“I wanted to up my game and make the training more memorable.”
When Elaine enrolled in the ATT4 course she was training hospital staff to use digital transcription software. Her reason for enrolling was to help create guides for users. Prior to the course, Elaine admits that training was quite basic, simply using screenshots like, ‘1. Click open.’ In her words, “It was adequate but not that professional.”
Elaine wanted to up her game, make the training more memorable and ensure the delivery was structured in a professional way. Formalising the training was the biggest step forward for her. She recalls being struck by thinking, ‘Oh I’ve been doing it all wrong’.
“Previously”, she says, “we had no way of knowing staff competency after the training. We would do the training, leave them, and just assume that they knew what they were doing. Some of them did, but some of them didn’t. We realised we were getting a lot of call backs after the training from people saying, ‘I know you went through this but how do I do this?’ So, now we include an assessment at the end of the training to measure their competency and identify what training they require more of.
Elaine says, “Structuring time, making sure that the participants were there for that time and having a timeframe for the delivery was really helpful. It simply involved taking the time to introduce the application, going through what it’s used for and what can be done in there, and most importantly giving them time to play in the application while you’re there. This is important because if you’re sitting there and they get stuck, you can say ‘Well if you do this, then you’ll get that’, and they reply, ‘Oh okay.’”
Elaine is adamant that when she approaches any kind of training from now on, she will always have her learnings from the ATT4 course uppermost in her mind. She will always ask herself, ‘How can I get the most out of this training session?’