A new cleaner is about to start working at the hospital. Typically, a newcomer is put to work with a more experienced colleague for some days.
The example above presents the most traditional way to familiarize newcomers to their work duties and tasks. A beginner is acting as an apprentice in order to take over a new job in the guidance of more experienced colleague, ‘a master’.
As a learning system, however, this kind of apprenticeship might be slow and sluggish. This means that it takes some time before the quality of newcomer’s work is on the same level than the master’s work. Therefore, it is not probable the most productive way to do onboarding. For the same reasons many employers are steering clear to take any interns or apprentices as trainees. There is an immense need for more effective ways to familiarize novices to their work tasks.
Tampere University Hospital spearheading in new learning system
Tampere University Hospital has become acquainted with Visuon virtual and 3D facilities and tentatively planned the introduction of new cleaners in a more modern way. With Visuon application it might be possible to construct an immersive virtual learning experience for beginners. This could help new employees to adapt a new job even before it has been started in actual hospital environment.
Virtual material makes it easier to orient in new places and also serves as tutorials for general work tasks. With Visuon ‘virtual master’ new employer can autonomously study and learn through working days even after the first days. The employer is not dependent on the knowledge of a senior employee who have perhaps moved to other position or retired.
In addition, the virtual information package on mobile device has been evaluated being a more powerful tool for learning a new job rather than just a written manual. Even the lack of joint language doesn’t set barriers for adapting new information thus the visualization says more than thousand words.
With Visuon, Tampere University hospital could be able to speed up the onboarding of new employees without compromising quality. Of course, ‘virtual mastering’ doesn’t remove the value of personal orientation allthough saves time from teaching routine work tasks to discussing of the more significant issues.