Question

What Went Wrong at University Hospital (Part 1)? Pat Rowe, Vice President of University Hospital, recently attended a conference session that discussed the problems of integrating computer technology into the work practices of health care professionals. The session lecturer argued that implementation often fails because staff do not receive proper training in the use of the new equipment and software. This seemed plausible to Pat. In the last year, the hospital's senior management team had decided to purchase thousands of dollars of equipment that was supposed to "redesign the delivery of patient care." However word was getting around that staff were disgruntled with the new equipment and were not using it. Upon returning to the hospital, Pat called the director of training and development, Wei Lee, to discuss the insights gained at the conference. Pat said to Wei, "I think I know why staff are not using the computer equipment. They didn't receive adequate training. Wei replied, "l seem to recall that the manufacturer did provide training, but I'm not entirely sure what was included. Do you want me to look into it?" Pat said, "Yes that's a good idea. But I still think we need to train them. Why don't you get them in here to do some more training? Wei immedia as part of the implementation process, two design engineers had conducted numerous lectures y called the computer equipment manufacturer and leamed that 10 months ago th unit staff on how to work with the new equipment and software. These sessions were poorl attended and were conducted using a lecture and overhead format. Wei decided that the poor attendance was probably responsible for the problems, and so she asked the manufacturer to re run the training session. This time, staff would be offered free coffee and doughnuts to encourage attendance. Staff were sent a memo from the training department encouraging them to attend one of the sessions. Unit managers, who were not invited to attend the training, were asked to mention the sessions in staff meetings and highlight the free coffee and doughnuts. Unfortunately, attendance was only marginally better The latest training sessions were again conducted by design engineers, but this time they used a new teaching device - a laptop computer hooked up to an overhead projector. This allowed thenm to "walk through" the various screens and options of the program with staff in real-time simulation At the end of the session, staff were given a manual describing the computer hardware and software. It was suggested to staff that they read the manual on their own time and consult it when they had problems. Walking out of the session, one staff member was heard saying "Computers scare the heck out of me. I can't possibly learn this stuff. And to top it all off, I don't think anybody really cares if I do use this new system."

Industrial Psychology: Please read the case above before answering the following question:

What changes would you suggest that could increase the transfer of training in this case?

Answer 1

To increase the transfer of training they were given free coffee and doughnuts. The staff members should have given a chance to give their own suggestions and feedback to improve the use of this system. The new system must make use of directing them towards working in a real life situation and setting it up in this training session. Their was close monitoring done when staff were not asked if they knew to know use computers and close monitoring will also make them nervous about performing good at that time. Therefore staff must encouraged and must listened by management about better training session by getting feedback from the staff. Staff must should be given feedback immediately and the advantages of this training.