Authors (including presenting author) :
NG HY(1), WONG HH(2), NG CC(2), CHEUNG MWT(2), LAM WFK(2), CHAN LT(2), YIU SHS(2), LEUNG K C(2), LAM YY(2), CHAN SCM(2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Psychiatry, United Christian Hospital
Introduction :
The transformation of health care system in response to the community’s expectation required health care professionals to update with new knowledge and skill to meet the services demand. Specialization and advanced nursing practice are the international trend for nurses to pursue advanced knowledge to provide high quality of care to improve patients’ health outcome. As such, continuous learning is required to maintain the competencies of nurses to deliver safe and quality care to patients throughout their recovery journey. The purpose of this project is to encourage Case Managers (CM) in Community Psychiatric Services (CPS) of Kowloon East Cluster (KEC) to continue learning by creating a conducive and convenient learning environment at workplace. The key concept is to promote learning culture and establish learning habit in correspondence with the value of Hospital Authority (HA): Professional Service in which staff should increase knowledge continuously by staying abreast of the latest developments in own profession by taking action to improve skills and knowledge (Hospital Authority, 2022). A learning group in hybrid mode was established by 1. using mobile App and 2. conducting 4 face-to-face meetings to facilitate communication, information sharing and mutual learning.
Objectives :
1. Share the ways to access useful information related to mental health from different sources
2. Influence others to keep professional knowledge up to date by continuous learning
3. Develop habit of mutual learning to share good practice with others
Methodology :
Voluntary sampling was used to recruit case managers working in KEC CPS as long as they were interested in continuous learning and academic exchange. A closed group was formed and the participants were arranged to a WhatsApp group for receiving or sharing latest information related to mental health. On the other hand, there were four monthly face-to-face meetings in which group members were invited to share their favorite topic for mutual learning. Instead of on-site attendance, group members could opt to join the meeting by zoom according to their convenience.
Result & Outcome :
Twelve case managers with clinical experience ranged from one to eleven years, including nurses and occupational therapist were recruited. There were 36 articles shared by group members in WhatsApp group including free lecture, journal, professional course, free workshop from different sources. The four monthly face-to-face meetings were completed with 75% overall attendance. There were seven topics shared by different group members and all of them attended the meetings on-site instead of online. Program evaluation through returning of evaluation form from the group members. All group members found that the WhatsApp group was a convenient way to share and receive latest information related to their job nature. They agreed that the learning group positively inspired their motivation to learn. Group members agreed that the preservation of the CPSLG will enhance their motivation to learn as well as benefit staff and patient outcome.
