P17 - Usability Evaluation of Electronic Medical Record Training for Unlicensed Assistive Personnel

In 2017, the information technology training and optimization team at our academic medical center made an electronic medical record (EMR) training conversion from instructor-led training (ILT) to eLearning for our unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP). While this particular role assists inpatient nurses in direct patient care, some staff were hired into this role join our organization with little-to-no computer literacy or healthcare knowledge. This is an important consideration as they embark on learning the EMR during onboarding. When UAPs took ILT for their EMR training, five hours were allotted. After the class was converted to eLearning, a usability evaluation was conducted to determine the efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction of the conversion. The evidence has shown that an EMR training conversion from ILT to eLearning can be successful for many healthcare roles including nursing; however, little evidence to date addresses UAP.

After the training conversion was made, a usability evaluation began with a course timings report from 940 onboarding UAPs. Data showed that it took this group longer to complete the eLearnings at 6.34 hours than it did to conduct ILT with them. This resulted in a loss, with a return on investment of -$15,115.20 over a 22-month period based solely on UAP training time. From this group, 78 UAPs completed a post-training evaluation. We learned that they generally believed the eLearning was effective via self-evaluation, but the mean satisfaction score was 3.7 from a five-point Likert scale where 1=Strongly Disagree and 5=Strongly Agree.

Knowing that we need to improve on efficiency and satisfaction, we set out to revise the training with this information. In 2021, the eLearning was revamped due to system enhancements in hopes of eliminating redundancy, while reflecting current workflows. The revised UAP eLearning was launched in January 2022 with an evaluation completed in December. The results showed that training time was reduced to less than 4.5 hours, and 81% reported that they were satisfied with the EMR eLearning. The self-reported efficacy data continued to show that these end users believed the eLearning was an effective means to learn EMR workflows.

While the initial evaluation did not show the outcome we had hoped, we used this information to improve upon on training to maximize usability. Having the training in eLearning provides a 24/7 training resource for this end user group to review material as many times as needed to understand required workflows. This conversion has not only contributed to UAP success, but success for our nursing staff and our organization.