e-learning is created equal. Some courses are relevant, accessible and engaging, but others are unsuitable, inaccessible and tedious.
Tips for others in the social care sector E-learning can offer a cost-effective, flexible alternative to face-to-face training. Go through the course yourself to check it is suitable before you assign it to staff. Give staff as much personal support as possible. Wherever possible, take a blended approach and reinforce e-learning with face-to-face discussion. You may be able to adapt e-learning content for use in face-to-face training. Our thanks to: Nilufa Somani, Director, Roebuck Nursing Home, for providing the information on which the case study is based.
