Cross-training refers to employees learning value-added tasks and functions in addition to their basic job responsibilities. In school-based healthcare, successful cross training involves assessing student needs and then equipping staff with skills beyond their primary roles. For instance, it might mean a school nurse completing specialized training in pediatric or adolescent behavioral health issues.
With Cross Training, Everyone Wins
Cross-training is a win for everyone involved. If you’re a school-based healthcare provider, it can make you more marketable, more confident, more well-rounded and, last but not least, better able to offer the right treatment to every student under your care. This applies to both day-to-day cases and in the event of an emergency.
If you’re a school administrator, cross training enhances the flexibility of your staff, as people can step into various roles as needed. It fosters collaboration, boosts morale, and can reduce overtime and other costs.
Most importantly, students and families benefit from the expanded extent of their caregivers’ expertise.
Collaboration and Skills Development
As healthcare workers master new skills, they become proficient and stay current in a wider range of specialty areas. Cross-training also fosters communication and collaboration, as it helps team members to better understand their counterparts and the jobs they do. Ultimately, this all contributes to improved student care outcomes.
Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness
Everyone on a school’s faculty and support team reap the benefits of efficient daily operations and keeping budgets under control. With the right cross-training procedures, a school often can significantly reduce the need to hire temporary specialists or incur dollar-draining overtime. Resources are optimized, and there is less chance of burnout as cross-training helps keep staff from being overworked or overwhelmed.
Flexibility
Cross-trained professionals are ready to step in, in times of staff shortages or new students with specialized healthcare needs. Likewise, if you are such a professional, through cross training you build your resume and value to your existing school or potential future employers.
How to Embrace Cross-Training
If you’re a staff healthcare professional, seek out the cross-training opportunities available to you. If you’re an employer, work to develop a cross-training plan to best support your team and help them grow. The most successful plans foster a dynamic culture of continuous learning, with everyone feeling comfortable seeking additional knowledge and readily sharing it with one another – and students’ academic and life experience reaching optimal new heights.
The Covelo Group is ready to help both healthcare professionals eager to grow and develop in their fields and employers ready to commit to cross-training best practices. Contact our team today to learn more.
