Hi all,

Yes, I'm a newby here , but hope to contribute.

My center is considering getting a LMS (Learning Management System).

Are any of you using one? If so, what's your experience?

We're considering Silk Roads, SkillSoft and a few others.

Our preference is to have one that hosts on-line training that's accessable to all of our employees. It should include some basic training content, i.e., EHS (Environmental Health & Safety), basic leadership skills, etc. We would also want it to host our own developed materials...

Any ideas?

Warm regard,

RS

Welcome RS777.

Welcome to Blood Bank Talk, RS. Our hospital has a program called "NetLearning" that is hospital-wide. Many basic mandatory sessions/classes are on it that every employee must complete annually by a specified deadline. Each session/class covers/explains the material and there's always a short quiz at the end of each program on topics like "Infection Control", "Safety", "Proper use of Fire Extinguisher", "Confidentiality Policy", "New Procedures", etc.

Also, employees (usually managers and supervisors) can design/author classes. For example, one of my staff members and I wrote a class on "Proper Sample Collection and Labeling for Blood Bank Testing." We wrote up what we wanted to cover and wrote the quiz questions. Someone in our Education Department actually enters our info into NetLearning, adds pictures & illustrations, etc. And I designated it as a mandatory class for all Laboratory personnel, all RNs, anesthesiology personnel, etc.

It's nice that all mandatory and optional continuing education courses are documented in NetLearning. (Great documentation for inspection purposes.)

Donna

Thanks Donna!

I'll definately have to do some research on them.

Sounds like what we're looking for...

Warm regard,

RS

Hi RS777, Our hospital uses SWANK for all of our continuing ed. They have their courses that they make available to us and then our organization can make up our own tests and reading materials. We have all of our mandatory education on it now. We complete it and it records it and prints out a certificate. The managers can assign you a course to read and take a test on too. I think it is www.swankhealth.com

Thanks bduff,

I'll check them out as well...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I have just finished my MBA-Healthcare Management at Western Governor's University (an on-line, totally self-paced program). They used skillsoft extensively. At least in this program, I found the textbooks a much better use of my time and efforts. ( I completed the entire program in 10 months!) Skillsoft is very time consuming and sometimes very elementary. I am not familiar with their capability to program customized material. Good Luck.

our hospital has been using SWANK for about 2 years now and so far so good tho' i've not been as impressed with it's course-authoring component. when i was teaching, i used Blackboard and really liked it. tho' unless your institution is doing a lot of teaching, Blackboard might be a bit too expensive.