How We’re Helping Healthcare Professionals and the Workplace Learning Community through the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Sam Herring, Intrepid VP and General Manager

A month ago, we posted our response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. We shared that we were stepping up to the challenge and offering our skills and capabilities to serve the workplace learning community, and especially the heroes working tirelessly on the front lines every day to keep us safe and healthy: nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, first responders, public health leaders and more.

We are particularly proud to be helping a major health system cross-train thousands of nursing professionals to provide front-line COVID care. Below is a summary of their situation, and how they are using the Intrepid platform to meet their critical cross-training needs. We are eager to help other healthcare organizations like this one. If you are (or know of) a healthcare organization that needs to rapidly deploy their critical learning programs focused on COVID-19 education, awareness and communication, we are pleased to provide use of the Intrepid platform at no charge.

One of the largest not‐for‐profit, academic health systems in the United States focuses on caring for patients with serious illnesses. Earlier this year, they began monitoring the emerging COVID-19 threat and developing plans to reallocate staff to areas of critical need. Nursing staff were quickly identified as a priority for redeployment. For example, with elective surgeries paused, a large number of operating room nurses could be cross-trained to provide care for COVID-19 patients.

To support rapid redeployment of nurses to new roles, the organization needed to launch an effective cross-training solution quickly. To support social distancing and minimize risks of staff infection, the training solution had to be delivered digitally with easy access for nurses working from home. Further, the digital learning solution needed to provide simple and rapid authoring capability, easy access to learning on a mobile device, and robust reporting for nursing leadership.

In late March, the health system quickly assessed its options to build and deploy a solution that met its requirements. The organization had experience using the Intrepid collaborative learning platform to successfully deliver training for enterprise-wide EMR upgrades, so there was familiarity with the platform among employees, senior clinical leadership, and learning leaders. The health system was also aware of Intrepid's COVID-19 response, which offered use of the platform at no charge for any healthcare organization providing training programs focused on COVID-19 education, awareness or communication. 

Within a day of selecting the Intrepid platform, the health system’s learning team created an initial course prototype, within four days learning pathways were created and audited by nursing leaders, and within eleven days the complete training solution was launched across the entire health system. The initial audience includes approximately 3000 nurses, LPNs, and hospital support staff, and may expand to additional groups.

Over the last month, the pandemic has hit communities across the United States very hard, and we face critical days ahead as the impact of the virus surges. Healthcare professionals have been selfless caregivers to our communities, and we are so grateful for their service.

The Intrepid team is pleased to have had the opportunity to serve many learning organizations who have responded to our offer to help. Over the past month, we've been able to assist several organizations shift their critical in-person learning programs to collaborative digital experiences that engage employees and prepare them for new challenges at work. We are honored to serve these organizations during this difficult time. If your organization needs help transforming your learning programs to digital experiences without losing the human touch, please contact us, we would love to serve.