Letters | Sunday, 21 December 2008

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FHRD Excellent Training and Development Initiative Award 2008 for Mater Dei

On the 28th November 2008 at the Malta Hilton, Mater Dei Hospital was awarded the Excellent Training and Development Initiative Award, an event organized by the Foundation for Human Resources Development (FHRD). Mater Dei won this award for the ‘Knowledge Management and Transfer’ course organized for the Hospital’s Specialist and Practice Development Nurses and Midwives who as a result of their daily work already function as ‘Knowledge Managers’ within the hospital.
Within the context of the national acute hospital, staff numbers are large and the amount of knowledge is extremely rich but often there are challenges in sharing such knowledge due to staff specialisation, Ms Marion Rizzo (CEO) together with the HR and Administration Director - Mr Andrew Xuereb, believed that there was a need to redress this imbalance by enhancing knowledge management and transfer techniques across the organisation. As a result, before the hospital migration, the hospital management decided to create and fund this training opportunity which eventually contributed to generate a ‘high potential change agent team’.
The Knowledge Management & Transfer course was based on seven sessions that lasted seven hours each and a last session of three hours where a presentation and a number of training manuals were presented by the hospital staff who participated in the course. The course ended in June 2008 with its benefits and results being felt to date.
The course was dynamically organized and co-facilitated by Dr Paul Micallef, Consultant Staff Training and Retraining and facilitated by Dr Silvio DeBono from IDEA Management Consulting Services Ltd.
The Kirkpatrick Approach was used as an evaluation tool hence giving feedback to the hospital’s management and organizer for future courses.
The participants have been able to add real value to the organization by creating a ‘Knowledge Library’ of different course manuals, training programs and documents, which are being diffused throughout Mater Dei Hospital.. Together this team of Knowledge managers now own a unique identity which can be used to their advantage in serving the patient and their colleagues.

Ms Natalie Muscat
Manager Employee Services
Mater Dei Hospital

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