Abstract

The ISO 9000 quality management system (QMS) has been increasingly adopted by healthcare organizations, and more applications require continuing QMS training for healthcare professionals. Lifelong learning for healthcare professionals has just required greater flexibility regarding when courses can be started, where they can be taken and how long they last — a major limitation of existing training methods. Conversely, within the medical and healthcare milieu, factors such as: “heightened expectations for healthcare services quality”, “acute shortage of healthcare professionals”, “increased complexity of healthcare services” and “accelerated technological changes” all reinforce the need for continual competency-based training of its workers. This paper employs a modern hybrid e-learning model to reduce the time and location limitations in providing QMS knowledge and practices for delegates in continuing medical education, while principal learning theories such as: adaptive learning, collaborative learning, learning in community, scaffolding learning, and scenario learning are incorporated into a computational platform. A series of hybrid digital QMS contents, namely: e-learning map, e-illustration, e-learning group, e-comprehension, and e-workshop were developed, applied and validated to be effective in reinforcing the competence of those who received the hybrid e-learning contents. As a result, an effective e-learning application model for healthcare professionals and the quality of training is proven.

Key words: Adaptive learning, collaborative learning, healthcare professional, hybrid e-learning, learning in community, quality management system (QMS), scaffolding learning, scenario learning.