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ELEARNING FOR HOSPITAL PERSONNEL. A METHOD FOR ACCESSING SCIENTIFIC TRAINING
J.L. Monroy Anton1, J.V. Izquierdo Soriano1, F. Buendia Garcia2 1La Ribera Universitary Hospital (SPAIN)
2Valencia Polytechnical University (SPAIN) [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
La Ribera Universitary Hospital is an accredited teaching hospital with people in different levels of formation: medicine and nursing, health students, residents, health technicians… . The Radiation Oncology Department is involved in formative activities of these groups, with presential courses and seminars. This year we proposed an e-learning course about radiation toxicity, open to the workers and students of the hospital. This course was developed through Campus Ribera, an online platform created in our institution for this online courses implementation.
Keywords: elearning, hospital education, moodle, scientific training.
1 INTRODUCTION Traditionally, the training of health workers was developed through courses, seminars and workshops face to face, ie, the classes were taught directly to students, with training times and locations of specific and concrete. With the development of information technology and communications networks, began to explore new forms of education, reaching what is now known as online learning (e-learning). Such studies across platforms have been launched in different professions. In the health sector is beginning to be used as a method of training institutions such as hospitals.
2 MATERIAL AND METHODS We designed an online training course entitled "Introduction to the toxicity of cancer treatment with radiation therapy." We offered 10 places for training hospital staff worker, regardless of their professional status and job. We established a theoretical training schedule of 10 hours over 30 days and connection to the Bank Campus platform for 24 hours every day of the course.
The course was a teacher in charge of teaching assignments and academic assessments. Moreover, we also have the figure of a tutor-manager platform, responsible for enabling the computer components and tools necessary for the proper development of the course and resolve problems caused by a malfunction of the platform.
A training schedule was established at the beginning of the course which was useful guide for students in the study of theoretical issues and implementation of practical exercises.
E-Learning platform allow access to information from any location by using a personalized identification. The generic Moodle Platform, used in the health setting, was selected for our study [1,2,3]. The platform resources (Figure 1) were prepared based on Word documents. Evaluation forums and questionnaires were conducted, complemented by other interactive resources (images, diagrams, videos, interactive webpages, among others).
Figure 1. Virtual Platform Moodle (Campus Ribera)
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Eight people were enrolled in the course, corresponding to 80% of the positions offered. The first day teaching was attending classes, all students facilitating their access codes to the platform, a requirement to operate it. In this first class were also explained tools and applications of the virtual course, students can work with some of them.
The course structure is divided into three sections: Forums; Agenda (theoretical and practical); Assessments (academic and satisfaction with the course).
The forums available are as follows: My presentation, Workshop News, General Questions, Virtual Cafeteria, Science Forum, Bibliography and Web Links. Each permit interactivity between the teacher and students and those students with each other, so as to resolve questions or issues or alternative jobs proposed by the teacher. The focus of each board was different.
The Agenda consisted of 5 blocks divided into two parts: theoretical study and practical application, with each one of them with folders and workspaces separate.
T-1: Presentation. Overview of the development of the course, explaining the timing, dates of interest, curriculum, assessments and any other practical aspects necessary for monitoring the activity.
T-2: Physical and Biological Basis of Radiotherapy. Introduction to basics and general concepts of cancer treatment with radiation therapy. Central to the subsequent monitoring of the subjects. Its practical part consisted of conducting a study on the fundamentals of ionizing radiation.
T-3: External radiation formed. Explanation of the elements that characterize the most commonly used technique for cancer treatment in the discipline of Radiation Oncology. Its practical part consisted in the development of a commentary to choose among several topics suggested on this treatment technique.
T-4: acute and late toxicity. Toxicity scales. Together with the following (T-5) are the key issues of course. In it explain the basis for the toxicity produced during irradiation, and how to recognize and evaluate. Its practical part students had to discuss a case, to choose among proposals.
T-5: Toxicity anatomic locations. Based on the previous topic, here we explain the toxicity that occurs in each particular area that receives radiation, distinguishing each anatomical region and analyzing them separately. The practical part consisted of hands-on analysis of the anatomical locations explained in the theoretical part.
To study these issues, Professor hanging in folders on the platform enabled the necessary documents, mainly theoretical texts which explain the important points. The practical exercises were also available to students, with a deadline. From this information, students individually administered their study time and work delivery. Monitoring by the teacher was to answer questions or raise issues regarding the study topics through forums dedicated to it.
The use of the platform was high, with a total number of course views of 949 records (average of 118,63 and standard deviation of 29,92). The resources were visited by students in a total number of 352 (average of 44 and standard deviation of 15).The number of shares held in the forums was 935 (average of 116,88 and 35,10 deviation typical).
Evaluation of the course was conducted through two ways: first, an academic evaluation and, secondly, a survey of student satisfaction on the course. The academic side was also examined in two ways: the realization in the final days of the course of a Knowledge Test and the development of practical exercises were done during the school year established. To get the final certification of the course was necessary to fill 80% of practical exercises. It was also necessary to pass a final evaluation consisting of an exercise test with multiple answers. Both were completed by 100% of the students.
The knowledge assessment test contained 10 questions with several possible answers and only one correct. The final grade is made, therefore, a total of 10 points, 60% being necessary for the sufficiency of the course and, accordingly, the certificate itself. The average rating was 7.67 (range: 7-9 points).
Difficulties in implementation: One of the highlights of the online courses are the difficulties content management platform and its use by students and faculty. Students at the beginning of the course raised several issues through forums, mainly related to the management platform and difficulties in viewing documents or inserting them in the spaces and folders for this purpose. These difficulties were resolved in a timely effective manner by the person appointed guardian, administrator of the platform, so that monitoring of the content could be performed without major incidents.
4 CONCLUSION Our assessment after the course is that the implementation of online training has advantages such as self-study ability and the ability to choose those elements most appropriate training to each student profile.
We note that the actual hours of training significantly exceeded the theoretically raised, because the connection to be possible at any time of day, the dedication of more time to study spaces as well as activities outside of the platform is an accumulation of hours more than originally estimated. In addition, a number of hours, as previously mentioned are beyond the control schedule of activities and forums of the platform, with a consequent increase in time spent.
The size of students and teachers is also an important point in this type of training. For a correct assessment of the number of members of the courses considered necessary before an evaluation of objectives, contents and estimated duration of the course. Thus, we offer a number of training places and adequate teachers and do not involve an imbalance between the two.
We believe that online training is a training pathway that requires continuous computer support and speed in the management and resolution of problems, especially in those courses with short completion periods.
REFERENCES
[1] HUSC, 2008: Hospital Universitario San Cecilio Granada. Retrieved 04/03/2011 in [http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicioandaluzdesalud/hsc/moodle/]
[2] PHT, 2008: Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. Retrieved 15/03/2011 in [http://www.i-am-in-themoodle.co.uk/]
[3] Buendia F., Izquierdo J.V.: Using virtual learning environment for training hospitals staff. E-Society IADIS International Conference. Barcelona: IADIS, 2009
