Develop a microlearning approach to improve care workers competence meeting the needs of persons living with dementia

Background and Aims

1. Establish an evidenced based understanding of dementia across a diverse, multicultural workforce

2. Build confidence and competence of aged care workers to support people living with dementia

3. Embed knowledge about dementia care using the spaced repetition education technique

4. Deliver targeted and meaningful learning in a simple, accessible, engaging format using staff mobile phones so it is familiar, convenient, and offers aged care workers complete control over when to learn.

5. Establish an endorsed, evidence-based model of learning adapted to the demands of a multicultural aged care workforce that empowers both individual workers and aged care providers to deliver safe, high-quality care.

What We Did

Working with aged care providers and dementia care subject matter experts we codesigned four microlearning modules to build the confidence and competence of aged care workers supporting people living with dementia. Each module was delivered to aged care workers smart phones using the spaced repetition technique between September to December 2023.

Forget Me Not end user experience

We also developed peer to peer learning functionality that could be adopted by the industry to recognise care workers who demonstrated mastery in dementia care or any other job critical knowledge area.

Outcomes

Project Implementation and Participation

• Deployed the Forget Me Not® app and Module 1: A Shared Understanding of Dementia to 4,149 aged care workers across seven organisations.

• Developed and launched four industry-endorsed microlearning modules.

• Produced and distributed customised marketing and communication resources to support aged care workers engage with the microlearning program.

Training Impact:

• Improved confidence levels among care workers in delivering dementia care, as reported by interviewees.

• Positive feedback from care workers on the ease of use and effectiveness of the Forget Me Not® app.

• Limited rollout of peer-to-peer coaching functionality.

Modifications and Challenges:

• Adjustments made to standard enrolment process based on large organisation’s preference to use SMS (text messaging) rather than email.

• Reduced sample sizes and simplified interview instruments due to organisational constraints

Impact on Aged Care and Workforce

These outcomes indicate both the successes and areas for improvement in implementing microlearning for dementia care and other critical job role knowledge in aged care settings.

Resources Developed

• Obvious Choice produced and distributed customised marketing and communication resources to support aged care workers engage with the microlearning program.
  FMN Dementia Care Microlearning (cld.bz)

• The four-dementia care microlearning modules can be requested by visiting the Forget Me Not website.
  https://gallery.forgetmenot.chat/

Lessons Learned

We would revisit the expectations on frontline aged care workers.

• Set up dedicated stations around the RACH for microlearning: Many aged care providers don’t have a clear BYOD policy and restrict mobile phone use during work shifts. Obvious Choice will now survey the industry on a more suitable tech solution to ensure equitable access that removes the barriers of ‘staff can’t be seen to use their mobile phones in front of residents’.  ‘Why should I use my own device for work training’ ‘we must pay staff for training’.

• Use an Opt in Model like one organisation did for the microlearning: Despite an extensive change and communication plan, there are some underlying reasons for 69% of those enrolled not engaging with microlearning. It would be great to survey a sample of non-starters to understand their reasons for not engaging with dementia care microlearning. An incentive program to kickstart a continuous learning habit is proposed for future rollouts. 

• Enable choice for aged care workers and let them select the microlearning module with the highest perceived benefit for their own needs: According to our data, aged care workers receive anywhere from 4 – 8 hours of online professional development annually. Our expectation of completing 5 minutes of dementia care training each work shift between September 2023 – December 2023 might have been too great an expectation. An aged care worker who mastered all four microlearning series would have undertaken 5 – 6 hours of professional development.

A microlearning strategy should broadened its agenda to intersperse job role specific training on topics like dementia care and include other life skills such as financial wellbeing and health literacy. This would improve the desirability of the education approach for aged care workers.

Next Steps

Obvious Choice will continue to investigate the barriers for aged care providers adopting microlearning for staff training. This includes an industry survey to assess the feasibility, viability and desirability of microlearning stations.

Using a microlearning delivery model, aged care providers can support continuous learning with 5-minute bursts each work shift.

For a fulltime aged care worker, the microlearning approach could deliver 1,045 minutes or 17 hrs of professional development annually within the flow of work with no overtime costs for providers or operational impact of back filling shifts.