Be In the Know!

Has your budget for continuing education been cut or put on hold during this economic downturn?  When money is tight, it’s typical for many organizations to look at staff training as “non-essential”.  But, consider these results from a recent study of nearly 1200 companies, comparing the impact of recruiting externally with that of developing current employees.

• 75% of the 1,189 companies involved in the study felt that training their own staff was more beneficial to their business than recruiting people from outside.
• 50% of the companies discovered that training staff made them more likely to stay.
• 33% found that continuing education increased staff motivation, and
• Almost 50% saved money in the process.

In an article about the study, senior researcher, Emma Parry, said: “With training budgets often the first to go in a recession, this research demonstrates that ‘growing your own’ is an effective way for organizations to obtain the skills that they need while saving money.”

“I wasn’t surprised by the findings, but it is nice to have the evidence,” she said, adding that it makes sense that money spent on advertising, interviews and orientation programs can often be better spent on existing staff.

“It also helps staff retention because employees are more likely to stay if they are being developed. They are more committed and are more likely to go the extra mile if they feel the company is helping them to expand their skills,” she said.

Parry added that the problem was that companies often didn’t see the value of investing in training until it was too late. “Sometimes training is seen as nonessential, and when budgets get tight, companies start to look at what they can save money on. But to be honest, cutting training is a false economy.”

What’s the bottom line?  Organizations must focus on nurturing the employees they have if they are to survive, grow and succeed.  This is especially true for certified nursing assistants due to the increasing demand for their services. As the above study shows, effective training reduces staff turnover and absenteeism, improves motivation, increases productivity and helps boost customer satisfaction.

Don’t let a tight budget diminish the quality of your continuing education program.  For starters, be sure to download our free inservice, Customer Service in Health Care.  And, if you’d like help creating a cost-efficient CNA inservice plan, give us a call at 877-809-5515.  We offer options suitable for every education budget!

Last week, the results of a Penn State study on occupational injuries were revealed.  It should come as no surprise that nursing assistants and home health aides were high on the “injured list”.  However, the researchers found that on-the-job injuries caused a lot more than just a few aches and pains.  They also led to increased CNA turnover and, potentially, a bad reputation in the community!  Here’s what Deirdre McCaughey, assistant professor of health policy and administration had to say:

“In our research, we saw a cascading effect.  Employees who had no training or did not believe their training prepared them well had more injuries.  Those employees were also much less likely than non-injured employees to recommend their organization as a place at which to work or seek services.”

Here are some other findings of the study:

• Employees who felt ill-prepared were three times more likely to be injured than employees who were well-trained.
• Employees who felt poorly supervised were also more likely to be injured–not just once, but multiple times.
• Cutting back on training to shave the budget increased employees’ injury risk and turnover rates.  In the long run, this boosted costs rather than saving money!

You’ve probably experienced it firsthand.  When money gets tight, education is one of the first things to go…especially at the nursing assistant level.  But are you really saving money?  What are the injury and turnover rates at your workplace?  If asked, do you think your CNAs would consider themselves both well-trained and well-supervised? Would they recommend your organization as a place to work or as a place to receive care?

At In the Know, we strive to provide quality CNA continuing education to meet every budget.  If you’d like to discuss how you can maintain a top-notch team of (healthy) nursing assistants please give us a call at 877-809-5515.  With more than 130 inservice topics, including modules on safe transfers, back care, the CNA/Nurse relationship and personal wellness, we can meet your CNAs’ learning needs.

Happy Teaching!

Linda

The dictionary defines compassion as “a deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve that suffering.” So, for someone to be compassionate, he or she must be able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, AND act on his or her desire to lessen that person’s suffering or unhappiness.

It can be hard to always know whether or not your nurse aides act in a compassionate manner while on the job.  That’s why it’s so important to encourage compassionate behavior.  By studying our newly added inservice called “The Caring Qualities of a CNA,” your nurse aides will learn everything they can do to have more empathy, compassion, patience, dedication and respect for their clients.

