In medicine, you’re not going to know everything right away, especially when you start a new position. Sure, you study things in school, but there’s so much to be learned while you’re on the job.

Adequately training your staff is one way to provide such learning opportunities. Here are some good reasons to increase your focus on training. 

Reduced errors

Training is teaching.

Proper training not only teaches people how to do things, it teaches them how to do things the right way.

Knowledge of correct procedures could prevent healthcare workers from making mistakes. Or, if they do make them, their previous knowledge could help employees mitigate their errors and prevent small mistakes from becoming big ones.

Even the most competent staff members are human. They, too, will make occasional mistakes. But offering training opportunities tells employees that you’re available to help so they’ll be available to help.

Empowered employees

Knowledgeable staff members feel empowered.

Instead of wondering if they’re doing things correctly, employees who have received thorough training know they’re doing the right things.

Empowerment builds confidence. With this confidence, employees may be less likely to make mistakes.

Or, if they make mistakes, empowered employees will have the confidence to correct them. They could be more likely to view mistakes as infrequent, isolated occurrences, not things that happened because of ongoing character flaws. They’ll feel competent and capable.

Autonomy tools

Empowerment and confidence could also lead to autonomy.

By offering training sessions, your medical practice is teaching them things. Ideally, this knowledge will empower your employees, give them confidence, and create autonomy.

Autonomous employees feel free to govern their own actions. They can make decisions and act without asking and checking about every single thing. This gives you more time to do your own work instead of constantly assisting your staff.

Staff members with autonomy might be more invested in their work and the work of the practice as a whole. They might acquire a sense of self-leadership that leads to better, more confident work.

Leadership opportunities

Training could create and lead to leadership opportunities.

During the course of training, you might discover staff members who are particularly skilled at certain things. Some employees might be good at explaining what they’ve learned and eager to share this information with others, for example.

These employees might be good candidates for taking on leadership roles.

Leadership doesn’t mean people who rule others, but ones who could persuade others. They could create a unified vision in which people are working together for the common good.

Team building tools

Unifying and teaching staff members could create a more cohesive team.

Occasional teaching opportunities, not just offering training during onboarding and hiring, could reassure staff members that you understand their needs and want to work together to fulfill them.

For example, you might be adopting new software systems that handle your electronic health records (EHRs) and practice management. Even if you’re familiar with such systems, there are probably things you need to learn in order to apply them to specific aspects of your medical office.

By acknowledging that such systems can be challenging and require attention, you’re letting your staff members know that you understand their concerns and that you share them yourself. By providing training and other solutions to address these challenges, you’re demonstrating your support.

Staff assessments

Speaking of knowledge, there’s information that we know. There’s also information that we know that we don’t know. There’s also information that we don’t know or unknown unknowns.

During the hiring process, you could use résumés and interviews to discover if candidates know certain things, such as different medical procedures.

After you hire a candidate, an onboarding training process could help you learn if they know procedures and other information more specific to your medical practice.

Onboarding training procedures could show and teach new employees the ways your medical practice does things, especially if they’ve been doing them differently with previous employers.

Such education sessions could show you areas where the employees might need additional assistance. It could also highlight areas where they’re competent and could help your other staff members.

Efficient operations

Assessing and building our staff members’ knowledge could also help improve your office’s operations.

Do your employees know how to do everything required of them? If they don’t, some training could help them get there.

Consider holding officewide training sessions to help familiarize your entire staff. This could help publicize new developments quickly as well as clear up any common misconceptions or problems.

Armed with their newfound knowledge, staff members could perform their jobs better. Improved performance will help your practice run more smoothly and efficiently.

Higher revenue

Efficiency could also create higher revenues for your medical practice.

You’re not practicing medicine to make money, but you need money to practice medicine.

When employees have adequate training, they make fewer mistakes and could help the office run more efficiently.

This could mean that they might be more familiar with the procedures needed to submit insurance claims. They might also submit them with fewer errors.

Due to this efficiency and its commitment to minimizing errors, your office will be able to send claims quickly, and insurance providers might process them and pay for them more quickly. Such payment could create a bigger, steadier income flow that helps you manage and finance your practice.

Improved employee morale

Offering training not only could boost profits. It could also help improve overall employee morale.

When you offer safety courses, you’re showing employees that you’re working to create a safer environment because you care about their well-being.

When you offer professional courses, you’re telling staff members that you want them to succeed and that you’ll give them the tools to do so.

Ongoing training illustrates that you’re not only interested in your medical practice, but also the people who work there. People will know you care, which could help them feel better about their jobs and their working environment.

Better patient care

Ultimately, you’re working in medicine to provide health care, and training could help you do that.

More knowledge could lead to fewer errors that affect or even hurt patients. Trained staff members could streamline their dealings with insurance providers and help patients find effective treatments in less time for possibly less money.