Make HCW education relevant in real-world
By Toni C. McKenna, DNSc, RN, director of the Center for Continuing Nursing Education & Health Careers Institute at the University of Texas Arlington.
When faced with the rapid pace and increasing demands on all healthcare workers during their work time, it is not hard to understand a common reaction to participating in an educational session focused on workplace safety and health: "I don't have time and it won't be new and interesting!"
This is not something that can be turned around with smoke and mirrors, or wishful thinking, or by giving an educational session a funny title just to get people in the room. But with careful planning and execution, it is possible to fully engage healthcare workers and for them to become really involved in this education.
With the support of U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Susan Harwood grants, we have developed and delivered educational programs to more than 1,400 healthcare workers across our geographic region. In this work over the last three years, we found a few key elements to be helpful:
Make it relevant. The material, the examples, the discussion must reflect actual practice.
Provide lots of examples.
Use a variety of teaching strategies.
The focus of the educational session, whether it is 15 minutes or two hours, needs to be on how the healthcare workers can use the information to help create and sustain a safe and healthy work environment one that supports great patient care.
Making content relevant is actually the easy part. Every topic in safety and health can be related to health care settings. For example, "hazardous substances" encompass the cleaning materials that the housekeeping/environmental staff use every day, the paint and paint thinner that the Maintenance staff use and store in their supply area and the material safety data sheets (MSDS) that very few workers have ever read. Talking about the "real" materials (and their associated hazards) that workers use routinely can help to hold their attention.
It's important to be creative with teaching strategies. The long lecture just does not work with adults. We have found that high-energy, short sessions work best.
Discussing lots of examples of a safety and health hazard also can be a key factor in the interest and retention of the information. These examples can be shared verbally, with examples from both the facilitator and the participants, or they can be highlighted with pictures.
Use pertinent photos perhaps of a blocked aisle, a spill in a corridor that is not marked, a fire extinguisher that is not easy to get to, a person attempting to lift a large object alone. Health care workers can relate to these and oftentimes can offer their own examples of what they have seen or experienced. It is important to always have a specific safety and health message when using a photo such as the right way to do the activity for discussion points.
Focus on a hypothetical hospital that has some safety and health issues. This can be a great opportunity for small groups to discuss what is happening and decide together what they would do to further assess and then minimize or eliminate the hazard. We have used this approach in teaching short sessions on ergonomics and the discussions in the small groups can be very energizing! Facilitators can ask for feedback or sharing by each group so that all can benefit.
Demonstrating techniques is helpful, particularly if return demonstration [by participants] is included in the session. This can be easily done with topics such as handwashing, personal protective equipment, bloodborne pathogens, and ergonomics. These activities get participants actually involved in the content and relate to their daily work.
Worksite Hazard Mapping is a learning activity that can be used with groups to help them identify potential/real safety and health hazards in their worksite. Small groups draw a simple diagram of one of their work areas (a corridor in a patient care unit, the kitchen/dining area, etc.) and then with directions from the facilitator, they place colored dots in any area that may have a specific hazard. For example, the red dot might stand for bloodborne hazards and the green for ergonomic hazards. The groups then are guided in a discussion of what could be done to minimize or eliminate the hazards in the areas they marked. This technique was developed by England's Trade Union Congress in the 1970's and further developed by the New Jersey Environmental Council in 1986, based on a grant from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
All workers want a safe and healthy work environment. In health care settings, staff want to provide high quality safe patient care and be safe in their worksites. Engaging healthcare workers in education related to all of the possible safety and health topics can be high energy even fun and have a positive impact.
[McKenna will be speaking on this topic at the upcoming annual conference of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN), April 22-25, in Nashville, TN. More information about the conference is available at www.aaohn.org.]
The University of Texas Arlington is a Region VI OSHA Education Center and offers a wide variety of safety and health educational programs for many different industries, including healthcare. [For more information on current programs: www.uta.edu/ded/osha and www.uta.edu/ded/nursing.]
By Toni C. McKenna, DNSc, RN, director of the Center for Continuing Nursing Education & Health Careers Institute at the University of Texas Arlington.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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