Be In the Know!

Twenty years ago, when I worked at Duke University Medical Center, I remember clearly how some of my co-workers viewed their colleagues in home care.  I was precepting a newly hired nurse to our oncology unit.  A number of the “old timers” on the unit whispered to me, “Good luck training her!  She doesn’t have any skills…she’s been working as a home health nurse!” The general consensus seemed to be that home care was the “red-headed stepchild” of the health care industry.

Things have definitely changed!  Home care has now taken the lead as the fastest growing sector of the health care industry.  Here are some statistics to prove it:

• According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the number of patients needing home care after hospitalization is up by a whopping 70 percent!

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 22 percent employment growth through 2018 for health care in general, but home health jobs are expected to increase by more than 46 percent.

Many of those job openings will be for home health aides.  As home care agencies struggle to fill positions, it will be more challenging than ever to develop and maintain a team of top-notch HHAs.  That’s where In the Know can help.  With more than 140 topics, we’ve got an inservice that addresses nearly any issue that might arise for your home health aides.  If you would like assistance in putting together either an orientation program for newly hired aides or a continuing education program, please give us a call.

Oh…and my colleagues at Duke were wrong.  That former home health nurse did just fine on the unit!  And, a couple of years later, I moved on from the hospital to work in home care myself.

Congratulations to home health for finally being recognized in the media as such an important part of our health care system.  And, a big thank you to all you home health nurses and aides out there for the vital work you do!

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!

It’s a new year…and time for a fresh look at how you present your CNA inservices.  Are you making the most out of your inservice meetings?  Do your nursing assistants come away from your inservices knowing more about their clients and excited to put that new knowledge to use?  If not, here are a few quick tips to help you develop a top-notch team of CNAs in 2010:

Convey your passion for nursing during inservice presentations. If your nursing assistants sense that you are excited about client care, they are more likely to be enthusiastic, too.  On the flip side, if you seem bored while presenting inservice materials, your CNAs are likely to be bored by you and the inservice!

Help your CNAs bridge the gap between learning and doing. It’s great to present an inservice full of important facts, but how does that information translate to the “real world” at your workplace?  For example, you can teach your nurse aides that they should observe for the signs and symptoms of depression, especially in older clients.  But, what do you want them to do with their observations?  Go beyond the facts and have your CNAs practice documenting and/or reporting their observations.  Get a discussion going about what resources are available if a client is depressed.  By thinking outside the box, you’ll do more than teach; you’ll develop CNAs who think critically and follow thoughts with actions.

Listen when your CNAs voice their opinions. Some of your nursing assistants may have worked in health care longer than you have!  Show them that you respect their experience by encouraging them to voice their opinions about client care.  For example, you may feel like “tuning out” when an aide says, “In my previous workplace, we did it this way.” Instead, take notice.  Ask the CNA what makes the “old way” better.  This opens a discussion and creates an atmosphere where you both might learn something.

During your inservices, make use of real-life situations—with the names concealed or changed to protect client confidentiality. For example, when teaching about diabetes, prepare an example of a current or former diabetic client.  Give a scenario that calls for action from a CNA and ask for suggestions as to how they would handle it.  As you discuss each response, relate it directly to the information in the inservice.

Have a system for following up. To ensure that your aides retain what they learn during your inservice meetings, come up with a simple way to “test” them on what they know.  For example, at each inservice meeting, start out by asking three or four key questions about last month’s topic.  Offer a small prize or treat for the right answers.  This will ensure that your CNAs come prepared to answer your questions!

How do you make the most of your inservice meetings?  Do you have some tips to share with fellow educators?  We’d love to hear from you.  You may make a comment below or email me at lindaleekley@knowingmore.com.  Thanks!

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