How Direct-Care Worker Training Services Can Help Ensure Employee Success

PHI’s entry-level and in-service competency-based trainings address the full range of skills, knowledge, and attitudes direct-care workers need to deliver quality care. We have over 15 years of experience designing and delivering adult learner-centered training programs for direct-care workers–personal care aides, home health aides, and certified nursing assistants.

Because of the emphasis on supporting learning–and also holding them accountable to higher learning standards–our programs have been shown to increase the employment success of graduates.

PHI direct-care worker training programs can help your organization to:

• Equip entry level staff with the core clinical, relational, and communication skills they need to begin and remain successful on the job.
• Improve in-house training by providing your internal trainers with a shared conceptual framework, common skill-set, and language to implement effective adult learner-centered programs.
• Enhance the quality of care and increase productivity by fully preparing and supporting your direct-care staff for the challenges they face on the job.

Training Design and Curriculum Development Services

PHI offers a full range of training and curriculum development services. We partner with provider organizations, workforce development agencies, union training funds, public authorities, community colleges, and state education and labor departments to design training programs, develop curriculum, and train trainers.

Designing Training Programs

PHI consultants can help you design and implement effective learner-centered training programs for new or incumbent direct-care workers. Depending on your specific needs, we can partner with you to design an entry-level training program, from recruitment and selection strategies through working with employers to ensure high retention. Or, we can provide consultation on specific aspects of program development. For example, we can work with you to:

• Determine the scope of your training needs through a competency assessment.
• Choose and/or adapt appropriate material.
• Sequence course content and develop a training program schedule.
• Identify a training team and assess the team’s need for skill development or support.
• Provide a train-the-trainer program to familiarize trainers with the content of your training program and the adult learner-centered approach to teaching.
• Design appropriate evaluation tools.

Tailoring PHI Curriculum

PHI offers several direct-care worker training curricula online at no cost: a model 77-hour entry-level personal care curriculum, a 2-day peer mentoring program, and a one-day communication skills workshop. For training institutions or employers who want to adapt these programs to focus on particular consumers–e.g., elders, people with specific illnesses or disabilities, self-directed consumers–or specific settings, PHI provides various levels of technical assistance.

We can work with you to:

• Ensure that the teaching materials address all the competencies workers’ will need on the job.
• Adapt activities to reflect the population(s) your trainees will be assisting.
• Shift the content area emphasis by rebalancing the time spent on different activities.
• Structure the program to work within a more limited timeframe; and/or restructure the training for pre-employment or in-service/on-the-job training, as appropriate.

Developing Specialized Curricula

Our Model entry-level curriculum addresses the learning needs of direct-care staff delivering personal care services. For employers or training institutions that would like to offer more advanced training, PHI offers curriculum development services. We will work with you to develop additional modules for home health aide or CNA certification, or to develop specialized advanced skill training in areas such as:

• Dementia care
• End-of-life care
• Working with clients with specific chronic illnesses such as MS or HIV/AIDS
• Individualized, person-directed caregiving skills

Train-the-Trainer Program

In our experience, direct-care workers learn best through highly interactive learning programs, structured to engage participants in critical thinking and problem-solving in the classroom. We call this “learner-centered” education.

PHI offers an introduction to learner-centered teaching methods for trainers planning to use a PHI-developed or tailored curriculum. These workshops provide an introduction to the content of the specific curriculum trainers will be teaching, a foundation in the theory and practice of adult learner-centered training, and opportunities to experience and practice a range of interactive teaching methods.

Download an overview of the PHI learner-centered approach to direct-care training at: Adult Learner-Centered Training: An Introduction for Educators in Home and Residential Care.