UMass Memorial’s Annual Required Education (ARE) looks pretty different this year – the hospital replaced their old version with a new eLearning package. It turns out that national regulations now require that all hospital workers receive training in more than we were getting in previous years. This means that everyone will be seeing content (if you haven’t already) on subjects such as recognizing elder abuse, protecting against blood-borne infections, and end of life care . . . things that may seem pretty remote and out-of-scope to many SHARE members. None of this content was written or determined by UMass Memorial – we are told that these same modules are used by 80% of workers at academic medical centers nationally.
It’s possible to test-out of some of the content and save some time. That said, you should expect things to take longer this year – perhaps 5-6 hours. And many members are also finding the content more challenging, which makes it harder to dip in and out of throughout the day in between other tasks.
The deadline is July 30th, which means this is the final week. UMass Memorial is supposed to give you the time you need to complete this training; if you anticipate that it’s going to be hard to find the time to finish this week, you should talk to your manager right away. Because of the extra time needed, managers have the option this year of making it possible for SHARE members to complete their ARE at home (for pay, of course), so talk to your manager if you think this might be a good option for you.
We’re continuing to meet with HR to discuss SHARE members’ eLearning. Although this year’s program seems to be set in place, please let us know what you think so we can make next year’s experience better. And if you haven’t finished yet and need help figuring out with your manager how you’re going to get it done, reach out about that too.