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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

Tapping the Power of Peer Mentoring

This is the second in a series of PHI Expert Interviews, which bring you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group – among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care workforce – and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the challenges facing the workforce and how to address them. We think you’ll be interested in what they’ve learned.

Peggy Powell is one of the founders of Cooperative Home Care Associates, the worker-owned home health agency that started PHI, where she served as director of education. Since joining PHI in 1991, she has worked with CHCA and other employers to develop strategies for recruiting, training, supervising, and supporting direct-care staff.

One of those strategies, peer mentoring, is gaining in popularity – and no wonder. Done right, a peer mentor program helps new direct-care workers get oriented to the job and the organization, bolstering their skills and their confidence. It also creates a career ladder for experienced workers.

And that’s not all, as Peggy has learned. Read the full story

I’ve made a lot of graduation speeches in my time, but the one I made at the beginning of this month was really special. I wasn’t asked to talk to the LNAs graduating from the Indiana County Technical Center in Indiana, Pennsylvania, because of my job title or official role. I wasn’t asked by an official from the school. I was invited by the students.

The director of the program told me the students chose the person who had had the greatest impact on them during their year of schooling. It was such an honor to be asked.

On May 12 and 13, I had taught the students about coaching supervision with my PHI colleague Francine Fineman and long-term care consultant Joanne Rader. They were so enthusiastic about what we had to tell them. They understood that they would be overseeing other caregivers’ work in their role as LPNs, so they embraced it from that point of view. They also saw applications for their personal lives.

Read the full story

The July issue of The Gerontologist is devoted to findings from the Better Jobs Better Care research and demonstration project. BJBC, which began in 2002 and ended in 2006, was the largest initiative in the nation ever created to address the high vacancy and turnover rates of direct-care workers by improving the quality of direct-care jobs. The initiative involved changing both public policy and employer practice. Demonstration grants were made to groups in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

A nine-page overview lays out how and why the project came into being, the problems affecting the direct-care workforce, and how awareness of and responsiveness to those problems is changing. The essay is by Robyn Stone (pictured), executive director of the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, and PHI President Steven Dawson. FAS and PHI conceived of BJBC and provided technical assistance to the grantees. Funding was supplied by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies.

Among the findings detailed in the issue:

• Direct-care workers across long-term settings identified more pay, improved communication, better supervision, and being treated with respect as the most important things employers could do to improve jobs.
• After accounting for satisfaction with wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities — good basic supervision was most important in affecting CNAs to stay in their jobs.
• There is a positive correlation between CNA job commitment and resident satisfaction.
• After accounting for satisfaction with wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities, good basic supervision was the most important factor behind commitment to the job. Read the full story

“If I had only one sentence, this would be it: Direct support work is a highly skilled job,” says Amy Hewitt.

“It’s not viewed that way by society – or, frankly, by many employers – but not everybody can do this job. You have to be smart; you have to be able to problem solve; you have to be flexible and a quick thinker. You also need patience and empathy and creativity. We’re not going to get anywhere in terms of policy advocacy or getting the supports we need in place without clearly articulating that this is a highly skilled job.”

Hewitt is a senior research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. The center’s mission is to support community living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and that has led to a focus on strengthening and supporting the direct support workforce.

Read the full story