Learning in Practice 2015: Collaboration Division 2 Winners

Gold AMN Healthcare The Affordable Care Act has presented numerous challenges for health care staff and management, especially in hospitals. “Destinations,” a new program for AMN Healthcare, retired almost all […]

Gold

AMN Healthcare

The Affordable Care Act has presented numerous challenges for health care staff and management, especially in hospitals. “Destinations,” a new program for AMN Healthcare, retired almost all previous systems and implemented new ones.
Because of time constraints, Patty McKay, senior director of learning and talent development, took only a few days to gather employees to develop learning content, project manage tasks and facilitate development.
A draft of the “Visual Vision” emerged from an executive leadership exercise to align their philosophy with Destinations. A local artist created a representation of AMN’s past, present and future, with a runner leaving behind old ways, navigating hurdles and continuing into the company’s bright future.
During a three-hour workshop, leadership learned how, why and what needed to change. Videos, assessments and articles provided more content on how to navigate change. Afterward, a 90-minute team member workshop helped employees understand the scope of AMN’s changes as well as how to: plan for change, remain agile, embrace change, communicate during frustrating times, collaborate, assume good intent, and build trust and collaboration.
McKay’s team of three also took over technical training, usually handled by the information technology organization. Four additional employees were brought in as contractors and full-time employees acted as a training coordinator and a technical training developer. She also volunteered to facilitate technical training for 200 sales and support representatives, hiring consultants and partner with sales division leaders to collaborate and develop the new training.

Silver

U.S. State Department, Foreign Service Institute

When upgrading the professional development program for the U.S. State Department’s 700 language teachers, diversity and a large staff and instructors hesitant to change their methods made things tough. Further, there was virtually no budget for staff development.
Eva Szabo, head of staff development, sought expertise from the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies to deliver training. Surveys and needs assessments identified development strengths and staff challenges. Student surveys revealed trends from learners’ perspectives.
The staff development intranet site enabled scheduling for training, and additional resources were available there to augment workshops and provide job aids. Workshops were scheduled when a live class wasn’t available, and boot camps provided intensive skill building.

Bronze

University Health System (San Antonio)

University Health System’s Center for Learning Excellence implemented Get Your Move On! in preparation for the opening of Sky Tower, a 1 million-square-foot trauma care center. The project used a virtual tour as it taught physical concepts without the physical space. But, after two years of learning preparation, a move of 200 patients was accomplished within 12 hours with no adverse effects or major incidents of patient dissatisfaction.