Supporting your organisation to capture the learning during Covid-19

Lessons learnt from NHS organisations

Now that we are moving in to the next stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, your organisation may be beginning to reflect on the last three months. This period will be an important time for organisations to learn and develop based on experience and plan changes built on that new knowledge. Library and Knowledge specialists are in a unique position where we can share our expertise in capturing this knowledge for future planning and service development. Have you considered offering to support your organisation in capturing lessons learnt?

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen services undertake an intense and abrupt period of change, some of these changes will now be permanent. Some alterations will be reverted, but it is likely that at least some changes will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

This guide was recently shared on the KM email list and has been written by the RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce). The purpose of the guide is to help organisations make sense of the changes made in response to crisis management. Included is a grid which can help you to reflect on the changes that have occurred. What will remain in place, what needs to be reverted and which old practices have proved to be unnecessary. This is a simple and easy way to capture learning from a team and help them to see how they can plan for the future.

Some Library and Knowledge Services are already running these sessions. The team at Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have been using this framework from Collaborate for Social Care. There are either eight questions to work through to identify how the team are thinking and working in new ways, or there is a deeper thematic questionnaire to work through. This post from Collaborate for Care’s blog on the learning framework and how to use Covid-19 learning to shape the future offers further insight to the value of organisational learning.

The Library and Knowledge Services that are supporting the Nightingale Hospitals have also recently undertaken an After Action Review. This will allow those involved to use their shared learning when undertaken similar projects in the future and alter their practice should they need to in the event of a second wave.

Health Education England’s Knowledge Management Team have produced a suite of resources to support the organisation to capture their own lessons learnt. Katie Nicholas has created this excellent guide which you can use to explain and promote these services within your own organisation. If you are concerned about how to get different departments interested in your support consider running your own lessons learnt session or retrospective review with your team. Showcase how the reflections you’ve made and learning captured will change your service in a positive way. Organisations like to see outcomes in terms of time and financial savings, so consider that while you are writing up your findings.

 

Holly Case Wyatt
Library and Knowledge Services Development Manager
Directorate of Innovation and Transformation
M: 07741238740
E: [email protected]