Geriatric care in the Netherlands – just like most other European countries – faces a big problem. Fewer doctors must provide increasingly complex care to the fast growing number of elderly people, who are living longer and longer. This continues 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, in both nursing homes and in the homes of the elderly. GeriCall, leader in regional collaboration in elderly care, boosts geriatric care with their innovative solution medialab. To develop, secure and maintain the appropriate knowledge of doctors and specialists, GeriCall has been using the adaptive microlearning app Drillster for two years. The app is used for the application process, the onboarding of new hires and for employees who have been working for the organization for a longer period of time. This ensures that every healthcare specialist has the right knowledge and skills to perform critical care tasks correctly.

Effective onboarding

The increasing need for elderly care needs to be delivered by just a small group of people. To meet the demand, doctors, specialists, but also mental health care professionals are required. It is of the utmost importance that people working in elderly care acquire the right competencies, and maintain these. That is why GeriCall already uses the Drillster platform to conduct tests during the hiring process. The data resulting from this test is used during the onboarding phase to offer additional educational learning modules tailored to their level of proficiency. In this way, new employees are up to date quickly.

Saving precious time

Drillster is a smart learning application. An adaptive algorithm using neuroscience and AI automatically zooms in on the learning elements a participant has not yet fully mastered. For GeriCall employees, this means that no time is wasted on repeating learning materials that they have already mastered. This saves precious time that can now be spent on healthcare. 

Brush up immediately

It is well known that knowledge and skills decline if they are not maintained. It is impossible to keep all the knowledge you have acquired during studies or courses ready all the time. Doctors and medical specialists encounter the same inevitable forgetting curve. But Drillster is here to help. For instance, GeriCall provides emergency care for the vulnerable elderly in nursing homes. After telephone triage, a decision can be made for an on-site assessment. Should the doctor find that he or she no longer has a sharp knowledge of, for example, wound care, he or she will start the wound care module in the Drillster app. Then, the necessary knowledge is quickly back up to date. That’s ‘Just-in-time learning’.

Personalized learning

The Drillster app calculates when and what knowledge will fade away if not maintained. When a doctor wants to brush up on their wound care, there is no need to go through an entire learning module, like they would with normal e-learning. The Drillster app mainly focuses on the elements that the doctor had difficulties with the last time they used the app, or the elements that they haven’t practiced for a while. For these elements especially, chances are that the doctor doesn’t have them readily available. By using Drillster, the slipped knowledge is regained very quickly and the doctor is ready to correctly care for the wound on the patient. The adaptive algorithm thus personalizes the path to full mastery of the material.

Niels Langhout, Head of Education and Innovation at GeriCall and specialist in geriatric care, says: “We use Drillster for both selection and onboarding of our employees. If an employee knows that they will encounter specific elements of elderly care, the Drillster app will ensure that the necessary knowledge is brushed up ‘just in time’ in a personalized way. This saves a lot of time and improves the quality of healthcare. With this, GeriCall makes an important contribution to the more efficient delivery of complex care to the rapidly growing elderly population.”