White Paper: Getting More From Your Training Budget

As budgets shrink and warning letters continue to increase, health care companies and regulators alike are taking a closer look at the effectiveness of training programs. Although these programs remain important, it’s clear that opportunities are being missed and training is being treated more as an item to be checked off a list than an opportunity to build and improve knowledge.

NSF has spent years working against this trend to create memorable, engaging health sciences education that adds value, improves performance and makes a real difference. This means you’ll still be able to tick the box when training is complete, but you’ll be getting more from your training budget. The trick is to get the basics right from the beginning, and that all starts with feeling confident in the education provided.

Do you know if your current training partner is engaging your employees and making a real difference? Here are a few things to consider that can help you answer that question:

• Do they engage the audience? People must be open to learning, and this takes real skill. Participation and variety, along with ensuring the environment is informal and welcoming, are key.
• Are all learning styles recognized? Are all learners ready? Not everyone learns the same way. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and intellectual learners must be approached differently for training to be successful. Everyone’s reticular activating system must be activated, as well.
• Are learnings being moved out of the “working brain?” The problem with our working brain is that it has limited capacity, only able to cope with 7 facts +/- 2 at any one time. For new information to stick, it must be moved to the subconscious brain, repeated and practiced until new habits replace the old.

If you answered “no” to any of the above, you might be completing all trainings, but these sessions likely aren’t as effective as they could be. At NSF, we practice what we preach; our objective is to educate, not train. There is a big difference.

As B.F. Skinner famously said, “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” We design our in-house and residential courses to change the way people think and, therefore, behave. We can work with you to better understand your unique education needs.