Be In the Know!

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!

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!

Are you looking for new ways to present In the Know Inservices to your staff members?  We’ve been fortunate to have so much helpful feedback from nursing supervisors over the years.  In this blog entry, we will share some creative ideas that will keep your continuing education classes fresh and exciting.

• Try handing out the supplied puzzles and word searches the day before the classes so your CNAs know how much they need to learn.  From what might presumably be quite a few wrong answers, or from the multiple questions that they can’t answer, they will understand the importance of the upcoming inservice training session.
• Some supervisors tell us that they have improved their aides’ attitudes towards their monthly classes by making them more interactive.  Everyone likes to offer input.  Allowing each aide the chance to offer their perspective on the topic improves the training atmosphere immensely.
• Try splitting your class into two or more groups.  Have each group come up with a discussion question for another group to answer.  This promotes leadership, problem solving, self-reliance and cohesiveness among the aides.
• Another supervisor told us that she pulls interesting facts from each of our inservices and distributes them on separate strips of paper to the class.  Throughout the inservice, she asks each participant to read his or her fact to the class.
• Some nurses keep the interest level high by having each aide “teach” an inservice topic once a year, with the assistance of the inservice coordinator.  This opportunity helps the aides practice assertiveness (a much needed asset for working with difficult clients) and also allows them to shine in a public presentation.
• We’ve heard about a supervisor that tapes a $5 bill in two or three copies of the inservice each month.  Word is that the CNAs get very excited about “winning the prize” every month.
• Additional pay per hour is offered by some administrators if any of their aides complete a certain number of In the Know inservices in a year.
• After the inservice has been presented, some instructors ask each participant to tell the class something new that they have learned about the topic.

If you have used other games or can think of some fun ways to present an inservice topic, we’d love to hear from you.  Please leave your comments!  Thanks and happy teaching!

Evan Leekley
In the Know, Inc.
evanleekley@knowingmore.com