The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is currently experiencing a significant deficit in the availability of skilled labor, particularly within the healthcare sector (1). The vacancy periods for physicians are x days, for specialist nurses y days, and for physiotherapists z days (2). As indicated by the Federal Employment Agency, the situation in Germany is anticipated to deteriorate further by 2025 (3). A similar situation has been described for other Western countries. Furthermore, health care facilities are encountering challenges in recruiting qualified medical professionals, resulting in a significant reliance on foreign staff. While hiring personnel from abroad is a viable strategy, the integration process is not always effective. The primary challenge is integrating the new staff members effectively into existing teams in order to ensure a smooth workflow (4). The challenge of rapid and efficient workforce integration can be addressed through the implementation of a structured onboarding process that encourages both professional and personal integration (5–7). It is therefore important for organizations to receive support in initiating such onboarding processes. A review of studies from Germany and other countries reveals a clear need for adequate support for culturally diverse teams in the healthcare sector. Healthcare organizations that lack appropriate support may face a number of challenges, including discrimination and stigmatization (8–10), inequality of opportunities (9, 11), and exclusion (12, 13). Additionally, language barriers (14) and communication problems (9, 14, 15) occur more frequently in such cases. A study from Germany on cultural diversity in hospitals describes issues concerning the transfer of information within teams, and difficulties in the execution of tasks due to cultural differences (15). Measures of support for diverse teams, on the other hand, can have a positive impact on the intention to stay (12, 16), job satisfaction (17), team performance (18, 19) and quality of care (15, 17, 19, 20).
In comparison to other healthcare sectors, rehabilitation facilities rely more heavily on the recruitment of foreign workers to address the deficit of skilled personnel (21). New employees in rehabilitation centers encounter numerous challenges when integrating into existing teams. These include the completion of paperwork, the documentation of treatments, adherence to planned workflows, collaboration across professional groups, and interaction with patients (4). Additional challenges emerge from the distinctive features of rehabilitative care in Germany, whose structures and processes differ significantly from those in nearly all other countries (4). The necessity for additional time to integrate new personnel from overseas impedes seamless collaboration within the organization, resulting in various issues.
Specific measures that facilitate collaboration in a diverse healthcare team include diversity trainings (19, 22, 23), diversity-sensitive leadership (13, 18), and mentoring programs (24, 25). Jansen and Hänel (26) investigated the integration of migrant doctors in rehabilitation facilities and developed training programs, demonstrating the significance of intercultural training, leadership training, structured initial interviews, and peer support programs. However, the implementation and maintenance of these measures requires substantial resources in terms of staff, time and finances. Furthermore, Jansen and Hänel (26) highlight the practical challenges of implementing time-intensive, face-to-face training courses, given the competing demands on the time and resources of already overburdened staff.
The present study addresses this issue. The development of a low-threshold digital training program focusing on diversity training, onboarding, and integration will be facilitated by the support of jointly developed content and digital learning units along individual learning paths. These units will utilize adaptive learning and nudging. The program will be qualitatively evaluated for rehabilitation personnel and HR managers. In addition, the digital training program will take into accountthe diversity characteristics of culture, origin, and migration history and their interaction (intersectionality) with other characteristics such as gender and age.
Diversity training is an effective tool for developing communication skills and working on personal attitudes to increase awareness and understanding of diversity measures. This has the effect of reducing stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (27). Furthermore, these courses facilitate the formation of more intimate relationships between individuals from disparate groups (27). The effectiveness of diversity training has been demonstrated across a range of industries (27, 28). In particular, during the period of the pandemic, scientists and trainers collaborated to develop methods for the online instruction of diversity skills. Diversity training programs have been demonstrated to foster enhanced confidence in navigating diversity among medical personnel, even when only consisting of brief online interventions (29, 30). While the use of static training content that is not adapted to participants may be perceived as a disadvantage compared to face-to-face events (29), this limitation can be overcome by the implementation of adaptive digital training programs. In addition to diversity training, a training tool for HR managers will be developed to support the onboarding process for employees. According to Bröckermann (2020), an onboarding process comprises eight stages: preparation, welcome, information, introduction, orientation, social integration, training, and assessment. These stages are interlinked and address both private matters, such as finding accommodation, and professional aspects, including behavior in the workplace (31).
The adaptive online tool will employ a variety of strategies to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills. The distinction between these approaches hinges on whether the content is conveyed through events with a certified educator (either in person or online) or in an online setting without the guidance of a professional instructor. Online learning environments (e-learning) with standardized training courses are frequently designed and structured in a similar manner for all learners. Such environments are non-adaptive e-learning contexts in which all users undergo the same training in a predetermined sequence and with identical content (32). Such solutions are, therefore, "one-fits-all" in nature, failing to account for the varying levels of knowledge among individual learners or the effectiveness of different learning strategies.
Furthermore, the concept of "nudging" will be incorporated into the instructional content of the digital training program. Nudging is a method that employs subtle cues, or "nudges," such as visual or textual incentives, to facilitate decisions that align with long-term goals or societal benefits (33). The design of such prompts should facilitate rapid comprehension of complex information and enable long-term adjustments to decisions or behavioral intentions based on facts (33). A nudge must be open to all available decision options. Rather, it should be conceptualized as a motivational stimulus that ultimately addresses an individual's behavioral tendencies (33). As part of the digital training program to be developed, the use of nudges will be employed with the aim of enhancing awareness of diversity-relevant topics. Furthermore, the objective is to prepare the learning content in a concise manner in order to minimize the time required by staff members.
The participatory development and qualitative evaluation of a fully digital training program for healthcare staff and HR managers in rehabilitation facilities aims to promote diverse teams. The training content will be designed for existing staff members with and without a migration history, as well as for newly recruited staff from abroad. The digital program provides adaptive learning, diversity training, onboarding, and integration guidelines for rehabilitation centers, with the aim of dynamically tailoring the content to the individual, resulting in individual learning paths.