AH, the splendid possibilities of modern technology. Just glance at your mobile phone. Chances are it not only connects you by voice with friends, family and business associates, it may also allow you to access and send email and text messages, check the web, take photos and videos, use a touch screen and/or a keyboard for typing, play your favourite music, relax with video games – the list goes on.
If you’re under 20, you no doubt use every single one of the above capabilities. You may also have stood in a long queue for Apple’s latest personal technology wonder, the iPad.
However, if you’re over 25 (or 30 or 40), you may bother only with the basics. You’re too busy to learn all of those extras and you don’t need them in your everyday life.
That may be an acceptable approach at home. Unfortunately, however, the same “make do” view toward learning about technology is too often replicated in the business setting – and that’s not OK.
For example, if your staff members don’t fully grasp what your practice management system can do and how to do it, their lack of knowledge can cost you time, productivity, profit and clients.
Conversely, solid, continuing staff education can not only benefit your clients and your bottom line, it can actually increase your likelihood of retaining staff.
Why? Because studies have long shown a correlation between training and staff retention – most employees appreciate an employer’s investment in their skills development.
CE as part of practice management
Consider this simple fact. Any veterinarian or registered nurse has to perform a defined number of continuing education hours at regular intervals to maintain his or her professional credentials. Shouldn’t the same standard apply to the staff members who help manage your veterinary practice? Both technology and business practices progress and change over time. It’s important that your staff stay current.
“We’re too busy”, you say, “and besides, my staff were trained by our practice management system vendor when the software was installed.”
But how long ago was that? How do you train new staff? And as software updates are released or your hardware is upgraded, do you ensure your staff are trained and can take full advantage of the new capabilities? Or did you decide that a site visit by the vendor was too time-consuming, disruptive and expensive?
Here’s the good news. Many of the concerns veterinarians have had about the time and money it takes to offer staff a full-value continuing education programme have now been eased – by technology, as it happens.
Practice management system vendors now offer a variety of educational options that are convenient, cost-effective – and can boost learning retention.
E-learning and web-based interactive education
Increasingly, businesses of all types are turning to e-learning and web-based interactive training for continuing staff education. These approaches may also result in heightened long-term retention.
Research shows that staff who sit through a full day of instructor-led system training retain only about 20% of what they’ve learned. But new educational approaches provide any student the chance to pace learning – and to refresh knowledge by repeat sessions.
- E-learning. Internet-based courseware makes it easy for new or existing staff to build (or refresh) their knowledge of your system’s capabilities. It lets them learn online at their own pace and they can do so outside clinic hours. It doesn’t disrupt the workday or include the expense associated with an instructor coming to your practice. In fact, some system vendors offer a variety of courses entirely free via their website. Ask your vendor what is available, and make sure courses include a test component to measure knowledge gained.
- Interactive web-based training. This approach offers the more personalised benefits of on-site training, without the associated expense of bringing a trainer to your practice. Via the internet, a training specialist (with your permission) dials into your system to shadow veterinary staff “live” as they use various capabilities. Your staff can in turn watch the trainer as he or she moves the cursor around the computer screen to demonstrate specific features and functions. Interactive training can cover the entire gamut of practice management technology, from basic system use to the broad-based knowledge required of a practice manager. Training expenses may also be saved by using other internetbased services such as SKYPE. Live training can be conducted from and to anywhere, even internationally, without incurring long-distance phone charges. Here’s another tip. If your vendor allows you to purchase webbased interactive training in hourly “blocks”, you might choose to put staff through a two-hour session to learn a new concept, have them put that knowledge to work in your clinic for a week, then reinforce learning with a follow-up web-based training session.
- On-site training. For a personal and highly interactive approach, on-site sessions are still top of the list. Most vendors provide on-site training as part of the initial system installation and costs are generally included as part of system purchase. You should also consider on-site training at times when training tailored specifically to your practice would benefit staff understanding.
- Seminar training. Some technology vendors also team with other suppliers important to the smooth running of a practice (such as drug manufacturers and diagnostic test equipment suppliers) to provide seminar training on how different systems interact with each other. Staff can learn how information flows between different suppliers and is captured and used by their practice management system.
- Vendor roundtables and user conferences. Don’t miss these opportunities! Leading technology vendors offer clients the opportunity to gather together periodically in small, informal roundtable groups, or large user conferences, to learn from vendor staff and to share knowledge with one another. In addition to education, roundtables and user conferences give you the opportunity to make concerns and suggestions known to vendor management.
Training as a career asset
Continuing technology not only benefits your practice and your clients. CE can also be a career asset for anyone who chooses to focus long-term on veterinary practice management as his or her chosen profession.
Some technology vendors are even offering to certify trained staff as proficient in the use of their technology. For example, by successfully completing specified vendor courses, a training participant might be accredited as a qualified Fees Manager, Stock Control Manager, or even a Practice Manager for that particular system type.
