learning styles

Today I am going to talk about learning styles. An important aspect as I have already mentioned is training, but we will talk about the kind of learners there are in the hospital. There is an age gap in the technology of EMR. There are physicians,(estimates on age) who are above the age of 60 who have spent their entire lives doing paper charting, and did not jump into the computer world. These providers may be a bit hesitant on learning the new EMR system. First, they do not have much experience with computers and still peck at the keyboard. Not being familiar with computers in general already expands the amount of time they will need to use the system. Their patient workload is dramatically increased as they have to fiddle around looking for orders, etc. The next group of learners are around the 40-60 age group. The have dabbled in computers. Some have grasped the computers and have become tech savy while others still peck around. This group is a little more flexible in their learning, since they have had more of their lifetime surrounded by this new technology. They have probably jumped on board some of the new fads such as iphones, etc. The last group are the under 40 who have been immersed in the current innovations. This group has either seen the changes and were able to learn along with it or they were born with it. In this group, the computers are usually second nature. The reason for splitting in these groups are that it helps the trainer identify what strategies are needed. The over 60 group may need guidance in computers in general before going into the EMR details, while the other groups may not. This is of course a generalization. Another thing is being able to relate to some of the groups what things in the EMR are similar to the paper chart. That each electronic encounter can be seen as a new sheet of paper for a new visit in the charts. Some of these comparisons are helpful. However, some medical schools are now fully electronic so some providers will not have experience with the paper chart at all only EMR.