Case Studies

Online Training and the Visiting Nurses Association

Problem
VNA Care Network (VNACN), the nation's second largest visiting nurse association, provides certified home health and hospice care to patients in more than 200 Massachusetts communities. When The VNA was awarded a federal HRSA Grant to address nursing recruitment and retention they engaged CABEM to design, build and deploy the web-based education portal Home Health & Hospice. As the VNA’s unique needs unfolded, CABEM worked to assess how technology could best address a number of educational and operational issues the organization faced, such as a lengthy and expensive orientation program that demanded many hours of time and travel; consistent and current training content affected by shifting healthcare information; and the lack of topic uniformity due to a diverse set of orientation presenters. Additionally, the VNA sought more efficient ways to test and monitor hundreds of healthcare staff nurses, therapists, and social workers from a variety of locations throughout Massachusetts.

Solution
Working closely with the VNA, CABEM deployed and customized our web-based application, Livia_WorkplaceTrainer. The VNA provides their own curriculum and content — Livia_WorkplaceTrainer helps them do the rest. This easy to navigate portal now provides healthcare training modules, webinars, tips, and other online resources with topics ranging from OSHA regulations to infection control and hospice. The VNA training modules are grouped to provide a consistent training curriculum tailored to individual competencies and needs each housing topic specific audiovisuals supported by bulleted text and associated documents. The application also includes a testing tool so the VNA can administer, grade and track online tests and issue test completion certificates. The introduction of the modules have reduced the time and travel associated with the VNA’s orientation program by 50% and have shown a notable reduction in the use of paper and other associated costs. With the installation of Livia_CMS, CABEM’s content management system, the VNA updates much of the content and resource material themselves.