Learning Never Stops: Sharing the Knowledge

It’s not just Shepherd Center’s doctors and clinicians who benefit from in-house research. Shepherd Center research findings are shared publicly — for free — via Shepherd Center’s Neurorehabilitation Learning Institute (NRLI). The site launched in 2018 and has become a dynamic online hub for high-quality, best-practices education that clinicians worldwide utilize.

“All of our educational resources feature evidence-based guidance, but that’s not all we showcase,” says Diane Johnston, MSPT, director of professional education at Shepherd Center. “We also share how we collaborate across our different disciplines to create a unified, patient-centric focus in all we do because working with our patients is what creates the best possible outcomes.”

As of 2023, more than 9,000 healthcare professionals worldwide, including from 35 countries, have participated in proctored webinars, live virtual events, and online education courses hosted on the Institute’s site.

Christopher Hairie, PT, DPT, MBA, is the lead therapist of inpatient rehabilitation services at Atrium Health Navicent in Macon, Georgia. He’s one of the many clinicians who regularly use Shepherd Center’s resources for continuing education support.

Each quarter, Dr. Hairie picks a new webinar topic from the NRLI, reserves a room at his hospital, and invites staff therapists to come together and discuss what they learn.

“We’ve been doing this over three years now, and it’s such a helpful resource,” Dr. Hairie says. “We typically have 10-20 therapists attend each time, both established and new graduate therapists. They get some continuing education hours and gain new knowledge they can apply in their work.”

Most recently, he presented his staff with a bladder training course from Shepherd Center’s NRLI catalog.

“In an acute care setting like ours, we typically haven’t done bladder training,” Dr. Hairie says. “But we have patients staying longer in our hospital, and we have patients who don’t have the resources to get that training elsewhere. So, we’re having to do that more often here. That’s something that just wasn’t in our knowledge base before, so going through Shepherd Center’s course was hugely beneficial.”

The NRLI can benefit Shepherd Center patients, too, when they return to their hometowns after discharge.

“The NRLI allows us to influence the quality of care and provide guidance to other medical professionals who treat similar patient populations,” Johnston says. “Sometimes, that can include our former patients who need ongoing, locally based care back home. We’re building relationships with clinicians across the country, so when they have questions, they know they can come to us.”

Written by Phillip Jordan