Articles-Thought Leadership Creating Experts In Healthcare | Page 2

HealthStream recently interviewed Dr. John
Yosaitis, the Medical Director at the MedStar
Simulation Training and Education Lab (SiTEL),
which is part of the MedStar Institute for
Innovation. Discussing SiTEL’s unique approach to
training and development, Dr. Yosaitis shares his
insights and experiences and focuses on six things
to know about educating adults when taking a
workforce from competency to expertise. Dr.
Yosaitis explains that this is a crucial journey for
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healthcare providers in particular. He adds,
“Education done correctly can have a huge
impact on patient outcomes. Education done
incorrectly, as it so often is done, does nothing
but frustrate the practitioner. It wastes time and
can give learners a feeling that they are
competent, which can stop them on their journey
to expert or mastery.” Here are six important
concepts to keep in mind when creating
educational experiences for adult learners.
A community of learners encourages a positive learning experience
Reflecting on his experiences as a learner, Dr.
Yosaitis reports that his most positive learning
experience was during his residency, where he
was a part of a real learning community with the
other residents. He adds, “In my residency you
could see what others were doing, and I had
mentors who gave a lot of continuous feedback. I
felt like I had a clear understanding of where I
was on the continuum from novice to expert,
with the constant evaluations and guidance from
others. That experience was deep learning.”
Dr. Yosaitis references social cognitive theory in
explaining that without learning alongside others,
learners have a harder time knowing their level
of mastery. He explains, “If you want to become
an expert, there needs to be some sort of
learning community that you are a part of, with a
leader who is giving feedback that informs each
learner how he or she is doing within that
community. You need the opportunity to be
part of it, to figure it out for yourself, and to be
guided towards improvement.”
“Education done correctly can have a huge impact
on patient outcomes. Education done incorrectly, as
it so often is done, does nothing but frustrate the
practitioner. It wastes time and can give learners a
feeling that they are competent, which can stop
them on their journey to expert or mastery.”
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