For the benefit of patient safety and staff

The Medical Inpatient Unit, Department of Diabetes and Endocrine Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, provides a digital onboarding process for nurses. One of the lessons learned is that the small practical things that usually take a long time to remember and learn can be explained via the app, which the employees have at hand on their phones and are never too busy to explain everything once more.

As a new employee at the Medical Inpatient Unit, Department of Diabetes and Endocrine Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, it can be difficult to remember everything. There are both the general challenges of being new and having to get to know the staff and the department, and there are the very practical, daily tasks, which you will of course also have to learn in time - e.g. how the tube post works, how to collect IV sets for antibiotics, how to order blood samples, etc.

Karina Schjødt, nurse and responsible for training new employees on the medical ward, explains that the possibility of an infinite number of repetitions is one of the great advantages of a digital onboarding process:

"In the past, I used to spend a lot of time training, explaining and repeating procedures to new hires, and it got me thinking that this could easily be filmed. Then the new hires can watch and re-watch the videos as they are trained and introduced - and not least at the individual pace at which they are able to absorb the information. Especially when you know that most of the knowledge gained, for example at the start of a job, is quickly forgotten. That's why repetition is important, because many new recruits learn and remember new knowledge best when they are in the actual situation where it is relevant to them."

In other words, skills and knowledge come with experience and time, which is why it is nice and time-saving for both current and new employees that the training can take place via a digital onboarding app from Emento. Right now, the digital onboarding process is offered to newly hired nurses, and the plan is that newly hired doctors will also be offered a process.

"The two processes are structured in roughly the same way, and there are elements that recur in both processes, e.g. video welcome to the department, how the department and the hospital are organized, practical information such as parking, shifts, the coffee box and the like. In addition, there is also a lot that is different, as the two professional groups perform quite different tasks, and we want to make it as concrete and useful as possible,"

explains Karina Schjødt.

Important for recruitment and patient safety

There is a general shortage of skilled healthcare professionals, and new recruits demand more from their future workplace. Karina Schjødt has no doubt that the digital onboarding process can help attract new, skilled employees:

"It is definitely an important player in a new employee's first time in the department. I firmly believe that a well-structured induction process, where the individual new employee feels "cared for", can contribute to retention, well-being and quality in the department. And here, the app from Emento is an important piece of success."

The digital onboarding process not only contributes to new employees feeling well prepared for the professional challenges and achieving a successful induction process. According to Karina Schjødt, it also helps to create a flow and ensure early introduction of relevant areas, which also benefits patients:

"We expect that the app can help ensure a high professional level of training and education of new staff, which in turn also improves patient safety and the quality of the healthcare services provided to patients and relatives."

At the Department of Diabetes and Endocrine Diseases, the Department of Diabetes and Endocrine Disorders, they plan to continue to develop the content of the digital onboarding process, and Karina Schjødt sees many opportunities for utilizing the quick opportunity for contact.

"We see it as a project that is constantly evolving and contains many opportunities. We need to be good at using each other - across the board as sparring partners. In particular, the new employees' evaluations have a major influence on the development of our program. The digital medium will continue to be part of our future, and that is why it makes so much sense to continue to rethink and develop the use of the app in practice,"

she says.