Three Ways to Use Facebook to Train Healthcare Students

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Facebook has become not only a way to find old friends or learn about the weekend’s events, it is also an incredible learning tool, for students of healthcare and countless other topics.  Teachers can utilize Facebook for class projects, for enhancing communication, and for engaging students in a manner that might not be entirely possible in traditional classroom settings.  Be creating a page specifically for the class, managing the privacy settings to exclude outside visitors, and connecting the class blog or online learning homepage to Facebook, healthcare students have a relaxed, inviting atmosphere of learning that encourages How to use facebook to train healthcare studentsparticipation and engagement.

Facebook encourages participation in class projects and class discussions where classroom learning often fails.  Healthcare students could be instructed to follow current news feeds.  There are dozens of pages related to the medical field, updated daily and broken down into sections for relevancy, keeping current information flowing through the class.  With the wealth of information available to healthcare scholars, students can review assigned topics, then post their abstracts on Facebook for other students to read, discuss, and peer-review.  An excellent way to ensure that healthcare students are more engaged in the learning experience—whether in a traditional classroom or at accredited online colleges—is by strengthening the communication between students and student-to-teacher.

Educators can create groups, schedule events, send messages, share multimedia, post class notes, make announcements, and post homework on Facebook, providing direct communication with instructors, facilitating classmate connections, and allowing shy students a way to communicate.  Healthcare students can even practice doctor-patient communication and bedside manner through Facebook messaging and comments.

Facebook for education offers students the opportunity for active communication on a level playing field.  Since students are likely familiar with Facebook already, implementing it into healthcare education and training provides comfortable, easy student access.  Facebook promotes collaboration, teaches personal responsibility, and keeps schools current in many medical and professional fields.

Please contact us to learn more tips on How To Use Facebook to Train Healthcare Students.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Brings Your Healthcare Training to Life

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Course design is all about pedagogy, understanding how we learn best. But it’s not enough just to learn something to know it, students also need to be able to apply it. Unfortunately, so much of medical education relies on rote learning and memorization. Students may not remember how many hours they spent pouring over flashcards before a pre-med anatomy and physiology exam. Likewise, students may not remember everything they were tested on. That’s because the learning they are expected to do doesn’t involve applying that knowledge in a real world healthcare setting (the cadaver lab doesn’t count).

At Avidity Medical Design, we employ Bloom’s Taxonomy in training healthcare learners to bring your education to life. Bloom’s Taxonomy is the pedagogy sine qua non for Bloom's Taxonomy Training Healthcare Learnersholistic, integrative learning. For a simplified understanding of this concept, consider this excerpt from Wikipedia:

Bloom’s taxonomy refers to a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students (learning objectives). It divides educational objectives into three “domains”: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (sometimes loosely described as “knowing/head”, “feeling/heart” and “doing/hands” respectively). Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.[2] A goal of Bloom’s taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom’s_taxonomy)

The idea is to structure learning as simultaneous cognitive assimilation. Using given information, and understanding the intended application, we design our lesson plans to teach intellectual understanding and real-life, physical application at the same time. This approach saves time in the classroom and negates the need for flashcards and hours of homework.

Furthermore, our lesson plans based on Bloom’s Taxonomy are structured to include strategic variables that increase the depth of knowledge on a given topic. Your healthcare learners will be challenged to understand the idea on a cognitive level and to apply that understanding in different settings with different tools. Your students learn key concepts, standard procedures, and effective improvisation techniques all in one lesson.

Today’s healthcare industry is a fast changing environment that demands constant adaptation. Training healthcare learners requires education that can adapt just as fast. At Avidity Medical Design, we are dedicated to ensuring the highest quality education by using the most effective learning tools to produce students who are as detailed as they are innovative. Contact us to learn more about how we can design the most effective and engaging courses to bring your healthcare training to life.

ICD-10: Ready or Not, Here It Comes

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ICD-10 avidity medical designThe only thing constant in life is change. This saying has always been true.

One of the biggest changes that will occur in 2014 is the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 on October 1, 2014. Results of a recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) survey show that less than 10 percent of physician practices are ready for ICD-10. MGMA president and CEO, Susan L. Turney, made it very clear that immediate action is required to prepare for the October deadline:

“The critical coordination that must take place between practices and their software vendor, clearinghouse and health plan partners is simply not happening at the pace required for a seamless implementation.”

In the same MGMA survey, over 85 percent of physician practices were concerned or very concerned about expected changes in clinical documentation, loss of clinician productivity, and loss of coding staff productivity after the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10.

It is time for the majority of healthcare providers and organizations to begin preparing for the upcoming transition to ICD-10. The shift to ICD-10 means that physicians, coders, and other HIM professionals must be up to speed on the changes to diagnosis code assignment and ready to assign ICD-10 codes accurately, completely, and efficiently by October 1, 2014.

I hear and I forget

I see and I remember

I do and I understand

Avidity Medical Design will help you understand the changes that will occur with ICD-10. We will also develop customized ICD-10 curriculum to prepare your staff for ICD-10 coding prior to the scheduled implementation on October 1, 2014.

Management Participation is Fundamental to Successful Healthcare e-Learning

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When it comes to healthcare e-learning, multiple studies show that management should be involved in each stage of the curriculum development process. This is crucial for obtaining quality deliverables and measurable results that accurately reflect changes in healthcare. When you are looking for an instructional design service, ask how they will address management participation.

healthcare e-learning avidity medical design Specializing in creating blended learning solutions for both the educational and corporate sectors, we have an extensive background in healthcare as well as instructional and performance technology. This positions us to respond to the frequently expressed concerns of many managers:

Management Expertise: We understand the role of key stakeholders with regard to choosing the right content for curriculum development. If you are already working in the healthcare field, you may play a role in choosing the subject matter, mapping course objectives, determining your target audience, prioritizing the schedule for course deliverables, and maintaining cost efficiency. We can work with your priorities.

Real World Impact: Of course, e-learning is advantageous when it comes to cost and convenience. However, it also needs to deliver results and significant value. We can demonstrate that employees will be able to immediately transfer what they learn in our curriculum to their real world environment.

Full Customization: The best instructional design strategies incorporate higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which can be adapted to meet the needs of different students and different workplace settings. Our healthcare courses are tailored to your needs. You can choose a single topic, or create your own topic from a combination of healthcare subjects. We design curriculum in medical coding (including ICD-10 training courses), medical billing, medical claims processing, medical transcription, health information management, healthcare statistics, healthcare reimbursement, anatomy and physiology, dental assisting, and many other areas (including areas not directly related to healthcare). We can also train your healthcare trainers.

Avidity Medical Design specializes in all areas of instructional design for the healthcare industry. Contact us now to see how we can help you start developing your next course, and how we can help you meet your short- and long-term objectives for content development.