Learn more about how you can help your loved ones with in home care.
Any healthcare business relies on the quality of care that their hired caregivers provide. A home care or other healthcare business is only as good as the employees that they hire.
While quality job training for caregivers is highly encouraged, it is more cost-effective to ensure that the employees getting that training will positively give back to your business clients to offset the initial training expenses.
It is crucial to invest the necessary time and effort into hiring the best employees from the beginning. Not every caregiver with an impressive caretaker resume will be the right fit for your particular home care agency or other business.
Strategic Tips for Hiring the Right Caregivers
There are highly-effective tips for hiring the best caregivers to suit your particular business and patient/client needs. A well-rounded approach to the hiring process involves more than simply checking-off standard hiring requirement boxes.
Along with passing the necessary background checks and impressive points on a caretaker resume, look for caregivers that have the right attitude and character traits proven to be valuable in any care setting. What are traits consistent with better caregiver skills?
Consider the following:
- Empathy
- Compassion
- Dignifying Composure
- Patience
- Self-Awareness
- Creativity & Common Sense
- Sense of Appropriate Humor
- Diplomacy
- Kind & Giving Nature
- Positive Attitude
Pre-screen potential employee hires by holding job-fairs, employee open-house events and asking the right questions.
Other important things to know include:
- Reasons They Left Previous Jobs
- What Applicants Are Looking for by Applying at Your Agency
- Politeness, Ability to Get Along with Others, Reliability/Dependability Traits
Ask specific personality and character revealing questions to prospective employees like “What are traits that make you feel better suited for caregiver jobs?” How do others typically describe you?”
Provide the prospective employee with an accurate caregiver description, any required caregiving skills they will need, your company’s caregiver meaning, expected work scheduling details and any types of job training that will be provided by your company.
Clarity of the job expectations promotes better employee recruitment and retention.
How Caregiver Training Reduces Costly Caregiver Turnover Rates
Proper caregiver training has been shown to significantly reduce high caregiver turnover rates that can be costly. Investing in the appropriate type of caregiver training also helps to retain the company’s hardworking and dedicated better employees.
Follow These Top 7 Tips for Successful Caregiver Training that Can Reduce Future Caregiver Turnover
1. Provide Adequate Caregiver Orientation Training Using a Variety of Teaching Methods
Every person has a different style of learning that will work best for them.
When planning caregiver orientation and other training, try to use a variety of teaching methods for better employee retention and ability to use the learned material in the work setting.
Ensure that the training is adequate and relevant to what your employees need to perform their actual job duties. Provide online resource training or pulse training options, traditional classroom instruction and hands-on skills training for best results.
Use videos, handouts, visual aids, power-point presentations and other teaching methods for added variety that generates more interest.
2. Go Over Duties of a Caregiver. Teach, Demonstrate & Allow Hands-On Practice of Routine Caregiving Skills for Older Adults
Most health aides that quickly leave a job do so due to feeling unprepared to handle their job duties. It is important to go over the expected duties of a caregiver with special instruction pertinent to each employee’s specific patients.
It is better to use a variety of short training sessions worked into the employee’s regular work schedule to promote a relaxed learning environment known to improve retention of information presented.
Teach, provide actual demonstrations and allow time for the employees to practice hands-on skills using the equipment that they will use on-the-job. Include education necessary in their pre-employment caregiver description. Provide question/answer time.
3. Consider Providing a C.N.A. Training Course & Additional Training/Educational Opportunities
Seriously consider providing an actual C.N.A. training course for prospective future employees. Many healthcare companies offer low-cost or paid training costs when the students then are hired by the company and stay for an agreed-upon-beforehand time-frame. The C.N.A. certification course requirements vary for different states.
Providing employees with an ongoing employee mentoring program and additional training/educational opportunities and resources are also effective in improving employee satisfaction rates and skills levels.
4. Include First-Aid/Medical Treatment/CPR Training for All Health Aides During Orientation
All healthcare employees should receive basic first-response/first-aid and CPR training before or during orientation. Employers can keep their employees up-to-date with their certification by providing re-certification classes when required.
5. Consider Offering Special Needs Classroom Instruction & Skills Training on Caring for Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia
Employers can offer special needs training for their employees to better prepare them for handling the advanced care requirements of special needs clients. Give realistic ways to approach and care for patients with declining mental status such as Alzheimer’s patients and others with varying degrees of dementia.
Important areas to cover are:
- Abuse and Neglect Laws – how to assess for, proper care methods and other crucial training and information
- Providing Patient Healthy Quality of Life Care – give relevant examples, ideas, company policies & strategies
- List of Care Resources – online training sites like pulse training, adaptations for caregiver personal care duties for special needs patients
- Employee Help Options – make employees feel comfortable in asking for help
Note: Special needs training can be adapted to cover any type of patient disease process or limitations that affect caregiver care like diabetes, lung conditions, mobility limitations of older adults and others.
6. Hold Fun, Engaging & Informative Ongoing Caregiver Educational Opportunities at Convenient Times
Make sure that your company’s training events are fun, engaging and informative. Hold multiple smaller-group sessions at various times to ensure that all shift employees can conveniently attend. Consider paid training and other incentives if holding after-work-hours training sessions.
7. Provide Orientation & Ongoing Abuse and Neglect Teaching, Practical Fall Prevention/Safety Strategies & Other Useful Caregiver Personal Care Tips
During new-employee orientation training, provide necessary abuse and neglect teaching, practical fall prevention/safety strategies and other useful caregiver personal care tips like basic light cooking and housekeeping skills, safe driver instruction and ways to give every client the highest level of healthy quality of life possible.
What Should You Train Your Caregivers On?
All healthcare employers should ensure that they train their caregivers on the types of skills, knowledge and professional behaviors that will be pertinent to their job. Additional training related to advancing in their career goals are also very effective employee retention measures.
Caregiver meaning can vary per individual, cultural or other defining people groups, and this should be carefully considered.
Best Practices for Caregiver Training
The right caregiver training provided by your company goes a long way towards building a better business/community reputation and improving patient and employee satisfaction rates.
Strategic training also helps attract good employees and retain valuable employees that your company has invested the necessary time, effort and training dollars in to ensure overall better company care services provided to your clients relying on them.
Visit https://www.inhomecare.com for details.
