PHI has released a comprehensive evaluation (pdf 604k) of its Northern New England LEADS Institute, a three-year demonstration project to improve the quality of direct-care jobs at 12 participating nursing homes and home care agencies in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The results showed decreased turnover at sites with strong implementation of coaching supervision and peer mentoring. All sites received training, technical assistance, and cross-learning opportunities.

Specific results include:

• Turnover for direct-care workers decreased from 2006 to 2007 for five of the ten sites (for which there are complete data).
• Two of the three organizations with very strong and sustainable coaching supervision and peer mentoring programs achieved reductions in both turnover and call outs.
• Five of the nine organizations with strong implementation of one or more LEADS interventions improved on turnover and/or calls outs.

In addition to reduced turnover, the LEADS evaluation found improvements related to job satisfaction. An increased percentage of home care workers reported being fairly treated by their supervisors and satisfaction with the support received from co-workers and/or peer mentors. Nursing home workers reported increased satisfaction with opportunities for career development and training.

The success of the project, according to one key respondent, was related to “the very targeted expertise that PHI brings in coaching supervision, peer mentoring, and site assessments. The sites that have taken advantage of that are clearly better off for it.”

“We are very pleased with the findings of the evaluation, and know that the LEADS interventions do make a difference at nursing homes and home health agencies,” said Alexandra Olins, PHI’s Northern New England Director, who managed the project for three years.

“Effecting sustainable organizational and behavioral changes and measuring their long-term impact takes time and a significant investment of resources. We look forward to continuing to assess the impact of these interventions with the LEADS II sites, and to further developing our business investment calculator, a tool for quantifying the real costs and benefit of workforce interventions.”

In 2005, PHI launched the Northern New England LEADS (Leadership, Education, and Advocacy for Direct Care and Support) Institute with funding from Jane’s Trust and the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation. Thanks to ongoing support from Langeloth, PHI will continue to work with six of the original LEADS sites for the next two years.