From Compliance to Culture: Transforming Mandatory Training into Meaningful Learning

Meridian Health System operates four hospitals and 18 outpatient clinics across two states with approximately 6,400 employees. The current compliance training portfolio includes 22 modules covering HIPAA, infection control, workplace safety, cultural competency, and ethics - all delivered via a decade-old LMS in click-through format with no scenario-based learning, no spaced repetition, and no assessment beyond a final multiple-choice test employees routinely game. Survey data shows 78% of staff rate the training as 'not useful to my daily work.' Three sentinel events in the past year involved behavior patterns directly addressed in existing training modules that clearly didn't transfer. The CNO and CHRO have co-sponsored this redesign effort. Legal and Compliance are conditionally supportive but have veto power over any content changes.

Key Stakeholders

Dr. Sandra Reyes

Chief Nursing Officer

Paul Ignatius

VP of Legal and Compliance

Lucia Herrera

Director of Learning & Development

Charge Nurse, ICU (Representative Frontline Voice)

Frontline Staff Representative

Learning Objectives

• Apply learning transfer theory to diagnosing why compliance training fails to change behavior
• Design a learning architecture that balances regulatory requirements with adult learning best practices
• Use scenario-based and spaced repetition approaches to increase behavioral transfer
• Navigate multi-stakeholder governance in a regulated industry
• Build an evaluation framework (Kirkpatrick Levels 3 and 4) for mandatory training programs
• Manage the political dynamics of redesigning institutionally entrenched learning systems