Sep 9

Aged Care Training

Online Flexibility and In-person Connection

The aged care sector is constantly changing, with new technologies, practices, and regulatory requirements emerging regularly. This makes ongoing professional development (CPD) essential rather than optional. As a member of an Infection Prevention team, you know your role is crucial in safeguarding residents and ensuring high-quality care, which makes effective training essential. Investing in thorough training programs not only enhances residents' health outcomes but also boosts staff morale, job satisfaction, and professional growth—key factors in retaining staff. The key question then is: how do we best prepare our teams with the skills and knowledge needed to prevent infections effectively? This involves carefully evaluating the strengths and limitations of both online and face-to-face learning options.

Online Learning: Broadening Reach and Maintaining Consistency

Online learning has become a staple in many industries, including aged care, primarily for its logistical and personalised benefits. For infection prevention leaders, this method offers notable advantages:

  • Flexibility and Convenience: This is arguably the greatest benefit. Aged care teams often work demanding, unpredictable shift patterns, making it almost impossible to gather everyone at the same time for training. Online learning allows staff to complete modules at their own pace and on their own schedule – whether during a lunch break, after their shift, or while at home.
  • Accessibility: Online platforms ensure that every team member, regardless of their location, has access to the same high-quality training. This is particularly useful for large organisations with multiple facilities or for staff in rural areas, as it reduces travel time and associated costs.
  • Self-Paced Learning: Recognising that everyone learns differently, online modules enable individuals to dedicate more time to complex topics they find challenging and less time to material they already know.
  • Consistency: Online modules ensure that the content and quality of the training remain uniform for every individual. This guarantees that the whole team receives the same information and learns the same protocols, which is vital for maintaining consistent standards of patient care and infection control across an organisation and the wider sector. Topics such as the Aged Care Quality Standards, general medication awareness, and restrictive practices are regularly and effectively delivered online.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Online learning can be more budget-friendly, as it eliminates significant expenses associated with travel, physical materials, venue bookings, and a trainer's time.

However, the success of online learning depends not on the mode itself but on how it is designed and delivered. If an online course relies on superficial "box-ticking" exercises with simple multiple-choice questions, it is unlikely to lead to real behavioural change or a deeper grasp of complex infection control principles. Conversely, interactive, engaging, and well-structured online courses can be genuinely effective.

Face-to-Face Seminars: The Unmatched Power of Human Connection and Hands-On Application

While online learning offers scale and convenience, in-person training remains an indispensable component of professional development, especially for subjects that are sensitive, complex, or require practical hands-on experience. For infection prevention, seminars provide:

  • Team Building and Camaraderie: Shared experiences during a seminar help foster a sense of team and community. Staff can better connect with their colleagues, which builds trust and enhances communication in their daily infection control efforts. This setting is ideal for strengthening teamwork and collective problem-solving.
  • Practical, Hands-On Training: Many essential infection prevention skills are best learned through demonstration and practice. This includes skills like manual handling, CPR, wound care, proper use of medical devices, and donning or doffing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and hand hygiene. Seminars offer a safe environment for hands-on, simulated training with immediate, personalised feedback from an expert trainer.
  • Immediate Feedback and Clarification: A live trainer can observe staff, correct mistakes in real-time, and answer questions as they arise. This immediate feedback loop is invaluable for developing practical skills and ensuring staff are competent and confident in infection control practices.
  • Nuanced Communication and Body Language: A trainer can pick up on non-verbal cues from the team, such as confusion or disengagement, and adjust their teaching style accordingly. This level of responsiveness is difficult to replicate online.
  • Addressing Sensitive Topics: Aged care professionals handle emotionally tough situations, like end-of-life care or dementia management, which can affect infection control (e.g., handling isolation with confused residents). Face-to-face sessions provide a safe and supportive environment for staff to discuss these challenging issues, share experiences, and gain support from peers and trainers, promoting empathy and emotional resilience.
  • Question & Answer (Q&A) Sessions: A Q&A element is an essential part of effective team learning in a face-to-face setting.
  • Real-World Problem Solving: Enables staff to share specific infection control scenarios they've encountered and receive expert advice and peer feedback. This transforms theoretical discussions into practical problem-solving sessions.
  • Gaining a deeper understanding: Questions often reveal common confusions or gaps in knowledge that standard modules might miss, resulting in a richer and more meaningful grasp for everyone.
  • Breaking Down Hierarchies: Encourages staff at all levels to share perspectives, fostering psychological safety and shared expertise vital for a cohesive infection prevention team.

The Synthesis: Embracing a Strategic Blended Learning Approach

The evidence clearly supports one strong conclusion: neither online nor in-person learning alone is a complete solution. The best approach for aged care, especially in critical areas like infection prevention, is a blended or hybrid learning model that strategically combines the strengths of both methods. This model utilises the efficiency and accessibility of online platforms with the collaborative ability and practical application of in-person seminars.

One effective way to adopt this model is by using the "flipped classroom" approach. This shifts traditional learning, focusing in-person time on collaborative application and discussion instead of passive information delivery.

  • Online Component (Foundational): Staff complete self-paced online modules to gain all necessary theoretical knowledge and meet compliance requirements. For infection prevention, this includes understanding Aged Care Quality Standards related to infection control, the latest guidelines for hand hygiene, proper PPE selection and donning/doffing procedures, and outbreak management protocols. This method provides the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver consistent, standardised content to the entire workforce.
  • In-Person Component (Applied): Seminar time is then dedicated entirely to applying this knowledge. This is where your team can participate in interactive discussions, group problem-solving, role-playing, and essential hands-on practice. For infection prevention, this means:


  • Workshops simulating challenging infection control scenarios and practising communication techniques for resident and family education regarding isolation or managing behaviours that increase infection risk.
  • Practical simulation sessions to practise proper wound care, safe medication administration (preventing contamination), and appropriate responses to infection-related emergencies.
  • Structured Q&A and group discussions of real-world ethical dilemmas related to isolation, resident rights, and managing sensitive infection situations.
  • Led team workshops focused on communication tools such as Briefs, Huddles, Debriefs, and SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) to manage complex care scenarios and ensure smooth knowledge transfer during shift changes, reducing infection risks.

    This method ensures that valuable face-to-face interactions are utilised to their greatest benefit: fostering teamwork, enhancing essential soft skills such as empathy and communication, and improving understanding through active participation in infection prevention strategies.

Conclusion

The future of professional development in aged care, especially for critical areas like infection prevention, is undeniably hybrid. By strategically adopting a blended learning model, your organisation can move beyond the false choice between online and in-person training. This approach exploits the scalability and convenience of online platforms for foundational knowledge, while reserving the invaluable face-to-face seminar for applying skills, building emotional resilience, and fostering deep team cohesion essential for effective infection prevention. This strategic investment will not only address challenges like staff retention and compromised care but will also lead to a more skilled, confident, and committed workforce, ensuring a higher quality of life and improved safety for the individuals you serve. 

Are your staff benefitting from a hybrid approach to learning? We have a workshop series coming to a place near you! https://ipservices.care/ipc-roadshow
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Feel free to contact our friendly staff at support@infectionprevention.care

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