In my recent post about EHR optimization, Heather Haugen from The Breakaway Group (A Xerox company) offered some really interesting insights into the challenges of EHR implementations and the ongoing training that has to happen to really have a successful EHR outcome. In the video embedded in that blog post, Heather also offered some other interesting insights to how you measure and address your EHR training.
For example, when you’re asking people if they’ve completed the training, you want to be careful how you ask the question and how you respond to their answer. You want to make sure that you don’t come off as accusatory. People shouldn’t feel like you’re on a witch hunt trying to find and punish those who haven’t completed the training (my words, not Heather’s). Instead, you should focus your questions and responses on understanding why the EMR training hasn’t been completed. Maybe there are some legitimate reasons why users couldn’t do their EMR training. You’ll never find out those reasons if they see you as accusatory.
Heather also suggested a really key insight to first time EHR user experience. A successful first time EHR user experience increases confidence. A failed first time EHR experience leads to decreased confidence.
Your EHR training should focus on ensuring that the first time someone uses the EHR they gain confidence on using the software. Increased user confidence will go a long way in helping users pick up the more advanced parts of the EHR training. However, decreased confidence will build a wall that will make future training much more challenging.
I thought these were some great insights into EHR training and implementation. What other things have you found in your experiences with EMR training?
I think it’s important to know the job of the person you are training…how do they access information now vs. how they can do so with the EHR. So that means lots of planning before actually training.