Since lockdown in March 2020, life has become unrecognisable, both personally and in the arena of training. We have essentially normalised crazy. Who would have believed that we would be behaving the way we are and delivering training in the way we do? However, we are and it is working.
The joy of training for me has always been that face to face element of things. There are now two barriers to this- not only are we physically distanced from each other, but we are also masked up which isolates individuals even further. I never realised, until being masked, how it affected communication so much. Alas it does. We rely on lip reading and listening to achieve the entire communication picture. Not only are we all having to be extra patient with each other as our words are muffled, we are all becoming more tired within a shorter period of time as we rebreathe our own breath. Fundamentally, we are making allowances as trainers to take this into account. I personally allow shorter periods of learning with quick breaks to refresh people.
Another great area of concern with training people is individuals level of anxiety. Many people are facing having to come to mandatory training , and it could be the first time that they have come into a training environment since lockdown. It is absolutely essential that expectations are laid down from the outset. Social distancing must be enforced as well as giving candidates options for PPE use . This should lessen anxiety knowing safety measures are being taken seriously. Unfortunately, the social side of refreshments has had to be minimised and therefore people have become more socially isolated during breaks. Rest assured it is hard for us as trainers to work with these regulations, but it is for everyones safety.
We continue to aspire to maximising professional education for everyone whilst safeguarding everyones health.
Lets keep training safely and minimising risk. It can be done. It is being done. May we all look forward to a Covid controlled future where we can relax a bit more and laugh again.
Written by Sarah Humphries (ECG, Freelance Trainer & RGN), Thursday 30th July 2020
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