Introduction
Believe it or not, improving compliance training is a collaborative effort. It’s a partnership between an organisation’s Learning and Development (L&D) team and its learners. By empowering learners, building community, and fostering personal connections, compliance training can evolve from a tick-box requirement to a more positive learning experience.
This guide provides 4 practical strategies and insights for organisations and L&D teams to consider implementing to work together with learners to achieve and sustain high compliance rates with training.
1. Empowerment: Trusting Learners as Professionals
Registered healthcare professionals like nurses and midwives excel in self-directed professional development. In most cases, they exceed the minimum mandated amount of 20 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) each registration year. So why not apply this autonomy to compliance training? Empower learners by giving them tools and opportunities to take ownership of their training, reinforcing their role as adult learners.
Strategies to Improve Compliance Through Empowerment:
- Customised learning paths: Allow learners to choose compliance training modules most relevant to their roles while meeting legal and organisational requirements.
- Reflection on learning: Go beyond basic documentation and encourage learners to reflect on how compliance training aligns with and improves their professional practice. What did they learn? How will their practice improve as a result of this training?
- Flexibility in deadlines: Let learners set their own completion deadlines within a compliance window, reinforcing autonomy and accountability.
2. Community Building: Creating a Culture of Learning
Healthcare is an inherently collaborative environment. We do not work in silos, so why should we learn in silos? Yet, completing compliance training often isolates individuals. A culture of shared learning fosters belonging, accountability, and a sense of purpose beyond the individual.
How to Build Community in Compliance Training
- Learning cohorts: Group learners by teams, roles, or facilities to create a sense of camaraderie and shared responsibility for compliance goals.
- Peer-led training: Empower experienced staff to lead compliance training sessions, making the learning more relatable and interactive.
- Team challenges: Introduce fun competitions through learning cohorts, such as rewarding the first team to reach 100% compliance or the team with the highest completion rate.
- Share efforts: Establish an online forum or simply print out or email achievements where learners can celebrate milestones with compliance training.
3. Personal Connection: Moving Beyond Transactional Learning
Online compliance training often feels impersonal and disconnected. We sit in front of a screen, clicking next, skipping sections by forwarding, and frequently tuning out. By integrating personal touches, organisations can motivate learners and foster meaningful connections.
How to Foster Connection in Compliance Training
- Personalised messages: Send welcome emails or videos that explain the importance of compliance training to the individual’s role and career.
- Compliance champions: Assign compliance mentors to support staff who may struggle with training completion.
4. Align Compliance Training with Quality Outcomes
Compliance training is always going to be required. Rather than fighting it, let’s accept it and add purpose. Connect the dots between the learner’s efforts and the real-world outcomes they influence. By aligning compliance training with measurable quality improvements – such as quality indicator data on falls, pressure injuries, and medication safety – learners can see how their time on training applies to their practice and contributes to the broader quality of care goals.
How to Link Compliance Training with Quality Outcomes
Link training to a clear metric by incorporating case studies or examples showing how compliance training has improved quality and safety or reduced risk and errors. For example:
- "Training on infection control led to a 20% reduction in catheter-associated urinary tract infections."
- "Accurate medication administration training reduced adverse drug events by 15%."
Celebrate success stories by involving staff, patients, residents and executive team members to share stories from learners or teams who have achieved compliance and made a tangible impact on care quality. For example
- Broadcast this and feature these stories in newsletters, webinars, or team meetings to inspire others.
Other Practical Strategies to Improve Compliance
Empowering learners, building a sense of community and using data to track outcomes creates a strong sense of pride and personal investment in compliance training rather than just a routine obligation.
This Ausmed Guide to Improving Compliance with Training shares additional practical strategies for improving compliance. It explains how to build audit capability and the importance of aligning systems, processes, and people through leadership and culture.
Building Compliance and Workforce Capability
Ready to transform your approach to compliance training?
Join Ausmed’s free four-part webinar series designed for educators, L&D professionals, HR teams, and anyone involved in staff induction, onboarding, and training.
In the final webinar, we challenge traditional training methods and explore innovative ways to rethink the impact of education programs. Learn how to use insights to build a capable workforce and drive continuous improvement across your organisation.
Watch the Compliance Capability Webinar Series Now.
Related Guides
- Guide to Mandatory Training
- A Guide for Managers: Mandatory Training in Aged Care
- Guide to Induction Training
- Induction Training - FAQs
- A Guide to Policy Management
- Creating an Education Framework
References and Useful Resources
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, 2024, 'Complaints about aged care services report', Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/news-publications/reports/complaints-about-aged-care-services-report.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, 2024, 'Sector performance', Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/news-publications/reports/sector-performance.
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2024, 'NSQHS Standards assessment outcomes', Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/standards/nsqhs-standards/nsqhs-standards-assessment-outcomes.
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2024, 'NSQHS Standards lessons learnt', Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/standards/nsqhs-standards/implementation-nsqhs-standards/nsqhs-standards-lessons-learnt.
Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, 2024, 'Star ratings for residential aged care', Department of Health and Aged Care, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/star-ratings-for-residential-aged-care.
Ausmed, 2023, 'Understand compliance requirements', Ausmed Knowledge, viewed 18 November 2024, https://knowledge.organisations.ausmed.com.au/en/knowledge/understand-compliance-requirements.
Ausmed, 2023, 'Understand learning records', Ausmed Knowledge, viewed 18 November 2024, https://knowledge.organisations.ausmed.com.au/en/knowledge/understand-learning-records.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), 2021, 'Fraud and non-compliance', NDIS, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/fraud-and-non-compliance.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), 2021, 'Provider compliance', NDIS, viewed 18 November 2024, https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/provider-compliance.
Jarden, RJ, Jarden, A, Weiland, TJ, Taylor, G, Bujalka, H, Brockenshire, N & Gerdtz, MF 2021, 'New graduate nurse wellbeing, work wellbeing and mental health: A quantitative systematic review', International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol. 121, 103997, viewed 18 November 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103997.
Author
Zoe Youl
Zoe Youl is a Critical Care Registered Nurse with over ten years of experience at Ausmed, currently as Head of Community. With expertise in critical care nursing, clinical governance, education and nursing professional development, she has built an in-depth understanding of the educational and regulatory needs of the Australian healthcare sector.
As the Accredited Provider Program Director (AP-PD) of the Ausmed Education Learning Centre, she maintains and applies accreditation frameworks in software and education. In 2024, Zoe lead the Ausmed Education Learning Centre to achieve Accreditation with Distinction for the fourth consecutive cycle with the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Commission on Accreditation. The AELC is the only Australian provider of nursing continuing professional development to receive this prestigious recognition.
Zoe holds a Master's in Nursing Management and Leadership, and her professional interests focus on evaluating the translation of continuing professional development into practice to improve learner and healthcare consumer outcomes. From 2019-2022, Zoe provided an international perspective to the workgroup established to publish the fourth edition of Nursing Professional Development Scope & Standards of Practice. Zoe was invited to be a peer reviewer for the 6th edition of the Core Curriculum for Nursing Professional Development.