A Peek Inside the Inservice:

Whether or not you can TEACH compassion is a question that is hard to answer.  However, as a nurse educator, you can ENCOURAGE your nurse aides to be more compassionate.  Try sharing the following tips with your CNAs:

• Remember to put your clients’ needs before your own.
• Treat people fairly and with respect and dignity.
• Show kindness without expecting rewards.
• Get to know your clients.
• Comfort your client’s family members who may be stressed and/or grieving.
• Be sensitive and allow people to vent their frustrations.
• Listen when people confide in you.
• Be friendly to any new co-workers who seem to be overwhelmed.
• Help a co-worker without being asked.
• Try to understand someone you don’t like or with whom you disagree.
• Accept people for who they are–faults and all!

Click here to see a sample page of “The Caring Qualities of a CNA.”

It’s a fact: adult learners enjoy lively continuing education sessions.  But, coming up with ways to spice up your CNA inservice meetings can be challenging.  Here are six tips that may help:

1.  Every month, insert a crisp new $1.00 bill in a couple of the inservice handout packets.  If you conduct your inservices in a group setting, ask the lucky recipients to read part of the inservice out loud or to “volunteer” for the participatory activities.
2.  To promote participation during the inservice, pick a “secret word” or “secret phrase” prior to the inservice.  It should be a word or phrase that is likely to be said by a participant during the learning session.  Write it down on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.  When someone says the secret word or phrase, make a big fuss and give that person a prize.  You can even have two or three secret words prepared to keep the group alert and active throughout the entire inservice.
3.  During an inservice–especially one that’s on a serious topic–take a few minutes to get rid of stress.  Pass out some “stress-reducers” such as squeeze balls, bubble gum or rubber bands.  Make paper airplanes and race them.  Or inflate balloons and let them loose.
4.  Reward participation during inservice meetings.  using “Monopoly money”, give out a bill for each contribution to the topic at hand.  Allow your CNAs to redeem the play money for little prizes (candy, magazines, pretty pens, etc.) that “cost” a certain amount of play money each.
5.  Put a disposable tablecloth on the table during your inservices.  Let your nurse aides draw or write on it (before and after the inservice and during a two minute break in the middle of the meeting).
6.  To encourage group discussion or to make it easier to break into teams, copy each inservice onto two or more different colors of pastel paper.  Group the participants together based on the color of their inservice.  Or, ask for a member of each group to comment on a discussion question.

Using one or more of these simple strategies is bound to enliven your educational sessions and enhance learning…so, happy teaching!

Quality inservices develop top-notch CNAs!

Is part of your job as a nursing supervisor or nurse educator to develop monthly inservices for your nursing assistants? If so, you know how time consuming that process can be. Perhaps you’ve considered purchasing “ready-made” topics from a company (like In the Know) that sells CNA inservices. You’re really tempted, but are not sure it’s worth the cost. Here are five tips for helping you make that decision:

1.  Tally Your Time.

Next time you need to prepare an inservice, keep track of how much time you spend. Remember to include the time it takes you to think of a topic, come up with learning objectives, research and write the inservice, create some handouts, develop a quiz and produce an evaluation form. Chances are, this will take at least 10 hours of your time. Multiply that by your salary and you’ll probably be shocked at what one inservice is costing your workplace! By purchasing inservices, you avoid “reinventing the wheel” and can bring down your cost per inservice considerably.

2.  Do a Quality Check.

No matter how knowledgeable you are about the nursing field, creating inservices may not come easily to you. It requires a variety of “non-nursing” skills such as knowing how to research quickly and effectively, being a good writer and having some computer savvy. Are the inservices you’re creating capturing the attention of your CNAs? Do they provide an in-depth study of each topic? If not, they may not be having a positive effect on client care. Inservices from a respected inservice company can spark interest for both you and your aides. However, before making a purchase, insist on trying out a sample inservice. You’ll want to see the quality of their product for yourself.

