Be In the Know!

Lack of support has often been cited as a major factor in the turnover of nurse aides.  One way your organization can reduce the crushing expense of nurse aide turnover is to implement a quality inservice program.  Think about this…….it costs on average, a year’s wages to replace an employee.  Do you know your nurse aide turnover rate?  It’s easy.

Divide the number of CNAs who terminated with you (for any reason) during the past 12 months by the average number of CNAs you had on staff for the same 12 months.  You will get a percentage number.  Ideally, the closer you are to 0%, the better, however, that is nearly impossible for any employer.  Did you know the industry average for CNA turnover is 93%?  That means that at least 9 out of 10 CNAs leave their employment within a 12 month period of being hired!

What can you do to keep the turnover rate low in your organization?  Consistent on-the-job training can make the difference between a CNA staying or leaving.  Certainly, competitive pay ranks as equally important but many employers find that their workers care very strongly about the training and education opportunities available to them at work.  Ongoing training is imperative to keeping nurse aides enthused and informed about their job responsibilities.  Most importantly, it gives them the tools they need to perform their duties properly.

Nursing assistants are the heart of your business!   Time is precious in the healthcare field, however, your nurse aides are on the “front line” everyday with their clients.  Empowering them with a solid, quality education program will result in lower turnover rates, and most importantly, enhanced client care.

How is the nurse aide retention rate in your organization?  Please share any tips you have for keeping quality nurse aides.  Or, share the challenges you have with your organization’s retention.  We would love to hear from you!

Best wishes,

Maria

Maria Easton (mariaeaston@knowingmore.com)

The internet offers some terrific options for nursing paraprofessionals who are looking to learn new things. However, it’s easy to get “lost” in cyberspace when searching for relevant information. Here are just a few sites that we feel have a lot to offer CNAs—and anyone who works in health care. You may want to pass them on to your nursing assistants and/or home health aides.

Nursing Assistant Resources on the Web
For ten years, three nursing assistants named Patti, Kim and Heather have worked diligently to create a central location for CNAs to access information on the web. They believe that “the more informed CNAs are, the better quality work they will produce.”

On this site, you’ll find a blog filled with important information for CNAs and anyone who is part of the healthcare system. I regularly read their blog postings! The blog is interactive which means readers can post their comments (the same as here on the In the Know blog).

Nursing Assistant On-line Video Lessons
Your CNAs are bound to find the Nursing Assistant On-line Video Lessons interesting. This site was created by Fox Valley Technical College and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College as a resource for nursing assistant students.

While the videos are copyrighted, you are welcome to watch them online for free. There are 80 different videos to help CNA students reinforce their classroom learning and to give working CNAs a refresher on a variety of topics. The videos alone cannot count as inservices, but they still provide a great learning experience.

Nursing Assistant Central
This is another great site that has great information for both students and working CNAs. This website offers information about becoming a CNA and tips for succeeding as a CNA.

There is also a very active message board which provides an excellent place to ask questions, learn and socialize with others in the field. All are welcome to participate, whether you’re a past, present or prospective CNA.

We recommend taking a long look around Nursing Assistant Central. You’re bound to learn a thing or two. We did!

National Network of Career Nursing Assistants
Have your heard of the National Network of Career Nursing Assistants? It is a non-profit educational organization that promotes recognition, education, research, advocacy and peer support development for nursing assistants in nursing homes and other long term care settings. Genevieve Gipson NA RN MEd RNC is the director. She advocates tirelessly for direct-care workers across the United States.

One of our favorite spots on this site is a page of Frequently Asked Questions. These questions (and answers) relate to transferring CNA certification from one state to another, finding a local CNA training program, and much much more!

Last but not least, you may want your nurse aides to check out our Just for CNAs blog. On it, we strive to provide them with information that will help them in both their careers and their personal lives.

Till next time,
Linda

Linda Leekley BS, RN

Have you ever hired nursing assistants and, after HR paperwork and a quick tour of your facility or agency, sent them off to a full day’s work? Does orientation seem like a waste of time with CNAs? After all, many of them don’t stick around long, so why bother? Well, here’s a tale from my past that spells out the problem with that theory:

When I started my first job as a new nursing graduate, it was on a busy hematology/oncology unit at a big teaching hospital. I was green, intimidated and in need of a good orientation. Did I receive it? Nope…instead I was thrown into a full patient assignment. (There was a preceptor assigned to me, but she was busy with her own caseload.) When I expressed my concerns to my preceptor, she said to me, “Look, we know an orientation would be nice. But, you’re a warm body to fill a spot on this shift. Just do the best you can because none of us have time to help you.”

What happened? Well, thankfully, I avoided causing any harm to my patients! But, my stress level went sky high; I felt alienated from my co-workers; and I spent my days off worrying about work. Before long, I developed strep throat and walking pneumonia. After a month, I transferred to another oncology unit where the staff was willing to orient me.

So, guess what? Once again, the heme/onc unit was short staffed! Their neglect of my learning needs was shortsighted and cost them another “warm body”. And, as time went on, I found out that the cycle continued; very few nurses wanted to work on that unit. Their attitude about orientation harmed everyone: the supervisor, the staff and the patients!

It’s the same with nursing assistants. If they are not oriented properly to their role within your workplace, they are likely to become stressed, overwhelmed and anxious to move on to another job. This vicious cycle is part of why CNA turnover is so high across the United States.

There is good news. Studies have shown that, on average, when an organization institutes a high quality orientation, their turnover rate decreases by 50% within two years! That’s one reason why we developed a complete CNA Orientation Program entitled, “Getting Off to a Good Start”. We wanted to help you with your aide retention rates AND provide the tools and support that nursing assistants need when they begin a new job.

