Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007

209
This presentation is part of : Transdisciplinary Project Models
eLearning: A Transdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare Education
Heather M. Pollex, BA, BScN, MSc (T), EdD and Anya L. Wood, BA, MDE. Corporate Nursing, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
Learning Objective #1: describe the collaborative processes undertaken by a group of Canadian teaching hospitals to transform the learning environment within their respective organizations;
Learning Objective #2: describe the strategies used to evaluate the success and sustainability of this transdisciplinary eLearning initiative.
Inter-hospital and inter-disciplinary collaboration is key in developing effective systems and efficient processes in healthcare. While such collaboration comes with many risks and requires solid internal leadership, there are tremendous benefits to the participating hospitals. Our interdisciplinary team had long recognized that staffing and workload issues were preventing healthcare professionals from attending traditional face-to-face education sessions. As a result, a group of downtown teaching hospitals collaborated to purchase a Learning Management System (LMS) and embarked on a journey to transform the development and delivery of staff education through the implementation of eLearning.

eLearning is the use of web-based technologies to create and provide educational or training opportunities as well as to evaluate staff performance and knowledge. The implementation of an eLearning strategy and technologic solution addresses the issues of repetitive and redundant educational development and delivery. What started as an internal nursing initiative was expanded to include allied health, physicians, human resources,  organizational development, emergency preparedness and other disciplines from multiple hospitals. Participants from 5 organizations came together and identified 3 opportunities for collaboration under the umbrella of eLearning: a shared technology solution, development of eLearning programs, and exploration of methodologies for successful implementation in hospital environments.

This presentation will describe the processes that the participating hospitals used for each of the 3 collaborative opportunities. Participants will learn how we navigated the ups and downs of an interdisciplinary collaboration and developed a technology solution that has allowed us to build a strong education community. eLearning has thus far proven to be a winning platform for realizing multidisciplinary, multi-hospital partnerships, integration and innovation.  

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See more of The 39th Biennial Convention (November 3 -- 7, 2007)