In the Macy Report, the Expert Panel urged an emphasis on the role of CE in:
• Validating individual practice and competence; • Improving patient care outcomes;
• Engaging learners in new knowledge and skill
acquisition for practice setting application; • Affording the opportunity to integrate knowledge,
performance, competence and judgment; and
• Reducing or closing practitioner-identified
performance gaps; • Generating professional satisfaction and identity,
potentially preventing or decreasing burnout. (Macy
Report, 2010)
How should learning options differ according to the generations in the workforce?
In 2011, PwC published a report ‘Millennials at work’
after commissioning Opinium Research to complete an
online survey of 4,364 graduates across 75 countries.
The Millennial generation includes those born between
1980-2000—by 2020, 50% of the workforce will be
made up of millennials. In relation to lifelong learning,
PwC noted that a focused response from employers will
be needed given this generation’s ambition and desire to
keep learning and progressing in an organization much
more quickly than previous generations. If they aren’t
engaged or afforded the opportunities to learn and
progress, they are far more willing to change employers
or careers. One quote from a Millennial that I think
summarizes this generation’s view of their workplace is
“My career will be one of choice. It will align who I am
with what I do.”
Lifelong learning may be one of the most important
competencies our healthcare staff must possess, and it will
be up to employers to harness and engage our new
generation in new and different ways. If we’re not thinking
about this now, we may be very challenged in the next
few years to reduce the already high turnover rates in
healthcare and the negative effects on quality care that
follow.
Demonstrate Lifelong Learning Achievement with ePortfolio
HealthStream will soon be launching ePortfolio, our new
solution that will provide students and practicing
healthcare professionals with an opportunity to catalog
their professional achievements to solidify their
experience and expertise. Product Manager Brittney
Wilson shares that in the hospital setting, “Professional
portfolios allow staff to document their participation in
areas of education, certification, shared governance
councils, national nursing organizations, and community
outreach.” In many nursing programs, they are a
requirement for graduation from the BNS to Ph.D.
levels. Magnet hospitals, and other facilities with clinical
ladder programs, often require portfolios for each nurse
in the facility. Today this is often handled by 3-ring
binders or other inefficient homegrown systems.
As an RN, Wilson has first-hand experience with the
importance of maintaining records of individual
education and achievements. She shares, ”I had the
pleasure of speaking at the Healthcare Traveler’s
Conference a few years back. This was before my time
at HealthStream working on unified ePortfolios for
healthcare professionals. Though I often speak about
social media, my audience was really more interested in
professional document management. These are nurses
that frequently have to collect all their documentation, at
a moment’s notice, and email it in a zip folder or with
dropbox links. My presentation demonstrated how to
use a Google Drive and a standard folder set to keep a
master set of your professional documents that could
then be copied and shared to organizations.
The reception to my presentation was amazing. Every
nurse in the room was doing something different to
manage the records of his/her professional career.
Everyone was asking for a different format, form, or
mechanism to deliver the information. The concept of
having a single location with a predictable format that
could easily be shared with employers was a huge hit.
Nurses are thirsty for a standard format, location, and
sharing mechanism for their professional documentation.”
HealthStream.com/contact • 800.521.0574 •
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