Economics of Education: Lessons From Health Care

Life is full of challenges: Some are a quick fix, but others take time and often require thorough assessment, planning and persistent dedication to tackle. The challenges that often confront organizations today are generally the persistent sort, though everyday challenges are common as well. For the health care industry, the obstacles have been sizeable and all too frequent. The most common ones today are nurse, physician and other allied health-care professional labor shortages, limited funding and declining reimbursement, increased competition from rival networks and staff efficiency. But perhaps the largest ongoing challenge and concern is patient care, safety and satisfaction, which historically has not been met on a consistent basis.

The unique challenges faced by CLOs in the health care sector offer numerous lessons for learning leaders in all industries. Like organizations in the health care industry, many businesses in other fields also manage multiple locations nationwide or worldwide and juggle large numbers of employees, all while trying to provide the best service in the most professional, cost-efficient and organized fashion. Chief learning officers direct multiple initiatives to combat both short-term and long-term challenges through learning and development. Whether in health care or not, education is universally regarded and employed as a remedy to deal with these challenges.

"The keys to retention, employee engagement, efficiency, etc., are really the skill sets and abilities of frontline supervisors and leaders to really engage their employees and tap into their knowledge and their wisdom to help resolve problems and move forward," said Jean Ann Larson, chief learning officer at Beaumont Hospital, a nationally recognized hospital offering services to the suburban community of Detroit. "But we also need to make sure that we keep our efforts focused on the strategic business objectives of the organization for a couple of reasons. You need to make sure that you are spending where you want to be spending, and even if you have scarce resources, it is a good way to make sure that you are focused on the priorities of the organization. You need to be constantly asking yourself, 'What is it that is keeping the top executive team awake at night,' whether it is the shortage of RNs in our industry or in another industry that has shortage elsewhere."