Attention: Homecare Agencies, Don’t Educate Until You Read This!
Kenyon HomeCare Consulting • March 16, 2021
When you run one or more homecare agencies, education for aides is crucial to your success. Properly-educated caregivers provide better client care, get work done more efficiently, and will benefit your organization. But what’s the best way to educate your employees, who are busy adult learners holding down a job and managing a family and private life, as well?
Studies show that private employers spend more than $200 billion each year training their employees. Sadly, much of that money is wasted as a result of ineffective training practices. So before you spend precious resources on a learning system that simply doesn’t work, take a look below to uncover the secret to homecare aide education success
Education Designed for Adult Learners
If you want to teach adults a new concept, avoid passive lectures. This type of training does nothing to help adults retain information. When it comes to effectively educating adult learners working in homecare agencies, here are a few key things to remember.
Unlike children, adults thrive best with self-directed learning. This happens when students work with instructors to develop individual programs that address their specific needs.
Active involvement is key. To accurately absorb and retain new information, adult students need action, such as participating in case scenarios which directly relate to their work experience .
The ideal adult learning environment encourages intellectual freedom and creativity.
Education That Gives More Bang for Your Buck
In addition to the factors mentioned above for effective caregiver education, consider which programs offer the best ROI for your homecare agencies. Training employees can quickly become an overwhelming drain on your budget. Bringing in experts to hold education sessions, hiring additional staff to provide client care while other employees are in training, and costly study materials are all ways that aide education breaks the bank.
To avoid these unnecessary costs, consider investing in an online program. With online education for aides, you’ll save money because:
Students learn at their own pace
No hard-copy materials to purchase or update
No associated expenses when speakers come and present
No travel expenses for employees to go to seminars
Aside from saving money, online aide education provides an ideal adult learning environment. It allows caregivers to work independently, gives them real-life scenarios to practice, facilitates putting what they learn to use right away during client care, and gives flexibility to study at their convenience.
Education That Benefits Your Organization
There’s another advantage of providing advanced education for your employees: it results in an elite group of caregivers. Advanced chronic disease education, specifically, creates this elite group and benefits your organization in several ways. With chronic illnesses on the rise among older adults, homecare success is practically guaranteed when you have an elite staff. Here’s why:
Sets you apart from the competition.
Allows you to provide specialized services.
Improves client care and satisfaction, leading to more referrals.
Boosts aides’ confidence and increases employee retention.
Allows you to cater to the specific needs of your community.
With the right homecare aide education that caters to adult learners, you’re giving your organization the best chance for success. To find out more about effective online training, look at Kenyon Aide University. Discover a chronic disease education program that is convenient, cost-effective, and provides chronic disease certification.This allows you to train an elite group of caregivers to provide specialty services needed in your community.
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This entry was posted in Education and Training and tagged homecare education, home health aide training, aide traini
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HOPE Question and Answer Repository
Today, this article will look at little different than out typical articles. We all know the costs of losing employees and trying to hire and train new ones. It is exhausting and expensive. So, we think about our wages and benefit packages all the time. What can we do differently that makes people stay? We can’t change the job and we don’t want to keep people that don’t like the work itself. So, how do we acknowledge employees in a way that is valuable to them and that our businesses can afford to do? 5 Things To Consider About Employee Recognition At Your Christmas Party: 1. Years of Service: These can be based on milestone work anniversaries (5, 10, 15 yrs, etc.). If a person has been at your agency 11 years, you pull them up and acknowledge them in the group of employees who have been there at least 10 years up until the time they hit the 15 years landmark. This way longevity is recognized yearly. 2. Special Employee awards: Now, this may be difficult if your staff is very small, but acknowledge the employee who has gone the extra mile in the job they do. Tell the story. The employee needs to know when the employer is proud of the work that has been done. Consider a plaque or certificate. Don’t minimize the value of the employee having them to display. 3. Acknowledge all employees in the mix: Because we are a clinical industry, the administrative staff is often overlooked on day-to-day operations. Ultimately, don’t miss the chance to acknowledge the employee who was able to catch billing errors or collect on a large account. Staff doesn’t like to hear about money, but those types of collections keep Christmas bonuses in place! So, make sure the other staff knows the accomplishments of the finance department or the office manager that every caller loves to speak to. Don't ever forget the IT staff that is on call more than any clinical person in your agency! 4. Letters from the administration: Add a personal note to your staff either collectively or individually depending on the size of your agency. If you are larger, there are employees you don’t often see or get to talk to on a regular basis, so take the time so send a note with that Christmas bonus. 5. Consider the Christmas bonus: Listen, some of you can afford to do substantial monetary bonuses and that is fantastic. However, if you are not in that position, consider something in its place. Maybe small gas cards go with the letter from administration. With the cost of groceries, consider something that helps with the costs of daily living for employees. Big box gift cards in your area will always be used. You may do a lot of these things on a yearly basis to employees. All this being said, it doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons for acknowledgement throughout the year. However, your annual Christmas party is a good way to do it collectively. Between your annual party, write the individual cards to employees when you hear a patient interaction worthy of praise. Or, maybe you buy a gas card for the employee who has picked up extra shifts and always shows up on time. Ultimately, employees will feel valued. You will not regret the time, effort, and energy put into these efforts. Merry Christmas! If you want help with recruitment and retention strategies for your agency, please call Kenyon Homecare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today.