Welcome to your Skills Self-Guided Rollout Playbook. This self-serve guide moves your organization from initial setup to a fully operational Skills program — one that standardizes clinical onboarding, supports consistent competency evaluation, and keeps your organization audit-ready.
This playbook follows the ACES Framework, a proven four-phase methodology:
- ALIGN: Secure leadership commitment and define what success looks like.
- CLARIFY: Design your program structure, assignment plan, and monitoring workflow before your first Clinician is enrolled.
- ENABLE: Train your Admins, Preceptors, and Clinicians with role-specific resources and job aids.
- SUSTAIN: Launch your program, troubleshoot early blockers, and establish Skills as an ongoing part of your onboarding workflow.
Use this playbook when you're ready to:
- Replace paper checklists with a structured digital competency program
- Standardize onboarding and skill evaluation across your team or organization
- Assign ownership and accountability to clinical training workflows
- Track Clinician progress and maintain an audit-ready record of evaluations
How to use this playbook
The checkboxes below are visual cues to help you mentally track progress as you read — they won't save if you refresh the page. For actual tracking, use the Skills Rollout Workbook linked at the bottom of this page.
The Core Behaviors of Skills Success
- Named Ownership: Every program must have at least one named Admin responsible for building, assigning, and monitoring it.
- Assign Before You Launch: Clinicians and Preceptors must both be assigned to a program before orientation begins — without this, evaluation cannot occur.
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Three Admin behaviors that determine success:
- Build and review program structure before assigning users.
- Assign at least 2 Preceptors to every program to prevent evaluation gaps.
- Review the Outcomes Dashboard on a regular cadence to identify Clinicians falling behind.
⚠️ Plan Preceptor Assignments Carefully
Preceptors cannot currently be unassigned from a program once added. Revoking access requires removing the entire Preceptor role, which removes their evaluation access across all programs. Decide your Preceptor list before you build.
Investment: 8-10 hours for program design and setup, plus ongoing monitoring time (biweekly or monthly).
The ACES Framework Rollout Method
1 Phase 1: ALIGN — Get Leadership on the Same Page ▶
Rank Your Primary Driver for Skills
Most organizations have multiple reasons to adopt Skills, but one usually dominates. Rank these drivers from 1 (most important) to 4 (least important). Your top driver shapes how you communicate the program internally.
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Standardization — Replace inconsistent paper checklists with a single, structured digital program across all locations.
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Compliance & Audit Readiness — Maintain a timestamped, Preceptor-attributed record of every competency evaluation.
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Onboarding Quality — Ensure new Clinicians receive consistent training and evaluation regardless of who their Preceptor is.
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Visibility — Give managers and leaders real-time insight into where Clinicians are in their training without manual reporting.
Success Metrics & Targets
These four metrics define a healthy Skills program. Set targets now — you'll track against them in Phase 4.
| Metric | Target Range | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| % of Clinicians assigned to a program within first week of hire | 90–100% | Catches assignment gaps early — the most common rollout failure. |
| % of checklists completed on time | 80–90% | Indicates whether onboarding is keeping pace with hiring. |
| % of required skills signed off by a Preceptor | 85–95% | Direct measure of audit-readiness. |
| % of programs with 2+ active Preceptors assigned | 100% | Prevents single-point-of-failure on Preceptor availability. |
✓ Complete this phase when:
2 Phase 2: CLARIFY — Design Your Programs and Workflows ▶
Decide how your Skills programs will be structured and who owns each part of the workflow before you build anything in the platform.
Prefer to plan in a spreadsheet?
This phase is the most planning-heavy. The Skills Rollout Workbook has dedicated tabs for program structure, assignment plans, and Preceptor lists.
Program Design Decisions
Choose one organizing principle for your programs:
🔗 Designing a Skills Program — Full Guide
Program Structure Reference
| Level | What It Is | Best Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Program | The overall training initiative (e.g., "New Employee Onboarding") | One program per role or onboarding track. Name clearly and consistently. |
| Checklist | A phase or theme within the program (e.g., "Week 1 Orientation") | Keep checklists focused. Shorter checklists are easier to evaluate and track. |
| Skill | An individual observable task or behavior (e.g., "Hand hygiene") | Use clear, familiar language. Mark skills as Required if they affect completion reporting. |
Assignment Plan
- Identify which Preceptors will be assigned to each program. Minimum 2 per program.
- Determine Preceptor assignment level (clinic, region, or organization) based on your supervision structure.
- Identify any Collaborators (managers, educators, quality staff) who need view-only visibility into program progress.
- Decide whether to enable email notifications for Clinicians when they are assigned to a program.
