Teaching EMS folks computers is a challenge

Last night, I attempted to teach our new computerized patient care system to our EMS personnel. To say it was a challenge is an understatement. EMS folks aren't necessarily computer people and if I had any doubt of that, last night cured it.

This product was designed to handle the largest audience possible and is highly configurable. Being as non-biased as this package is, there are a great deal of "tweaks" that are possible, such as hiding certain fields, etc. Unfortunately, not every field as a Hide/Show button and I can't make it look like our paper form. This, coupled with the fact that the interface isn't consistent makes it very important that you look at every aspect of the screen, to make sure you aren't missing something vital.

Since this is a very complex product, I was hoping to explain the web portion of the product and have the EMS folks "play with it", getting a handle on how the software looked and felt. I would then expose them to the "mobile" version of the product which looks different (WHY? I don't know) and have them learn that layer...unfortunately, this was not to be.

Almost from the beginning, people started asking questions. Intellectually, I realize that it's because people are nervous about being left behind and confused but the constant barrage of questions derailed the presentation and left me extremely frustrated. They also insisted on seeing the mobile product, even though I knew that it would simply cause more confusion. After being asked to show it by several people, I abandoned my original plan and started showing them the mobile product. BIG MISTAKE #1. I should have "stuck to my guns" and showed them the web product because they had even more questions than before, if that was possible. There was also a rather heated discussion about whether or not to use our real SSN with the software. There were also many other extremely valid questions regarding the package. I attempted to answer as many as I could to the best of my ability. I realized I was getting rather angry at my lack of control of the situation and very nearly walked out. My professionalism kicked in and I stayed the course as best I could.

After the "official" presentation, several people left and those that stayed behind got a bit more careful instruction...I was able to help them along farther in 20 minutes than the entire 2 hours previously...*sigh*