Project Goal
Our goal for this project was to re-design 1 week of a 6-week onboarding course for new MDHHS family specialists.
Our overarching goal for the session is to make sure that specialists are prepared for the challenges they will face during case planning. These include the emotions of the situation, the paperwork that must be filled out and the associated timelines, the tools that need to be used, and the way each role interacts with the others.
Design Considerations
We had many factors to consider when approaching this design problem. We learned in our initial meetings with the client that we cannot change the material being taught by the Legal team, but we can change how it is delivered. We need to make sure we design activities in a way that makes the specialists feel more comfortable as they prepare for court proceedings. There is a good chance that a courtroom will not be available for a mock trial, so we will need to find a way to create the environment of a courtroom in the location given for training. We also need to consider the environmental concerns when designing activities for the specialists on home visits. We need to make sure we can help them feel the emotions they could feel with unwilling customers in the process, families with diverse backgrounds that are different and potentially uncomfortable for the specialists, and the potential of language barriers or disabilities that make communication difficult. We will incorporate elements of critical thinking, cultural awareness, and trauma recognition into training so that specialists can respond appropriately and effectively to various scenarios encountered in the community and court. Budget and time will play a significant role in our training plan. The allotted budget will determine how we approach some of the activities provided. If a budget is available for eLearning development, we can create blended sessions to help make sure the in-person time is focused on real-life examples.
Outcome
My part of the project was designing day 2, which covered completing medical and dental appointments. We wanted specialists to gain the necessary knowledge needed to effectively follow the parameters for setting up necessary medical and dental appointments to meet the established deadlines. Specialists understand the necessary steps and warning signs to be cognizant of when mental health and trauma assessment-based referrals are needed. The specialist will leave with a better understanding of how trauma-informed practices should be used in their day-to-day roles as they work through case planning.
For this session I designed short lectures with activities to help the learners actually perform the tasks.
Activity #1 – Contacting Medical and Dental with Proper Information
In this activity specialists will be provided a case study where they need to schedule the first medical and dental appointments. Specialists will read through the case study and, at decision points, pull the relevant information that needs to be provided to the doctor and dentist. Specialists will select the data in a survey which will provide data for future discussion. Specialists will email the doctor and dentist (the facilitator) on record (provided in the case study) to setup appointments. Specialists will be given 15 minutes to identify and document the correct information.
Following the activity, the participants would have a discussion to review the proper data that needs to be transferred to the doctor nad dentist.
Activity #2 – Finding Medical Information
Specialists will answer questions in a quiz to cover the timeframes that need to be met by law for the exams to be scheduled and where they can find this information. Specialists will be given 10 minutes to complete this task.
Upon completion of the quiz, specialists will have an email stating that the doctor that was provided has retired. Specialists need to use the case study decision points to decide what to do next and where to find the information needed to contact a new doctor to make an appointment. Once the information is located, the specialist will schedule an appointment.
Specialists will be provided with post-exam information located in CC360. The specialist will take a quiz on where to find information in CC 360 and where it should be documented in MiSACWIS (the application used to document medical information).
Following the exercise, the group will discuss and review the MISACWIS application to
Activity #3 – Mental Assessment
Specialists will be provided with a case study. During the case study, specialists will be provided with decision points where they will need to select what happens next. Specialists will need to judge warning signs and make decisions on whether a mental assessment or trauma screening should be requested. Depending on the path that they take, they will need to find and email doctors to set up the screening. The answers at each decision point will need to be recorded in the survey so they can be discussed.
Following completion of the exercise, the facilitator will lead a group discussion about the answers, and the trends will be shown (anonymously) to show how specialists progressed through the case study. The answers and path will be discussed in a group setting.
Activity #4 – Mental Assessment
Specialists will be given a set of case studies to review and decide if an assessment is needed. The specialist will break up into teams of 3 or 4 and will document their answers for each case. Once the groups are complete, their answers will be provided to the facilitator to tally the results.
The facilitator will tally the points and announce the winner of the segment. The winning team or team(s) will lead a short discussion about the answer that they chose and why they chose that answer.
Activity #5 – Medication Documentation
Specialists will be provided with a set of case studies where they will need to document any medications, who they need to contact, and if consent is needed. An online quiz will be provided to the specialists.
Following the completion of the activity, the Facilitator leads a discussion to review the correct answers to the questions and why they are correct.
Activity #6 – Trauma Informed Practice
Specialists will work in groups of 3 to 4 to review a case study and determine whether a trauma assessment is needed. Once completed, they will review a completed assessment to score it using the Trauma Assessment Checklist.
Following the group work, the facilitator will lead a discussion about the need for an assessment and the scoring that groups documented for the case study.
Sean Putman 