Getting the Most out of MedBridge Continuing Education: A Conversation with Will Dieter from FOX Rehabilitation

Continuing education offers a number of significant benefits for healthcare organizations, including improved patient care, ongoing professional development, better staff retention, and regulatory compliance. The MedBridge Continuing Education Platform offers a comprehensive selection of expert-led courses, live webinars, certificate programs, and more to help organizations achieve these objectives.

At FOX Rehabilitation, a long-standing customer of MedBridge, the leadership team wanted to optimize the value of the MedBridge platform and ensure that clinicians were getting the most out of it. To fulfill their CEUs, clinicians were taking courses that interested them and expanded their repertoire of knowledge, but the leadership team wanted to ensure that they were incorporating courses into their schedule that more closely aligned with key organizational objectives while also supporting career development.

To help accomplish this goal, FOX implemented a structured learning program that has returned excellent results. We recently sat down with Will Dieter, Senior Director of Clinical Services at FOX Rehabilitation, to find out more about this strategy and the best practices he recommends to other teams who might be interested in implementing a similar program.

Integrating MedBridge into Daily Practice

First, the FOX Rehabilitation team began leveraging the ease of access to MedBridge on the company’s intranet. Clinicians were already able to access MedBridge on the intranet via single sign-on, and from there, FOX began an email communication initiative to raise awareness about upcoming course availability.

Implementing Structured Learning Pathways

“We’ve often heard from our clinicians that MedBridge courses are best in class,” said Dieter. “I don’t think there are better speakers and courses out there, and I’ve looked at enough platforms that I can say that’s absolutely the truth. But we realized that there was a disconnect for clinicians between having access to all kinds of CEUs and translating that to what they should take when.”

To address this and make choosing courses that reflected care priorities easier, FOX began using a SharePoint calendar that outlined structured learning pathways for clinicians to follow, which made it easier for them to identify, plan for, and take the most appropriate courses ahead of time. As a result, clinicians were less inclined to simply choose whichever CEU course fit best into their schedule. “We’ve seen more appropriate content being accessed and less scrambling at the end of the year,” said Dieter.

The FOX team also ensured that the learning pathways aligned with key organizational needs and clinician interests. “For example, in 2023 we focused on dementia courses and pretty soon we’ll be starting a series on Parkinson’s,” said Dieter. The team also supports clinicians in obtaining specialty certifications like the GCS with MedBridge Certification Prep Programs.

Creating a Manageable Course Schedule

To help clinicians fit courses into their busy schedules, the FOX Rehabilitation team made sure that the recommended course schedule wasn’t too overwhelming. “We isolated the most pertinent courses and then structured them in bite-sized chunks rather than, say, 10 courses at a time,” said Dieter. “We recommend one or two every two months and then another one or two that build on those.”

The FOX course calendar includes live webinars for licensure and compliance as well as strategically selected content that aligns with organizational education goals in a digestible and organized format for clinicians.

Focusing on Live Webinars

FOX saw the value of live webinars and made sure to emphasize them in the recommended course structure. “Most states have a live requirement, so we wanted to highlight live courses on our intranet to make sure people didn’t miss the opportunity to take them in time. Our net for what we recommend for live courses is much wider because there’s a lot of value to a live course,” said Dieter.

Building a Culture of Awareness

Like many healthcare organizations, FOX is challenged by a tight onboarding schedule that doesn’t allow an extensive amount of time to focus on the value of continuing education. To counter this, the team came up with a creative solution: Placing the MedBridge course calendar next to the Clinical Community portal on the company intranet.

As a result, new hires engaging with that online community for support are driven organically to the course calendar and stay engaged with the course platform over time. “We now have this culture of people going to our intranet, which directs them to MedBridge resources,” said Dieter.

On the FOX intranet, the Clinical Community (used a lot by new hires) is strategically positioned next to the CEU course calendar.

Getting the Most out of MedBridge

The FOX Rehabilitation team is also exploring additional ways to incorporate the value MedBridge provides. “We’re looking into using MedBridge’s Clinical Procedure Manual to enhance our mentoring programs and exploring more ways to integrate MedBridge’s microlearning resources into our training programs,” said Dieter.

Building a Culture of Continuous Learning and Development

MedBridge Continuing Education offers tremendous value for clinicians, patients, and organizations, and ensuring that courses align closely with career and organizational objectives helps optimize that value. Strategies like the ones outlined here can help your organization build a culture of continuous learning and development that helps advance careers and improve patient care.