ETEC 561 section 4

Dawn Burks

ETEC 561

Section 4

Identify a performance problem in your area of work and identify non-instructional solutions that may help solve the problem.

A performance problem prevalent in my department is lengthy orientation times for new employees and the recidivism rate for orientation of new graduates.  These problems lead to frustration of current employees and new hires.  While at the surface this situation seems to be a training problem, in fact it stems from lack of preceptors and mentors.  Although my hospital is a teaching institution, there is an insufficient motivation factor among the more experienced staff to participate in this program.  Our department has one educator and there is an overload of responsibilities.  The educator must also provide professional development and continuing education opportunities for 150 therapists.  Additionally, there is no money in the budget for another educator or to provide monetary incentive to preceptors and mentors.  In the past preceptors that completed 200 hrs. of preceptor time would receive an extra 8 hrs. of paid time off.  Even then it was difficult to recruit therapists due to the inordinate amount of preceptor time it took to receive the benefit.  Another issue is; no decrease in work load while having to orient and instruct.

Some non-training solutions might be to re-evaluate the department budget and investigate the possibility of adding another educator.  Institute a program of progressing phases allowing new hires to start sooner.  Establishment of a reward system giving mentors and preceptors special parking spots, or some other non-monetary incentive.  Most of the solutions I thought of were addressed in figure 14.2 pg. 141.

Define performance support systems and explain how a performance support system might (or might not) help solve the problem you identified above.

A performance support system consists of an electronic system using sources that work together providing an on demand variety of tools and resources for employees to access as needed in their daily context of job performance (Gery, 1991).  Reybould (1995) further expressed it as access to information, advice, learning experiences and tools to help in the performance of tasks with minimal help from others.  Development of a performance support system could negate the need for another educator by providing a bank of continuing education lessons and professional development scenarios for therapists.  A bank of FAQs and information for newcomers could be helpful.  More therapists may be willing to mentor via blogs, e-mail or tweets.

 

What knowledge would help solve the problem you identified above and how would that knowledge need to be collected and managed to help facilitate problem solving?

Currently our hospital does have a bank of information for employees to access in order to find various departments, phone numbers, the employee hand book, a patient safety network, and so on.  Improvement of the current knowledge management would be making it more interactive and timely.  Another suggestion, add more access to other medical professionals expertise in real time. 

In collecting the knowledge, a system similar to instant messaging might work.  Senior experienced personnel would be able to respond to questions and queries by receiving an IM.  Levels of emergence regarding response time should also be included.

What informal learning experiences have you participated in at your organization? Could those informal learning experiences be shared with others? Could the knowledge gained in those settings be codified and managed? And should it be managed or should the informal experiences be replicated or broadened for others?

Some informal learning sessions tried in my department consisted of a research article of the month club.  Management or the educator would choose an article and post it on the message board.  Once a month a brown bag lunch meeting took place to discuss the article, what opinions we had and how we could use the information in our practice.  Quarterly meetings were held to discuss issues impeding our care giving and possible solutions to these problems.  Other situations were pot luck cook offs held in the department creating a more relaxed atmosphere to promote team building and learning more about each other.  Obviously these situations were shared with others.  Some of these informal learning scenarios could be shared via department news letter or e-mail.  Surely other hospital departments participate in similar activities.  Sharing these activities with other departments could be a valuable learning experience, for example, respiratory therapy and nursing or physical therapy and occupational health.  Essentially, open up opportunities for each profession to learn more about other health care professions they work side by side with every day.