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Learning to use technology: using technology to learn

The National Programme for IT is the biggest civilian IT project in the world, aiming to connect every NHS organisation in England and eventually providing linked health records for all 50 million plus NHS patients in England. Whilst the technical logistics of such an undertaking are undeniably impressive, so too is the human dimension. Approximately one million NHS employees have to be adequately trained – confident and competent – to use the applications safely, says Philip C Candy

This requirement for education, training and development applies not only to the initial deployment. There will also be a continuing need for learning so long as new people continue to join the service, or existing people have to remain up-to-date with upgrades and improvements in functionality.

Our vision is to ensure that everyone who may need to use information and communication technology in the NHS and related non-NHS healthcare workplaces in England is fully trained. We want to ensure that training is provided at an appropriate time and that each person is competent in using appropriate systems and services. We also want to ensure that there is a transferable, up-to-date record of their learning.

Making sure that this learning is of good quality - irrespective of where each person lives and works – and that it occurs in a timely way, is itself a significant challenge. Responsibility for all this training does not rest with any one organisation. It is shared between suppliers, NHS trusts, SHAs and the National Programme itself.

As a national organisation, our role in ETD is essentially to provide a coherent vision of the future, to provide standards and guidance, and to support the providers of training and other learning interventions. Given the scale of this effort, and the need for a sustainable and equitable approach to learning, it is inevitable that e-learning will form a fundamental part of the ongoing professional development of staff.

A great deal of our effort is currently being expended on:

developing a range of e-learning resources

ensuring robust delivery platforms and infrastructure at national and local levels

making sure that learners across the service have the necessary skills and access to undertake e-learning, and

supporting the education training and development professionals themselves.

For example, we have developed a range of small e-learning packages which aim to explain major aspects of the National Programme for IT in a simple way. They also provide context for more detailed technical training provided by suppliers.

We have developed a set of recommended ETD standards (including e-learning standards) to improve the quality of training and the experience of learning across the service. We are working to procure and deploy a huge database of ‘realistic but not real’ patient records to support integrated Spine training. This will enable users to have a ‘like live’ experience of NPfIT applications.

We are collaborating with others to ensure that every organisation in the NHS has access to a learning management system that will support their talent management, enhance their training administration, and maintain a portable record of learning for everyone in the NHS.

We also provide, free of charge to anyone in the NHS, access to basic or essential IT skills that help individuals to learn how to use applications being deployed by the National Programme for IT. Much of this work can be accessed on the NHS Connecting for Health website at: http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/etd/about/index_html

Our work is guided by the following principles:

Do nationally only those things that are best done nationally - to provide national platforms, standards and interventions which enable a blended approach to be used for system training in all settings.

Collaborate and seek to work in partnership with colleagues across the NHS, private healthcare, further and higher education, social care and related fields, to make available the best possible resources to support ETD practitioners.

Avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and of unwanted variation in access, currency, coherence or quality of learning resources and opportunities. We believe that we can achieve this by identifying and showcasing good practice, providing tools and suggested approaches, creating and advocating standards, and sharing lessons learnt.

Introduce more extensive and widespread use of e-learning and the development and sharing of resources across the service.

Supplement formal learning by access to high quality information resources which provide a seamless information and performance support landscape. This will best be supported through a blend of training resources and self-directed learning opportunities.

Create and sustain a national network of well-trained and adequately resourced ETD practitioners delivering high quality training on all applications being deployed by the National Programme. This includes the provision of mechanisms for exchanging insights and sharing lessons learned.

In the longer term, our vision is that much more work-related learning will occur on the job, in the workplace, rather than in training suites, lecture theatres and classrooms. Not only does this mean that many more people will act as coaches and mentors, but that much of the learning will be technologically supported – ranging from formal e-learning courses to bite-sized ‘nuggets’ of learning and advice.

As this occurs, the technology currently being deployed to support enhanced patient records and organisational efficiency will increasingly provide the infrastructure through which people will be able to learn.

NHS Connecting for Health will help to deliver a ‘double dividend’ - learning to use technology: using technology to learn - in the form of a significant change in the ‘learning landscape’ for the NHS. In doing so, it will help to move the NHS towards being what it needs to be for the twenty first century - a leading edge learning organisation.

Dr Philip C Candy is national director of education, training and development at NHS Connecting for Health

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