Relias Learning: Transition to an Exciting New Approach for Staff Training
More than twenty years ago, a decision was made to provide high quality in-person staff education, and to clearly communicate the organization’s mission to all Providence Life Services employees. As a result of that decision, the Providence Research and Education Institute opened in 2002 at the Corporate Headquarters in Tinley Park, IL.
Over the past 20 years, thousands of staff members received orientation and annual education, dementia training, CPR certification, skills validations, and a host of other trainings. A variety of interactive adult learning strategies were utilized, and feedback from participants was very positive, with staff members expressing their appreciation for the valuable information they received.
The pandemic of the past several years has changed many things in our work environment. For quite a while, we were unable to hold any classes at the corporate office, so the educators traveled from campus to campus presenting sessions to small groups of staff members. Facilities also gathered a few employees at a time to view podcasts of mandated training in an effort to meet regulatory requirements. Happily, the day came when we were again able to open the classrooms and welcome staff members to corporate training days. However, facilities found it challenging to cover staffing needs while scheduling staff members to attend days of training. This challenge was the catalyst for researching alternative methods for providing the necessary staff training.
After researching several options, a decision was made to partner with Relias, an online Learning Management System (LMS). Relias has developed education content that meets many of the learning needs for our staff, and the content is easily accessible. This provides flexibility for staff members to work on their assigned training in smaller increments. If there is an interruption while working through a session, the system will allow the participant to begin the session at the point where they stopped. The sessions are interactive and conclude with a quiz to verify learning.
The LMS automatically tracks each time a staff member successfully completes a training module, and compliance reports are readily available to supervisors. Staff members and their department head/supervisor receive an email notification when the training due date is approaching, and email notifications continue and increase in frequency until the due date. If compliance is not met, overdue notifications also continue.
In general, annual education will be assigned based on your hire date. In addition to the training required by Providence, nurses, social workers, administrators, therapists, and other licensed professions can also access the Relias library to complete sessions of interest that grant continuing education credit for their specific license.
The LMS is easy to use, and we look forward to this new approach for staff training.
