How to plan your care home training post-pandemic

Posted 3 years ago

Our Business Development Manager, Jack Medhurst, took part in this special podcast with Care Home Management magazine to discuss care home training needs as we emerge from the pandemic. Those responsible for organising staff training in the health and social care sectors can pick up some insightful and useful tips. You can read the summary of key points below, or scroll to the end of this blog to listen to the full podcast.

Key Insights

The panel consisting of experts in the care sector training world, led by Steve Hemsley, Publishing Editor of Care Home Management magazine, unanimously agreed that there had been a shift in the way care homes were completing their training as a result of the pandemic, and this is likely to have a lasting effect.

The learning landscape has changed forever as a result of the pandemic… and has helped the sector move on by about a decade in terms of their approach to learning and development.

Steve Embleton, MyLearningCloud

A blended approach to learning for the care sector is key, and training companies need to be innovative and supportive to a sector that has been through a lot in the past 16 months. Compliance training is still going to be hugely important as we move forward, but equally employee stress and burnout means that mental health awareness is also a key area when it comes to supporting employees and looking at training needs.

Mental health is most certainly something all employers should start to look towards now, as the aftermath of this could be a loss of staff in the workplace due to that.

Paul Blane, CBAT

In terms of training, care homes want assurance that they are making a wise investment, training is accredited and of a high quality, and they will be able to achieve compliance. Learning Management systems can play a vital role in managing training needs, and the support a training provider can give is as important as the content provided.

We have a goal to be ‘seen’ as a member of staff within a training department within an organisation… When a company invests into that training or platform they also know they are gaining a ‘part time member of staff’ that can help with that reporting, exporting data, that LMS.

Jack Medhurst, iHasco

Many subjects can be delivered virtually, and many care managers will not revert back to the pre-pandemic training methods. It’s recognised that training does not mean learning stops there, it is a continuous process, not a tick box exercise. It needs to help make improvements to the workplace and business. Whether it is compliance or professional development it must be quality content that is engaging.

Other discussion points included virtual reality training, the cost implications of training, the care certificate, the increase in usage of mental health and wellbeing courses over the pandemic and more.

How can iHasco help care homes with their training requirements?

A key take away for care home managers from the podcast was that a training system not only needs to fulfil your needs and be user friendly but also come with effective support to help you with any difficulties along the way. Here at iHasco, we pride ourselves on our excellent customer service and encourage anyone interested in finding out more about our courses and LMS to get in touch.

We provide a range of online courses for the care sector and can arrange instant free access so you can trial any of our courses, and we would also be happy to set up a demo of our LMS.