Introduction
Sustainable Development Goal 3 aims at ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all.
From non-communicable lifestyle diseases to pandemics, there is not a single person who has not been affected by health woes.
Some of the focus areas of SDG 3 include:
• Increase universal health coverage
• Increase childhood immunization
• Reduce maternal and child mortality
• Prevent, control, and eradicate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) such as malaria, TB, etc.
• Reduce the mortality rate from noncommunicable and communicable diseases
• Improve mental health and wellbeing
• Mitigate the impact of health emergencies such as pandemics and natural disasters
The implementation of SDG comes with its own set of challenges. The lack of skilled health professionals is one of the key issues faced while enforcing sustainable development measures. The other major hurdles are lack of funding, poor regulation, economic inequality, gender bias, and regional disparities.
Health Workers the Heart Beat of SDG 3
Health workers play a critical role in attaining the SDG 3 targets. The health workers not only save lives, but they also support socio-economic development.
As they work to enhance health outcomes, they become instruments in the advancement of human rights, accountability, collaborative partnerships, and innovative approaches.
Health workers include physicians/surgeons connected to medicine, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, as well as allied health professionals (AHPs).
AHPs are individuals with qualifications and competence in therapeutic, diagnostic, curative, preventive, and/or rehabilitative interventions.
The range of auxiliary activities in healthcare includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, laboratory technicians, radiology technicians, medical and non-medical technicians, clinical technicians, caregivers, therapists, audiologists, community health workers, healers, traditional medicine practitioners, and so on.
There is no other alternative to health workers, and a learning management system (LMS) can be the lifeline to train, retain, and build a robust network of health professionals across the globe, especially in remote areas.
eLearning for SDG 3
eLearning can help in the development, training, and retention of the health workforce, especially in the least developed countries and island states.
‘Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of E-Learning in Healthcare: A Fuzzy ANP Study’ was published in 2023 in Healthcare (Basel). As per the study, some of the benefits of eLearning in healthcare include increased accessibility, interactivity, flexibility, knowledge management, and cost efficiency.
There was another study published in 2021 in Infect Dis Poverty. ‘The effectiveness of E-learning in continuing medical education for tuberculosis health workers: a quasi-experiment from China’. In this experiment, clinicians and primary care workers benefitted from eLearning activities.
Let’s see how the KREDO learning management system can help health workers in reaching their goals of providing healthcare access to all.
Accessibility
eLearning platforms can transcend geographical boundaries and provide course access to health professionals in the remotest corners of the world. These self-paced courses can be taken at their convenience without disturbing their workflow.
KREDO Learning platform: The SCORM files of courses created externally can be uploaded to the learning management system KREDO. It has its own authoring tool with interactive, ready-to-use templates to churn out courses on the go.
Moreover, using KREDO, eLearning courses can be created in any base language. These courses can then be translated to any language using AI.
So, whether it is tuberculosis (TB) health workers in the Oti region, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, or Estonia – they all can receive training by going through the translation of the same course. Most health workers are locals who try to make quality health accessible to the community.
All the health workers can be added as users in the LMS. The courses can be scheduled for them individually or in groups (user groups).
Interactivity
The eLearning courses can be made engaging using interactive templates. Additionally, webinars, classrooms, and discussion forums can enhance interaction among health workers and experts. This will bring about the much-needed sharing of information to handle regional and other challenges for the implementation of SDG 3.
KREDO Learning platform: It has interactive templates both for assessments and content. Create short courses revolving around one or two learning objectives, so that it is easier for the health workers to assimilate the information.
The discussion forum will let them ask queries to experts and help share their experiences to enhance each other’s capabilities.
On the same platform, webinars and classrooms can be held to support collaborative learning.
KREDO has wide integration with online conference tools. Its Classroom feature helps to schedule both online and offline training across the world. Yes, the learning management system helps organizations scale the training, irrespective of diversity.
Knowledge Management
An agile eLearning platform will help optimize learning resources and create a level-playing field among health workers. This ensures standardization and consistency in the quality of training courses.
KREDO Learning platform: All the necessary resources can be uploaded to the LMS for equal access to all. Courses, webinars, classrooms, resources, and surveys can be dragged and dropped into learning pathways to ensure seamless knowledge management.
Flexibility
Learning platform provides flexibility of time, space, and a library of courses to enhance the knowledge quotient of the learner.
KREDO eLearning platform: It has a content hub comprising LEAP, external content, and MOOC content.
LEAP refers to the Learning Essentials Achievement Program. This is a set of paid courses, certifications, and specialization tracks that have been identified from Edx, Udemy, Coursera, and many other global content and verification providers added by an LMS admin.
The LMS administrator or manager can add links to both articles and videos for further reference.
MOOC content gives access to a library of free content.
Conclusion
As discussed, the lack of skilled health professionals is one of the key issues faced while enforcing sustainable development measures around the globe. Even with the right training, it is not easy to deliver the same in different languages at the time of requirement. A learning management system (LMS) can be the lifeline to train, retain, and build a robust network of health professionals across the globe, especially in remote areas.
There is more to KREDO, and we are keen to discuss it with you. Wide integrations and inbuilt capacities let KREDO accelerate your learning outcomes.
The KREDO LMS is opening up new pathways to technological evolution in the training industry. It has won accolades and awards in the past 2 years, including the coveted Brandon Hall Group Gold Award 2023 for excellence in “Best Advance in Learning Technology Implementation”. To explore the KREDO Learning management system, book a free demo or write to us at <suresh@tesseractlearning.com>