The role of eLearning in health management and leadership capacity building in health system: a systematic review

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Abstract

Background

Health leadership and management are essential for ensuring resilient health systems. Relevant training opportunities are often scarce, and the use of digital education could help address this gap. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of eLearning for healthcare leadership and management capacity building.

Methods

We performed a systematic review on the effectiveness of eLearning for health leadership and management training. We also reviewed literature on relevant competencies and training programmes. We conceptualise the role of health leadership and management capacity building in health system strengthening and explore the use of eLearning in this area.

Results

No evidence was found on the effectiveness of eLearning for health leadership and management capacity guiding. Evidence on health leadership and management education effectiveness in general is scarce and descriptive and reports learning outcomes. We explore how various forms of eLearning can help meet specific requirements of health leadership and management training.

Conclusions

Literature on the effectiveness of health leadership and management education is scarce. The use of eLearning could support this type of training by making it more accessible and tailored. Future research should be carried out in diverse settings, assume experimental designs, evaluate the use of information technology and report health system outcomes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12960-018-0305-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Online eLearning for undergraduates in health professions: A systematic review of the impact on knowledge, skills, attitudes and satisfaction

Pradeep Paul George, Nikos Papachristou, José Marcano Belisario … (2014)

Background Health systems worldwide are facing shortages in health professional workforce. Several studies have demonstrated the direct correlation between the availability of health workers, coverage of health services, and population health outcomes. To address this shortage, online eLearning is increasingly being adopted in health professionals’ education. To inform policy–making, in online eLearning, we need to determine its effectiveness. Methods We performed a systematic review of the effectiveness of online eLearning through a comprehensive search of the major databases for randomised controlled trials that compared online eLearning to traditional learning or alternative learning methods. The search period was from January 2000 to August 2013. We included articles which primarily focused on students' knowledge, skills, satisfaction and attitudes toward eLearning and cost-effectiveness and adverse effects as secondary outcomes. Two reviewers independently extracted data from the included studies. Due to significant heterogeneity among the included studies, we presented our results as a narrative synthesis. Findings Fifty–nine studies, including 6750 students enrolled in medicine, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy and pharmacy studies, met the inclusion criteria. Twelve of the 50 studies testing knowledge gains found significantly higher gains in the online eLearning intervention groups compared to traditional learning, whereas 27 did not detect significant differences or found mixed results. Eleven studies did not test for differences. Six studies detected significantly higher skill gains in the online eLearning intervention groups, whilst 3 other studies testing skill gains did not detect differences between groups and 1 study showed mixed results. Twelve studies tested students' attitudes, of which 8 studies showed no differences in attitudes or preferences for online eLearning. Students' satisfaction was measured in 29 studies, 4 studies showed higher satisfaction for online eLearning and 20 studies showed no difference in satisfaction between online eLearning and traditional learning. Risk of bias was high for several of the included studies. Conclusion The current evidence base suggests that online eLearning is equivalent, possibly superior to traditional learning. These findings present a potential incentive for policy makers to cautiously encourage its adoption, while respecting the heterogeneity among the studies.

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Leadership Development Programs for Physicians: A Systematic Review

Jan C. Frich, Amanda L Brewster, Emily J Cherlin … (2014)

Background Physician leadership development programs typically aim to strengthen physicians’ leadership competencies and improve organizational performance. We conducted a systematic review of medical literature on physician leadership development programs in order to characterize the setting, educational content, teaching methods, and learning outcomes achieved. Methods Articles were identified through a search in Ovid MEDLINE from 1950 through November 2013. We included articles that described programs designed to expose physicians to leadership concepts, outlined teaching methods, and reported evaluation outcomes. A thematic analysis was conducted using a structured data entry form with categories for setting/target group, educational content, format, type of evaluation and outcomes. Results We identified 45 studies that met eligibility criteria, of which 35 reported on programs exclusively targeting physicians. The majority of programs focused on skills training and technical and conceptual knowledge, while fewer programs focused on personal growth and awareness. Half of the studies used pre/post intervention designs, and four studies used a comparison group. Positive outcomes were reported in all studies, although the majority of studies relied on learner satisfaction scores and self-assessed knowledge or behavioral change. Only six studies documented favorable organizational outcomes, such as improvement in quality indicators for disease management. The leadership programs examined in these studies were characterized by the use of multiple learning methods, including lectures, seminars, group work, and action learning projects in multidisciplinary teams. Discussion Physician leadership development programs are associated with increased self-assessed knowledge and expertise; however, few studies have examined outcomes at a system level. Our synthesis of the literature suggests important gaps, including a lack of programs that integrate non-physician and physician professionals, limited use of more interactive learning and feedback to develop greater self-awareness, and an overly narrow focus on individual-level rather than system-level outcomes.

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Health systems, systems thinking and innovation.

Rifat Atun (2012)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Lorainne Tudor Car:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8414-7664

+65 69040 1258 , lorainne.tudor.car@ntu.edu.sg

Bhone Myint Kyaw: bhone.mk@ntu.edu.sg

Rifat Atun: ratun@hsph.harvard.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Hum Resour Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Hum Resour Health

Title: Human Resources for Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1478-4491

Publication date (Electronic): 3 September 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 3 September 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 44

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2224 0361, GRID grid.59025.3b, Family Medicine and Primary Care, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, , Nanyang Technological University Singapore, ; 11 Mandalay Road, Singapore, 308232 Singapore

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2113 8111, GRID grid.7445.2, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, , Imperial College London, ; Level 2, Faculty Building, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ United Kingdom

[3 ]ISNI 000000041936754X, GRID grid.38142.3c, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ; 677 Huntington Avenue, Harvard, Boston, MA 02115 United States of America

Author information

Lorainne Tudor Car http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8414-7664

Article

Publisher ID: 305

DOI: 10.1186/s12960-018-0305-9

PMC ID: 6122658

PubMed ID: 30176899

SO-VID: 1221bbe1-7804-4bc5-95c8-32bcceca5a89

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 6 February 2018

Date accepted : 7 August 2018

Funding

Funded by: Lee Kong School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Award ID: Start Up Grant

Award Recipient : Lorainne Tudor Car

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

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The role of eLearning in health management and leadership capacity building in health system: a systematic review

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Most cited references 29

Online eLearning for undergraduates in health professions: A systematic review of the impact on knowledge, skills, attitudes and satisfaction

Leadership Development Programs for Physicians: A Systematic Review

Health systems, systems thinking and innovation.

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