Developing A Professional Learning And Development Program For Primary Health Care Units

The aims behind the professional training program

The fourth generation of industrial reforms is on its way. It is changing our world in a never before way. It is creating an environment where machines enabled with artificial intelligence are accompanying the individuals to perform their day to day tasks. The impact of these solutions in the field of marketing and accounting is visible where they are now sharing more than 80 percent load of the conventional practices. At the turn of this century, big software developers like Microsoft and Tally did all the hard work to train the accountants to take the support of certain accounting suites. They came up with professional learning and development programs for these professionals. The multiplier impact of these programs came in foray when Microsoft certified accountants and Tally certified accountants became the need of the industry (Sicialino, 2014).

Many talented people in the field of nursing are feeling insecure because of the arrival of the new technology. As it happened in the sector of the banking where IT technology reduced the demand of the manpower, the nursing fraternity is scared that will IT solutions repeat the same history in the field of Nursing as well. Keeping this concern in mind our Professional training program is designed to achieve some objectives that will work as the icebreaker for the nursing professionals.

1. To create familiarization interface between nursing professionals and new age IT solutions.
2. To create a general awareness among the nursing professionals about the new age working culture designed by the IT solutions.
3. To create awareness about the big data solutions and how they can support the realms of the evidence-based practices of medical science in the future.  

In the second decade of the 21st century gradually more and more services are joining the stream of this fourth generation of the industrial revolution and accommodating IT technology in their operations. Telehealth services and medical information are two emerging branches of the medical science that has the power to repeat the same history that once accounting software created (Scott, 2009).

 In the current assignment, we are forwarding a proposal to develop a professional learning and development program for the employees of the primary health care units working under “Primary Health Care Limited” of Australia, the validity and fruits of this program will be useful for all the units working under this flagship brand. In order to meet the local variance of the services, we have tried to cover maximum elements in the program. With the help of this learning program, we will create a prototype of the functioning where all the primary health care units will be able to accommodate IT facilities in their operations as and when they will be installed (Diana Guzys, 2013). This professional training plan will create an interphase for the advance level changes that are on the cards for most of the primary health care units of the world (Lusignan, 2014).

The policy statement behind the professional learning and development program can be described as follows. Let’s enable a digital interface in the services and add a digital competence in the working routines of our employees (Greenhalgh, 2013).  At the turn of the previous century, many companies and big assembly lines heralded a culture of the professional training programs to upgrade the skills and the living standards of their employees. Most of these programs were a part of the policy under which they were planning to bring humans at par with the machines in the term of efficiency (Christoph H. Loch, 2003).

A professional training to accommodate IT tools in the functioning of the Nursing Staff

In the current proposal, we are proposing a training program that will allow the workers of the primary health care units in coping with the artificial intelligence associated with the systems that hold the key of the future. During the phase of the development of this program, we focused more on the new definition of the competency. The nursing staff working in the primary health care limited of Australia has this core competency in dealing with the patients. They are professionals under the guidelines of the medical associations and practice a certain guideline enabled with strong evidence-based practices. Currently, they are working under a set of skills as prescribed by the medical authorities. Most of their skills follow standard care procedures; with the current training program, we will enable them to execute their day-to-day tasks with more accuracy and less effort. This training will also connect them to the platform of the informatics where they will be able to share their views and experience with the experts and contribute in the evolution of the streams of Telehealth services and medical informatics.

In general, our training program can be developed into three components.

1. IT-enabled Medical informatics and Tele-Health Devices
2. Evidence-based practices as prescribed by the nursing manual
3. Working procedures of the nursing staff in a traditional environment.

First two components are standardized procedures developed by the experts practicing the highest standard of quality control. Most of the methods are tried and tested. They can be replicated successfully in various setups. However, the third component is variable. We can understand it with the help of a digitally enabled blood pressure monitoring device.  Under the current theories, many devices are available where a patient can check his blood pressure on his own and read the count on a digital display. Later on, he can send this count to the Telehealth expert monitoring him. Most of these devices also carry a memory chart where they can store up to 50 entries with date and time.

Let’s hypothetically think about an international agency working in the direction to set the standards for Telehealth services and medical informatics across the world. The policy context of the current training program will encounter two local contexts here. First, the Australian parameters for the reception of the Telehealth services may vary from the rest of the world. In the similar fashion, the parameters of various operational areas working under the Primary health care company Australia may vary from place to place.

The layers of the training that may vary in context with the local variance are difficult to handle. The primary health care limited company has its operations in urban as well as rural settings. Handling a digitally enabled blood pressure monitoring unit can be an easy task for a person living in an urban setting. However, a person living in a rural setting with minimal education may find it difficult (Sargent, 2012). Our training program is well equipped for this local context that can act as a barrier in the implementation of the main policy context. The purpose of policy context clearly indicates that it is aimed at increasing the competency of the system. In the current system, we cannot change machines. However, we can always enable the staff in training the patients in rural settings (C.J.Rhoads, 2015). The scope of any given professional training program is not confined to the main system alone. It should have the power to react with the tangents of the operation. Most of these tangents are also known as the local context of the main policy context.

The policy context behind the professional training program and its local context variants

The competence of an employee or a system is the sum of the competencies of the systems largely (T.Sharma, 2012). For instance in the case of a primary health care unit the competence of a unit can be judged under certain parameters like the number of patients that they are handling. The population sample they are serving and availability of the diagnostic consultancy in the center. A basic knowledge of medical informative will allow them to cut down the process time of keeping records and publishing the reports etc. The concept of the Telehealth services can enable them in increasing the penetrating of the diagnostic facilities (A.Nassazi, 2013).  Let’s understand the functioning of a diagnostic machine like a digital X-Ray report. The principal photography of an X-Ray plate is a relatively easy process. Where a semi-skilled radiologist can perform the task, however, writing a diagnostic report based on that plate is the job of a specialist. We are aware that these specialists are in short supply.  

