Facilitating the (Social) Workplace Learning of Healthcare Professionals via the Use of a Learning Platform

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Dybrqn5cFOWnzK6kvqtCtWCPzneckQQv&usp=drive_fs

Conditions within the healthcare sector are constantly changing, thus increasing the importance of facilitating learning for both students and employees. Workplace learning (WPL), all learning related to the day-to-day work activities of employees, plays a fundamental role in this. Additionally, scientific literature calls for healthcare organizations to recognize the importance of the social context in which WPL can occur, where healthcare employees engage in WPL through cooperation and interaction. Technology can be used to facilitate (social) WPL, however introducing technology does not automatically lead to effective implementation. The UTAUT Model and ISO standard 9241- 11 on the usability of human-system interaction provide insight into the use of technology. For this study, a learning platform implemented at an extramural healthcare organization in the Netherlands was chosen as a case to study this topic. This learning platform contains information in the form of documents, healthcare protocols, and e-learnings among others (learning items pages), the contact information of experts within the organization (colleagues’ page), and a place where users can ask questions or join a discussion with fellow users (community page). During this study, user data, focus groups and a diary study were used to analyse which factors play a role in the use of a learning platform by healthcare professionals to facilitate (social) WPL. User data, corroborated by diary study data (n=49), showed that the learning platform was mainly used via its learning item pages (35.4% of the time). Additionally, on average, participants who use the learning platform on a certain day learn significantly more often by getting information and learn significantly less often with others compared to when they do not use the learning platform. Moreover, the results showed that participants were able to effectively use the learning platform 88.2 per cent of the time. Next, participants learned together with external experts outside the learning platform, possibly engaging in boundary-spanning. Lastly, most suggestions for improvements given by participants related to the performance expectancy of the learning platform. The results of this study can be used to further improve the usability of the learning platform to facilitate the (social) WPL of healthcare professionals.