“Getting Off to a Good Start” includes information on professionalism, communication, teamwork, patient rights, infection control, time management, stress management, personal wellness, customer service, cultural diversity, quality improvement, documentation and LOTS of practical client care tips. And, the program gives the learner SIX hours of inservice credit…right off the bat!

If you want more information on our CNA Orientation Program, please feel free to give us a call at 877-809-5515. We’re happy to answer any questions you have and/or email you a preview of the program.

Happy Hiring!
Linda

Linda Leekley BS, RN
www.knowingmore.com

Continuing education should do more than fulfill annual inservice requirements. It should meet the learning needs of your CNAs and, in turn, have a measurable impact on client care. That’s what you get when you use inservices from In the Know. Consider these examples from just a few of our customers:

Renee F. at Fountainbleau Nursing Center: “We were having a large number of falls among our residents. We gave our CNAs the ‘Understanding Fall Risk Factors’ inservice to educate them on this issue. In the past month, our falls have been cut in half!”

Temika Y. at Generation Solutions: “After presenting the ‘Understanding Diabetes’ inservice to our home health aides, one aide recognized the signs of hypoglycemia and impending insulin shock in her client. She called EMS and literally saved the client’s life because of the information she learned from In the Know!”

Beth R. at Bellamy Fields Assisted Living: “Our CNAs had poor documentation skills–and were even using ‘White Out’! We purchased In the Know’s inservice, ‘Reporting & Documenting Client Care’, and made it a requirement for every nursing assistant. Their documentation has improved significantly!”

Wouldn’t you like to see measurable results like these from your inservice program? You can! Start developing top-notch CNAs today by creating your own library of In the Know inservices.

If your budget is tight, start with one key inservice that addresses a specific aspect of client care that you’d like to improve. We also offer special discounts when you buy three, six, nine or twelve inservices.

And, be sure to download our FREE inservice, Customer Service in Health Care. Many of our customers have noted a measurable increase in both employee and patient satisfaction after presenting this inservice to their nursing assistants. So, take action today and start seeing measurable results tomorrow!

Happy Teaching,
Linda Leekley BS, RN

Are you responsible for selecting inservice materials for your nursing assistants? If so, here are a few tips to help you get the best product for meeting the learning needs of your aides.

1. Look for a Wide Range of Well-Written, Relevant Topics
Most nursing supervisors agree that providing aides with knowledge of problem solving, communication skills, self-care and stress management are just as important as teaching them about a disease process. When selecting an inservice provider, make sure the company offers a variety of topics including mandatory topics, psycho-social issues, basic skill reviews, disease processes and professional development issues.

Find out who develops the inservices. While it may look impressive to have physicians authoring the inservices, how much direct experience do most physicians have with nursing assistants? Ask if the authors have taught and/or supervised CNA’s.

A first-rate inservice provider should offer current information in each inservice and should update topics on a regular basis. And, since a good way to encourage retention of your nursing assistants is to create a “career ladder” for them, review the available topics to see if they support career advancement for your aides.

Do the inservices contain quick “soundbytes” of information on a variety of topics or are they an in-depth study of one topic? To be of real value, look for inservices that get to the real heart of a subject.

Quality inservices should also help learners think “outside the box” so they are prepared for the unexpected situations that will occur during client care. Pick an inservice provider who encourages critical thinking.

2. Make Sure the Inservices Are Easy to Use
Time is probably the most precious commodity for any nursing supervisor, right? A good inservice provider recognizes this and will help you save time in your busy schedule.

Look for inservices that can be utilized in a variety of ways. For example, can the inservice be offered as a self-study packet as well as a group presentation?

Videotapes may seem easy to use, but consider the fact that learners have no way to review the information later, at their own pace. Your aides may prefer an inservice which provides handouts that they can keep and reread.

Sometimes, the need for an inservice is immediate. Find out if the inservice provider can get you the materials right away, via email, when you need them.

3. Consider the Value You’re Getting for Your Money
Creating an inservice yourself can easily eat up 12 hours—or more—of your time each month. Multiply that time by your hourly salary and you’ll see that each inservice is costing hundreds of dollars! Keep this in mind when you evaluate the cost of purchasing inservices from a provider. In addition, be sure to ask these key questions:

Is the price of each inservice for a “one time” use or can the inservice be used over and over, indefinitely?

If your workplace has multiple locations, can you get a discount if you order inservices for every location?

4. Assess the Company’s Customer Service & Satisfaction
You can tell a lot about an inservice provider from their customer service. Ideally, it should be easy to get in touch with the provider’s customer service representatives. They should be willing and able to answer all your questions and should readily provide you with references. (We recommend that you take time to contact a few references. They can give you the real scoop about the quality of the inservices, how the staff reacts to them and the level of customer service you can expect after you make your purchase.)

There are a number of other factors that influence how satisfied you’ll be with an inservice provider. Of course, you’ll want any inservices you purchase to pass muster with surveyors. Ask the provider how their inservices will help meet your survey requirements…and how a surveyor will know that your aides have completed a particular inservice.

Enhancing the quality of client care is a key goal of CNA inservice education. Look to see if the available inservices provide the knowledge necessary to meet the needs of your client population. To improve client satisfaction, you should also look for topics that boost the skills of your CNA’s.

When you purchase inservices from a quality provider, your aides should look forward to each inservice, rather than dreading it as something to get through. Check to see that the inservices are presented in an engaging manner and that they encourage participation and discussion. Insist on a free sample topic that you can try out with your nursing assistants…before you make a purchase.

Have you noticed a shortage of nursing assistants? The CDC estimates that by 2030, the U.S. will need at least 25% more CNA’s than are working today. By carefully selecting a quality inservice provider, you’ll be taking an important step toward building a satisfied and professional CNA staff.

Happy Teaching,
Linda Leekley