In general practices, a person has to first wait for a referral from the primary health unit, and then he is required to reach a place where they will photograph the required area of the body. After it, they will send this document to an expert who will write a report. The medical informative facility can cut down this process. A portable digital X-Ray machine can capture the image. Here the nursing staff can make a record of this image and send to the radiology expert for a diagnosis. He can get an access to the record and write his diagnosis and the nursing staff can collect it.

The present professional training program works on two lines, first, it takes care of the ancillary processes of maintaining simple records of a patient. The preparation of a case paper is an ancillary service. Secondly, it can also take care of the specified records that are a part of the procedures. Procuring the process records of a diagnostic exercise and the preparation and the delivery of the diagnostic report is a procedural need of the therapy. As an outcome of the training program, we can increase the efficiency spectrum of an employee quite considerably.  The IT facilities have the power to redefine certain processes to a level where we can consider them as an effective shortcut for an existing standard procedure (Vinesh, 2014).

Every policy document gives rise to certain operational plans. These operational plans describe various roles for a professional. For instance, a mid-level manager plays two roles in general setups. First, he collects the progress report of the projects from the ground zero (Morrison, 2012). Second, he plays the role of the curator to ensure that plans and policies are under correct implementation. When we check the role-playing matrix of a nursing staff working in any of the units conducted by the primary health care limited then we find that they are playing six different roles in a given setup (Rieckmann, 2017).

Challenges we faced during the development of this professional training program

Figure 1 The Roles played by a nursing staff. Retrieved from https://www.apna.asn.au/profession/what-is-primary-health-care-nursing

In general nursing staffs play six roles during his stint in a day, these are not duties. The duty of the nursing staff is to ensure the best medical care for a given subject or the patient. However, in order to dispense his duties, he needs to play the role of an organizer, problem solver, agent of connectivity, quality controller, educator, and patient care.

In practical terms, the concept of medical informatics and Telehealth services has no active contribution to the roles of educator and patient care. This is why in the proposed professional training program we are not paying any attention to these two roles. On the lines of reliving the pressure of the nursing staff, this professional training program can create a support system for them while they will be playing the role of an agent of connectivity. In the previous paragraphs, we discussed the case of the diagnostic facility enablement.  In that case, the nursing staffs were playing the role of the agent of the connectivity (Kirkpatric, 2009). In the similar fashion, knowledge and the basic understanding of the medical informative systems can help him or her in problem-solving.

We can understand it further with the help of an example where they are collecting the data of the patient from the patient himself. The professional training given by us will help the nursing staff in collecting this data, having a look at this data from an objective point of view at the same time (Norton, 2009). The primary manuals of nursing care give us this insight that sometimes consultation during an emergency or during a problematic condition can help the nursing staff in making a sound decision. Advance facilities associated with the Medicine informatics always has this power to bring in objectivity in the viewpoint of a person (Brown, 2014).

The key elements of the program can be divided into three main headings.

The conductance of various IT familiarization sessions for the nursing staff. The syllabus of these sessions will consist of history elements connected to the IT, elements of the computer software and hardware. The second element of this program will focus on the applications of the IT facility in the day to day life of nursing staff. In this session, we will introduce them to some of the practices that are present in the market. During this session, we will also introduce to some of the technologies that are knocking the doors.  

The third element of the program will deal with the collective skills of the individual. In this section, we will motivate them to assimilate their existing wisdom with the systems that are planning to unfold a new system of service providing.

The primary aim of this training program is to create an interface of familiarization where nursing professionals can understand the essence of IT operations. Handling IT solutions is the primary object of this program. In order to win a PL& D status for the program, we have designed this course as a certificate course for the advanced learning of the professionals.

The efforts to meet out the variance created by the local context

Instead of opting for the regular classroom and notes method, we will adopt the technique of the online lessons. All the lessons will be provided to the participants on the blackboard modules. Live lectures will be the place where subject experts will interact with the people in a classroom like an environment. Towards the end of the course, we will motivate the aspirants to go for a small research and award some points for the reflective presentation of the matter. Finally, we will award them a degree based on their performance in the course.

As per the policy statement, the purpose of this professional training program caters to the competencies levels of the units conducted by the Primary health care limited company. Competencies can also be considered as the sum of all the expertise and the collective skills (Austin Buffum, 2011). In order to facilitate the culture of the collective skills under this training program, we will also introduce a new reporting culture in adherence to the new skills that this training will add into the portfolio of an employee (Haimen, 2016).

This professional training program will add some new skills to the portfolio of an employee. Ideally, we need to create an interface where he or she can assimilate his previous skill portfolio with the new skill portfolio acquired after the professional training (Linda Darling Hammond, 2017). A phase of change management is required where they can go for a trial and error of what they have learned and later on comes up with their own theories and create a comfort zone for themselves under the light of this mixed bag of the skills (Staff Training and Development Procedrue, 2018).  This change management phase will add sustainability to our program because it will enable an individual  

Conclusion: 

An implementation of this training program will create a prototype for the organization where the employees will be enriched in the terms of their skill portfolio and become IT ready which is the next level of the evolution. For the Primary care health industry. In the current training program, we have added some elements to take care of the local variance caused by the country-specific reasons and region-specific reasons. This training program is also designed to educate the staffers with the possibilities of Medical informatics and Tele-Health Services. Although both these streams are in a state of evolution right now an exact nature of the evidence-based practices is out of sight. Even then the current training program will be able to bring all the nursing staff members in the loop of the evolution of these two streams.

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