Monitoring Workflow
✓ Complete this phase when:
3 Phase 3: ENABLE — Train Your Team ▶
This is where most rollouts fail — uneven training between Admins, Preceptors, and Clinicians. Use the role-specific resources, templates, and FAQs below to make sure every audience is prepared before launch.
Role-Specific Resources
Admin Build and manage programs.
Confirm Admins have the correct permissions in Education Management and have walked through program creation at least once.
Preceptor Evaluate Clinicians and document signoffs.
Ensure Preceptors know how to locate assigned Clinicians, evaluate skills, and add Evaluator Notes. A live 15-minute walkthrough beats sending the link cold (agenda below).
Clinician Complete self-assessments and review feedback.
Clinicians should know how to access their checklists, complete the self-assessment survey, and review Preceptor feedback.
Sample Clinician Announcement Email
Send this 1–2 days before assigning the first cohort. Replace bracketed placeholders.
Subject: Your Skills onboarding program starts [date]
Hi [Clinician name],
As part of your onboarding, you'll be using Medbridge Skills to complete your competency program. This replaces the paper checklists we've used in the past and gives you and your Preceptor a clearer view of your progress.
What to expect:
- You'll receive an assignment notification on [date].
- Your Preceptors are [Preceptor names].
- Plan to complete your self-assessment within the first [X] days.
If you have questions, reach out to [Admin name].
Welcome aboard,
[Your name]
15-Minute Preceptor Walkthrough Agenda
Run this once per Preceptor cohort before go-live. Live walkthroughs reduce week-one evaluation gaps significantly.
- (2 min) Why Skills, why now — share your primary driver from Phase 1.
- (3 min) Locating your assigned Clinicians — log in and navigate to the dashboard together.
- (5 min) Evaluating a skill — demo a signoff, including how to add an Evaluator Note.
- (2 min) Documentation expectations — set the standard for when notes are required.
- (3 min) Q&A — answer questions; capture anything you can't answer for follow-up.
Common Questions to Answer Before Launch
What if a Clinician's Preceptor changes mid-program? ▶
Assign the new Preceptor to the same program. The Clinician's existing signoffs are preserved; the new Preceptor picks up from where the prior one left off. Remember: previous Preceptors cannot be unassigned — their evaluation history remains in the audit trail.
Can a Clinician sign off their own checklist items? ▶
Clinicians complete a self-assessment on each skill, but only Preceptors can sign off a skill as competent. This separation is what makes the record audit-defensible.
How do we handle a Clinician who fails a competency evaluation? ▶
The Preceptor documents the gap in Evaluator Notes and leaves the skill unsigned. Define your remediation pathway organizationally — Skills records the evaluation but the remediation process lives outside the platform.
What happens to Clinician data if they leave the organization? ▶
Their evaluation history is preserved in your Education Management records for audit purposes. Deactivating a user removes their seat but does not delete their Skills history.
✓ Complete this phase when:
4 Phase 4: SUSTAIN — Launch, Troubleshoot & Monitor ▶
Launch the program, monitor performance against the targets you set in Phase 1, and establish a recurring review cadence to keep the program healthy long-term.
Success Metrics Tracking
Track against the targets defined in Phase 1. Review monthly for the first 90 days, then shift to your ongoing cadence.
| Metric | Target | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of new Clinicians assigned within first week | >90% | |||
| % of programs with 2+ active Preceptors | 100% | |||
| % of checklists completed on time | >80% | |||
| % of required skills signed off by Preceptor | >85% |
Troubleshooting Common Blockers
| Problem | Root Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Clinicians not appearing in Preceptor's dashboard | Assignment gap — Clinician and Preceptor not in the same program | Verify both are assigned to the same program in Education Management. |
| Checklists not being completed on time | Lack of awareness or competing priorities | Send reminders from the Outcomes Dashboard; escalate to manager or Collaborator. |
| Preceptor evaluations not being recorded | Preceptor unfamiliar with the evaluation workflow | Re-run the 15-minute walkthrough from Phase 3. |
| No visibility into progress after launch | Outcomes Dashboard not being reviewed regularly | Assign a monitoring owner and block recurring time on their calendar. |
| Audit trail incomplete or missing evaluator notes | Preceptors signing off without adding notes | Reinforce expectations; update skill descriptions to prompt documentation. |
The Monitoring Pulse (Ongoing)
After your first 90 days, shift to a biweekly or monthly review cadence using the same metrics.
| Review Period | Date | % Assigned On Time | % On Track | % Signed Off | Top Blocker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | |||||
| Period 2 | |||||
| Period 3 | |||||
| Period 4 |
Pro Tip
Use the Outcomes Dashboard export to populate this tracker. Share highlights with leadership monthly to maintain buy-in and visibility.
✓ Complete this phase when:
Prefer to plan your Skills rollout in a spreadsheet?
Download the Skills Rollout Workbook (Excel)