Radio Heatherwood Training Plan Development.
The purpose of this briefing is to make you aware of what we will need
to do if we want to be successful and the talking point for the
hospital patients and staff.
If Radio Heatherwood is to survive, we must all revue what we are
doing and ask the question will patients listen to us, if we don't
visit the wards, don't approach patients properly, don't listen to
what the patients want and play music which is out of place.
Patient power bedhead unit a god send for the radio but a double edged
sword as statistics which can be produced for the trust can exactly
show whether they are using the hospital radio service or not. Our own
recent stats show that yes we could do better and that's our aim we
must all do better if the station is to survive.
Rhapsody gives the station a fighting chance to increase our listener
ship throughout the day yet over eighteen months after it's official
launch we are still lacking compositions items of interest etc from
our own staff. The computers are here to stay and there is no going
back. The station must move on or pay the penalty.
A critical part of the radio being listened to, is also making sure
each broadcast night that we visit the wards and encourage patients to
listen in and take part.
In the past the training of new recruits was handled by the individual
team nights and their staff and this dates back to the very beginning
of the radio. This being the most efficient way of delivering
training, this left the door open for training and skills only as good
as what was passed on from previous team members. If a team is lacking
in certain skills then there is no chance for that team to develop to
the full potential.
David and I would be the first to admit that this has been an area, we
have not overseen or taking a more hands on control. The operations
manual lays down a lot of guidelines but doesn't convey the full day
to day running of the radio. I.E. How people conduct themselves on the
wards and simple acts of keeping the management informed or not
telling the team leader your coming in seems to be different and not
uniformed. Each night will in effect be conducting business in a
different manner some nights would be good at what they do and others
not so good.
The change to patient power bedhead unit to deliver the service and
the introduction of the computers means we cannot continue with the
old method of training. Nor can we tolerate new people joining and
saying they can only help out once a week and can't train on other
nights.
The old method of a night being responsible for the training of new
recruits is over it will be a combination of the method laid out
below. We need maximum flexibility from new recruits and we need all
nights to be singing from the same hymn book so that any new people
who will train on one night can swap to their permanent night safe in
knowledge that the new night is conducting themselves to the same high
standards and in the same manner.
New Training Method
This can be divided up into three skills level of training:-
Bronze
Initial skills on night ward rounds, basic console skills etc Training
period 4-8 weeks with a revue of their progress. Training delivered by
Team Night
Silver
Six weeks of intensive training on a new night with concentration on
opps manual, running the studio for an evening and wave cart live
assist. Training delivered by Engineer and nominated Team leader.
Gold
No time limit Rhapsody compositions using cool edit and program
preparation using Wavestation/simian for specialist programs. Training
delivered by Engineer
Currently there are 2 people who have completed about eight weeks of
bronze training on a Tuesday evening. This bronze training on a
Tuesday includes ward rounds reading requests and use of the consoles
to a basic level using the cd player and not the computers. They have
been moved to Mondays and are receiving Silver a further six weeks of
intensive training on presentation, opening up the studio for the
evening and aspects of the opps manual. At the end of this six week
section they will be ready to present programs using the live assist
and also conversant with all aspects of running the night.
A further two people who are receiving their bronze training on a
Tuesday will then swap with the two on Mondays and they will then
receive Silver 6 weeks advanced skills.
The two silver trainee’s who then return to Tuesdays can hone their
presentation skills using the computer in their programs and also
return to doing the wards and collecting requests.
It is envisaged, once both sets of people have completed their Bronze
& Silver a new team under the new training will be ready to move
to Mondays and open up in early January 2005. Monday night training
being delivered by the station engineer and Tuesday team leader.
Summary
The above development plan is under way and all Monday training slots
are booked for the remainder of the year. The result of this training
schedule will be the opening of Monday nights in early January with 4
new staff all would have completed their Bronze and Silver Training.No
decision has been made yet on the delivering of the gold training.
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