A new American Health Care Association (AHCA) paper presents more than 100 strategies that are designed to improve staff satisfaction among long-term care workers, including direct-care staff, in nursing homes. Read the full story

This is the first in a series examining how state budget cuts are affecting long-term care across America.

A $700 million cut to the Massachusetts state budget has many wondering how long-term care services will be affected.

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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.

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Graduates of the PHI coaching supervision train-the-trainer program recently gathered outside Philadelphia to share their skills, ideas and experiences at a peer gathering sponsored by PHI’s Center for Coaching Supervision and Leadership (CCSL). The gathering took place Sept. 17 and 18 at the Villanova Conference Center.

Over 50 participants from as far away as Oregon and North Carolina traveled to Pennsylvania to deepen their coaching supervision skills and share lessons learned. Trainers were able to connect with others who were at various stages of implementing coaching supervision, and to participate in skill-building workshops. Read the full story

The final report’s executive summary
A research brief outlining the study’s findings (pdf)
The implementation manual (pdf)

Home health agencies that want to improve staff retention and client outcomes will find some unexpected results and useful lessons in a report recently posted to the US HHS/ASPE Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy website.

Home Health Aide (HHA) Partnering Collaborative Evaluation: Final Report (pdf) assesses the impact of an effort to truly incorporate home health aides into care teams. The initiative was implemented in 2003 by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) and several of its licensed agency partners.

“It’s working because the aides feel more involved in the team, and they appreciate that,” says Daisy Diaz, supervising coordinator for Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), one of the participating agencies. “They work hard, and it’s good for them to get acknowledged.”

It’s also good for the agency and its clients to get more regular and immediate input from the aides, Diaz adds. “They call us right away now to let us know about any issues with the patients. They also call the nurse.” Read the full story

Directors of nursing, human resource staff, and administrators of nursing homes can learn about how to reduce turnover at a free technical assistance webinar on September 25.

Experts including long-term care consultants Barbara Frank and David Farrell, Marguerite McLaughlin of Quality Partners of Rhode Island, and more will discuss the variables affecting recruitment and retention and describe a variety of interventions and best management practices that can improve retention. Among the presenters is Doug Motter of Homestead Village in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who will talk about how staff has been affected by the culture change process his facility is going through, which includes implementing the coaching model of supervision.

The Staff Stability webinar is the last in a series of three webinars offered by the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign. The others focused on reducing restraints and assessing resident satisfaction.

Details and registration information (pdf)

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org