Lifelong learning is an essential part of every healthcare professional’s career development, but as one of the most time-poor sectors it’s not always easy to find the hours to make the commitment.
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RSCI) has prescribed a smart solution. Its Graduate School of Healthcare Management has taken a digital-first approach to supporting continuing professional development.
It has developed a suite of digital-first programmes designed to meet the professional development needs of those in healthcare throughout their career.
Content is available on-demand, accessed when participants are free to engage, and importantly, has been developed by an institution that has been at the forefront of healthcare education for almost 240 years.
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The university now has a wide range of digital-first courses, including professional diplomas in clinical leadership and in digital health transformation. For those looking for a master’s degree there are also digital-first options in subject areas such as healthcare management, quality, safety, innovation and leadership as well as wound management, and advanced leadership for nurses.
RCSI is also launching a portfolio of digital-first micro-courses for those working in the healthcare sector who wish to upskill rapidly in a specific subject area. These include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and medical imaging, person-centred digital healthcare, e-health solutions, finance for healthcare, and personalised medicine.
All programmes have been designed on a digital-first basis from inception.
While organisations across all sectors pivoted online as a result of Covid-19, RCSI launched its first digital-first programme in 2018, long before the pandemic.
There is a significant difference between pivoting an existing course online and building a digital-first programme from scratch, explains Sara McDonnell, executive director of RCSI’s Graduate School of Healthcare Management and, as a co-founder of Hibernia College, a pioneer of digital-first study in Ireland.
“Covid led to acceptance at large of online as a legitimate way to engage in lifelong learning,” says McDonnell.
“What is distinctive about these programmes, however, is that they were designed on a digital-first basis from inception.”
It is not about simply taking a module that was developed for face-to-face delivery and putting it online, says McDonnell.
“It is about the optimisation of the design and content of that course for online delivery. Our digital-first courses are high-engagement teaching and learning experiences offering a blend of online content and synchronous engagement, which allows for that shared experience and interaction that is so important for participants and for faculty,” she explains.
“The goal is to provide healthcare professionals with the lifelong learning opportunities they need to help them bridge whatever skills gaps they face, at particular times, right across the trajectory of their career. We are here to support that journey.”
The Graduate School of Healthcare Management’s digital-first courses take cognisance of the particular pressures those in the medical field are so often under.
“The feedback we consistently get from healthcare professionals is that they are busy people, with complex work schedules, and family and life commitments. What our digital-first courses do is allow them to fit immersive, engaging learning into their lives in a way that suits them. Not everyone is in a position to travel for ‘block’ study days, for example. With our scheduled synchronous sessions, people can participate from their kitchen table and if they are unavailable to attend they can listen to recordings,” she explains.
The response to its school’s digital delivery has been overwhelmingly positive. “When Covid hit, we already had a great deal of in-house technical, academic and operational expertise that we could call on to develop our programmes, and the feedback that came after Covid was that students wanted more of this. It facilitates them in a way that traditional, prescriptively scheduled courses don’t, meaning they can tap into learning when it suits them, as part of an engaged and supported teaching and learning community,” she continues.
More than digital-first, they are “digital-plus”, she adds.
While learners can pursue each of these courses entirely online, digital-plus recognises the importance of in-person events, which are facilitated through workshops and networking events in various locations.
“It is the best of both worlds,” says McDonnell.
This is all about providing the interventions that support healthcare professionals in the career journey they are on. It’s also so important because it is patients that benefit
— Sara McDonnell, RCSI’s Graduate School of Healthcare Management
“For undergraduate degrees, in-person engagement is crucial, and some postgraduate learners prefer in-person opportunities also. With our digital-first offerings we are here to offer choice in continuing professional development. It’s about having a portfolio of offerings that healthcare professionals can tap into as needed at various points in their career in a delivery model that suits their learning style and circumstances.”
Healthcare professionals train clinically but are also managers and leaders.
“On a daily basis they are engaging with people and with teams and working within a system. They require various aspects of education depending on what’s really important to them at the time,” she explains.
“Working with people is one of the most important aspects of any healthcare professional’s job. They may need to learn how to lead, transform, to drive change and to influence.”
A person might be a great doctor, but not know how to set up a practice, understand HR requirements or oversee digital transformation, she explains.
“This is all about providing the interventions that support healthcare professionals in the career journey they are on. It’s also so important because it is patients that benefit,” she adds.
“Improving patient care and patient health is the ultimate goal of this university, and the goal of our digital-first initiative.”
For a full list of the courses available please visit RCSI.com