A New eLearning Course Aims to Improve Supervision in Long-Term Care

This week, PHI and the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) announced a new eLearning course they are making available to long-term care providers nationwide focused on improving supervisory skills in those settings.

Created by PHI—a national organization committed to strengthening the direct care workforce through research, advocacy, and workforce innovation—this 4-hour eLearning PHI Coaching Supervision® course equips long-term care supervisors with the skills to succeed in their roles.

Unfortunately, supervisors of direct care workers are often hired or promoted into their roles without proper training or support. The lack of effective supervision skills directly impacts direct care workers, who are not able to deliver quality care to their clients and residents, driving many of them out of a job sector already dealing with a worsening workforce shortage.

According to PHI, long-term care employers will need to fill 7.4 million job openings in direct care from 2019 to 2029, including millions of jobs left vacant by workers who leave direct care for better-paying occupations.

“We’re thrilled to have partnered with AHCA/NCAL to create an accessible eLearning course that will help ensure that supervisors of direct care workers around the country have the tools to effectively support and retain these essential workers,” said Jodi M. Sturgeon, president of PHI.

This course is rooted in PHI’s signature training approach for supervisors, PHI Coaching Supervision®, which helps managers and supervisors engage employees in solving work-related problems, empower workers to participate in decisions that impact their daily work, and balance support with accountability for high-quality outcomes.

This course teaches the essentials of PHI Coaching Supervision®, including the difference between task-centered and relationship-centered thinking; traditional supervision versus coaching supervision; coaching skills related to active listening, self-awareness, and self-management; and clear communication without blame or judgment; non-verbal communication; paraphrasing; and delivering feedback; and more.

“We are excited to collaborate on this opportunity with PHI, providing solutions to address some of our most pressing workforce challenges and aligning with our mission,” said Dr. Lindsay B. Schwartz, associate vice president for Workforce and Quality Improvement at AHCA/NCAL, which represents more than 14,000 non-profit and proprietary skilled nursing centers, assisted living communities, sub-acute centers and homes for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities.

The course is available to AHCA/NCAL’s membership through their internal learning management system. For those outside of AHCA/NCAL’s membership, PHI is available to partner with other long-term care providers and organizations to implement eLearning approaches related to coaching supervision and other workforce-related topics.