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Features

Published April 2008

Hospitals Show How to Accelerate Learning

  

  Jared Bleak and Stephanie Scott

Hospitals deal with fast-paced technological advances, rapid and constant arrivals of new information and regulation and a strong pressure on employees to perform. Not surprisingly, when it comes to employee development, these institutions have much to offer their business counterparts.

She can feel her heartbeat quicken and her hands grow clammy as the attending physician turns to her for an explanation of the patient’s symptoms. Only her second day of residency and already she is expected to understand the patient’s ailments, provide possible causes and offer an effective solution to the problem, all while maintaining her composure in front of the bed-ridden patient.

All eyes are on her as she describes Mrs. Johnson’s shortness of breath and smoking habits. She grows less nervous with each word, beginning to feel a bit proud of presenting to her peers and superiors during her first-ever “rounds” experience.

However, her comfort is short-lived: Upon completing her presentation, Lia is unexpectedly peppered with questions from her colleagues about Mrs. Johnson’s family history, diet and demeanor. Caught off guard, Lia promises she will remember to ask next time.

Together, the medical team surveys Mrs. Johnson’s array of symptoms, discussing potential diagnoses of lung cancer, emphysema and anxiety. As the junior residents offer possible treatments, medical students, social workers and pharmacists take feverish notes. The attending physician assures Mrs. Johnson the team is working together to understand and treat her condition. As the team moves from the patient room into the sterile hospital hallway, Lia comforts herself with the knowledge that rounds are designed for learning and not as an opportunity to shine before her peers.

Like Lia, interns and junior residents across the United States are confronted daily with the daunting task of presenting a patient’s symptoms, diagnosis and treatment plan to a medical team during morning “rounds,” often in front of the patient. Although often nerve-racking for novice doctors, rounds provide an unparalleled opportunity for learning, all while the routine work of patient care is accomplished.

In the summer of 2005, Judy Rosenblum, then president of Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE), a unit of Duke University specializing in custom executive education, began to consider the learning environment in teaching hospitals and its transferability to the modern corporation. Parallels between hospitals and corporations — fast-paced technological advances, the rapid and constant influx of new information and regulation, long hours, persistent stress and a strong pressure on employees to perform, compounded by economic pressure and high risk — spurred Rosenblum to gather a task force to dig deeper into the hospital environment. She hypothesized that the learning-at-work model employed by teaching hospitals could provide insight and help in accelerating learning in a corporate setting.

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