Building Safer Spaces Through On-the-Job Learning

SafeCare BC recently featured Louis Brier Home and Hospital’s participation in an OntheJob violence prevention learning pilot, highlighting how a new approach to training helped bring safety learning closer to the realities of frontline care.

The challenge was familiar to many healthcare organizations.

For years, violence prevention training in long-term care has often relied on classroom-based sessions. While valuable, that model can be difficult to deliver in a 24/7 care environment. Staff schedules need to be coordinated. Shifts may need to be backfilled. Instructors need to be available. Teams are pulled away from the floor. Meanwhile, the work of care continues.

The OntheJob pilot offered a different approach.

Instead of requiring staff to step away from the work for extended training sessions, the platform allowed staff to complete short, practical, scenario-based learning in a way that better fit their workflow. The training reflected real situations and encouraged staff to think through what they were seeing, what choices were available, and how they might respond differently.

At Louis Brier, the response was significant. Participation among care staff was above 90 per cent — an unusually high level of engagement compared with many traditional in-person training models.

That participation mattered because it showed that access is part of impact. When training is easier to access, more staff can participate. When the scenarios feel relevant, staff are more likely to engage. And when learning happens close to the work, it is more likely to generate meaningful conversation.

One of the most valuable lessons from the pilot was that safety behaviour is shaped by systems.

The data and staff feedback showed that workers could often recognize unsafe practices, but they were also navigating time pressure, entrenched routines, competing care needs, and system constraints. In other words, the issue was not simply whether staff knew what to do. The issue was whether the work environment made the safer action realistic and available.

That distinction matters.

When organizations focus only on individual mistakes, they can miss the larger conditions that make those mistakes more likely. But when leaders use training data and staff insight to understand patterns, they can move from blame to improvement.

That is what made this pilot so valuable. It helped create a clearer picture of how staff experience risk in daily practice. It gave managers better insight into employee perceptions, behaviours, and pressures. It supported conversations about safer choices, team practices, and system improvements.

For me, the broader lesson is that effective safety training should not be separate from the work. It should be part of how the work improves.

When training reflects real conditions, it becomes more than education. It becomes a tool for culture change, leadership insight, and safer care.