3.  Take a Look at Compliance.

We all get in a rut, causing us to do something a certain way just because that’s how it’s always been done. But, when you look at your current system for providing inservices, is it really working? For example, do your CNAs skip inservice meetings because they are too busy or just aren’t interested? Do you struggle to get all your nursing assistants to meet their inservice hours by the end of the year? If so, there is probably an easier way. A quality inservice provider can give you a flexible, easy-to-institute inservice program that will please you, your CNAs and any surveyors that come your way.

4.  Eye Your Inventory.

Over time, you’ve probably built up a library of inservice topics. Take a peek at what you’ve got to offer your nursing assistants. The basics are probably there: standard precautions, nutrition, Alzheimer’s disease, abuse, confidentiality. And, you might find yourself reusing these topics with each newly hired group of CNAs. But, it’s important to meet the learning needs of your aides by offering a wide variety of inservice topics. Coming up with mandatory topics, disease process inservices, psychosocial issues and basic skill reviews could be a full time job and/or eat into your personal time! A good inservice provider has dozens of topics from which to choose. And, the more your CNAs know, the more they can achieve!

5.  Ask Your CNAs.

To find out if your current inservice offerings are meeting the needs of your nursing assistants, ask them! You might distribute an evaluation form or have an informal group discussion. Ask questions such as: Do our current inservices prepare you to succeed at your job? Do you feel that your skills are enhanced by every inservice you complete? Are the inservices providing you with information that you can apply in your daily client care? If your CNAs answer “no” more often than “yes”, then it may be time to try an inservice provider. Quality inservice education should do more than fulfill state requirements. It should enhance the professionalism of your nurse aides and improve your client care. So, take the time to investigate inservice providers and find the one that helps you develop a team of top-notch CNAs.

We all know that ongoing education leads to reduced turnover and greater job satisfaction. Not to mention that

Do your CNAs retain knowledge from inservices?

continuing education is a yearly requirement for nurse aides! But, how do you know the information you provide to your nurse aides “sticks?”  Here are some staggering statistics regarding adult learning retention. Over a period of three days:

• Adults retain 10% of information that is read
• Adults retain 30% of information that is seen
• Adults retain 50% of information that is seen and heard
• Adults retain 90% of information that is said and done (applying learning to real life situations)

Many factors affect adult learning retention including age, level of prior education and motivation.  In some of our previous posts, we have given you ideas on how to motivate your nurse aides by keeping education fresh and interesting.  Below are some additional strategies your organization can take with continuing education to ensure that your nurse aides actually retain the information you are giving them.

• Touch upon a medley of learning styles – As you know, our inservices may be used in a group setting or as self-study modules.  If you choose self-study, perhaps get the group in a few times a year to interact in team activities.
• Encourage nurse aide participation – If using the self-study option, set aside time to address any questions your nursing assistants may have regarding the inservice material. If using group participation, use real-life situations, etc. to stimulate discussion.
• Use variety – Adding visual aides to reading material, such as PowerPoints, greatly enhances learning retention.
• Use active learning – Group discussions and activities, problem solving activities that involve critical thinking skills, games, etc. all lead to greater learning retention.
• Review job performance – Check for retention by making sure your caregivers are applying what they have learned to their responsibilities.  Give continuous feedback and address any issues as they arise.

What do you do to make sure your nurse aides retain the information you share with them? Please share any tips and suggestions with us.  We would love to hear from you!

It’s common for nursing assistants to feel like they are powerless in the workplace. They may think of themselves as the least important employees—unable to make a difference no matter what they do. It’s important to remind your employees that they do have power…and to help them recognize it.

Their personal power comes from their communication skills and their desire for personal achievement.

Their relationship power comes from their ability to work well with others.

Their knowledge power comes from their experiences on the job and from their continuing education efforts. (Remind your employees that knowledge is power and that the more they know about their work, the more valuable they’ll be to your organization–and to their clients.)

Their task power comes from their daily work. Their close contact with clients gives them a unique ability to make suggestions for improving client care. Because nursing assistants perform up to 80% of the client care for your organization, they have the power to make or break the reputation of your company.

The Bottom Line: Encourage your nurse aides to make every decision on the job as if they owned the company! And be sure to acknowledge when you see them demonstrate their importance to your health care team.

Happy Teaching!
Linda