Development and evaluation of point-of-care testing recertification with e-learning

One of the main requirements in point-of-care testing (POCT) is efficient operator training to avoid diagnostic errors. Considering a variety of users and time-independent learning, e-learning is preferred. However, in our experience, e-learning is not always accepted by employees. After using a commercial e-learning program with little success, we developed a specific e-learning offer to achieve a better acceptance of online-based training. Herein our goal was to identify the most relevant aspects for better acceptance. The new e-learning modules were implemented with the learning management system ILIAS and dealt with typical sources of error. The implementation was accompanied by an anonymous online questionnaire within the POCT operators examining differences between the acceptance of the commercial e-learning and the hospital-specific. The results show higher acceptance for clinic-specific e-learning whereby online training of the POCT operators could successfully established. Most relevant aspects are the relevance of contents for the personal work and the working processes within the clinic as well as processing time. Thereby, the recertification of the POCT operators based on the successful completion of the learning modules was fully integrated in the POCT process. In respect to the need for regular recertification of POCT operators, our study shows that the acceptance of e-learning could be improved by adapting e-learning modules to the specific workflows in the hospital.