Leveraging online education to prepare nurses around the world for COVID-19
IntelyCare is intelligent nurse staffing software with a proven track record of addressing critical problems facing nursing professionals.
When COVID-19 began to spread, staff members at skilled nursing and assisted living facilities found themselves underprepared for handling the growing pandemic with no affordable educational training to turn to.
Christopher Caulfield, RN, NP-C - Co-Founder and Chief Nursing Officer at IntelyCare, heard the public outcry and naturally stepped in to create a free online certification that garnered support and engagement from nurses all over the world.
Through Thinkific Plus, IntelyCare launched its first online course, reaching more than 500,000 students across 30+ countries.
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COUNTRIES SERVED“IntelyCare is a gig economy solution for nursing professionals and nursing facilities that are short on staff. We also support healthcare facilities in bringing on additional staff to ensure there’s the right number of nurses at the right time, so patients receive the best quality care possible.”Christopher Caulfield, RN, NP-C - Co-Founder and Chief Nursing Officer, IntelyCare
Meeting a global need in the nursing community through online training
HOW IT BEGAN:
As a registered nurse, Christopher was experiencing burnout from too much overtime. The problem was that there weren’t many people to replace him – and the work had to be done! Conversely, nurses at other facilities were not even getting the shifts that they wanted. Christopher recognized that this was a matching problem, and so with his colleague, set out to build a solution.
“It was taking the pain that I was experiencing and making a team to do something about it.”
Fast-forward to 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning to escalate when Christopher and his team again spotted a need they could address. On social media, nurses in Washington were complaining that they lacked appropriate training to prepare for COVID-19.
Having some experience with animated videos used for their internal training, the IntelyCare team set out to launch their first online training course to nurses around the world. To do this they needed a partner LMS platform – and one that could move as fast as they could to meet this need!
“We were already able to meet a need during COVID-19 by helping nursing facilities fill in staffing gaps during the pandemic, but we wanted to reach past those already using our staffing solutions. There were still so many healthcare facilities around the world that didn’t have access to an education platform, so we set out to address that problem."
Managing viral growth of the #COVID19NurseSafety community with Thinkific Plus
THINKIFIC PLUS AS THE SOLUTION
Intending to reach 50,000 students with its first nurse certification course, IntelyCare partnered with Thinkific Plus due to the platform’s robust integration capabilities, seamless API access, flexible cost structure for larger-scale use, and easy access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager, among other factors.
In a matter of 3 weeks, IntelyCare launched its free COVID-19 nurse training certification and within 10 days from launch, the course had been completed by 200,000 nursing professionals in more than 30 countries.
Caulfield points to the use of certificates and leveraging social media as important factors in the viral takeoff of the course.
IntelyCare asked those who completed the course to share their certificate on social media and challenge people within their networks to become a #COVID19NurseSafety Ambassador. The company even provided language for social posts, making it as simple as possible to get the word out.
“We also attribute the interactive features to the attractive, and ultimately viral, nature of the course. Users felt like it was a premiere purchase that they were getting at no cost and wanted to share with others in the nursing community.”
Engaging global nursing communities in the fight against COVID-19 through online training
BUSINESS GROWTH WITH THINKIFIC PLUS
What has been good for the global nursing community has also been good for IntelyCare’s core business, Since launching its successful COVID-19 nurse training certification course with Thinkific Plus, IntelyCare has not only expanded its reach to nursing professionals in all corners of the world, but has also signed up many new customers.
“We’ve had several hundred facilities sign up for our platform following the course launch, and many are nursing homes or nursing facilities that don’t have access to digital education for their nurses. They’re waiting for the next set of courses so they can continue their training.”
Given the viral takeoff of the company’s first course, people are naturally starting to ask when they can expect more. For now, IntelyCare remains focused on creating new and better ways for healthcare professionals to continue doing the work they love.
“Making training free is a big factor for many healthcare facilities that don’t have the capital to spend on education. It’s great to be able to spread internationally to help healthcare organizations of all sizes, as well as general nurses, that are trying to better prepare themselves.” Christopher Caulfield, RN, NP-C - Co-Founder and Chief Nursing Officer, IntelyCare