By choosing the MEDIAplus eLearning solution from ENI to train staff in the use of office software, Besançon University Hospital has managed to reconcile its time management challenges with the implementation of an effective, interactive training programme. What are the secrets of their success?
Besançon University Hospital has 3500 medical and administrative staff and 800 doctors spread over two sites.
As in many organisations, training in office software was classroom based and entrusted to an external agency.
"We used to group the requests we received for training, and incorporate them into the annual training plan, but this meant that a long time elapsed between the request and the delivery of the training. Sometimes it was as long as a year," explains the manager responsible for training at the University Hospital. In addition, hospital staff inevitably work to complex schedules which are difficult to reconcile with two- or three-day training courses off site.
Besançon Hospital's solution is a self-training programme accessible from a resource centre in the hospital itself. The e-learning system used is MEDIAplus eLearning from ENI. "MEDIAplus eLearning seemed the most finished of all the products we saw. Its distinctive feature is that it trains directly in the software being learnt and this has proved a valuable factor in the success of our project," she remarks.
The resource centre is open by appointment with a tutor, who accompanies the training courses. Learners enrol over the hospital's intranet or via the annual training plan, with the agreement of their management. To define what their requirements are, they fill in a questionnaire.
When the project was launched, information about it appeared on the hospital's intranet and in the "hospital newsflash", which is sent out with pay slips. A large number of enquiries were received.
"The first thing that happens when someone new enrols is that we organise an initiation session to provide an introduction to MEDIAplus eLearning and its training methods," explains the manager in charge of training. "After that, we go straight into an assessment programme then a training programme defined to suit the requirements and the current skills level of the particular learner," she adds.
The project has proved popular with administrative staff in particular, but also with technicians, doctors and senior nursing staff.
Learners are enthusiastic about the system. "They very much appreciate being able to learn at their own pace and go over the same topics as many times as they need to. They also like the fact that they remain focussed on their own training, without the disruptions involved in learning with others," she adds.
For the head of the university hospital's training division, the results are positive." Two additional posts are going to be allocated to the resource centre and a new tutor is about to join the team. This will enable us to increase the volume of training to meet the demand," she concludes.