Today, we have a guest post from our friend Daniel over at Cherry Hill Adult Family Home. The point of view is from an assisted living perspective, but we can find many similarities in the NH industry. You can see Daniel’s Assisted Living Blog HERE.
You’ve done your background checks, screenings, and interview and have selected a new caregiver to start training in your assisted living facility. Although you’ve done everything in your power to setup a good training program and select a good caregiver candidate, there are 4 common problems that can come up and bring havoc to the caregiver’s training. These four problems include: Information overload, lack of a mentor, an area a caregiver just can get right, and lack of information reiteration.
The first problem we commonly see come up during training is information overload. Caregivers have a lot of responsibilities. Often times, they cook, clean, run errands, and provide social activities for residents. When a caregiver first arrives at your assisted living facility for training, they can become bogged down with too much information. This often leads to them forgetting simple tasks that need to be done, and their training not being as complete as it should be. The simply solution for this is to spread your caregiver’s training out over the course of a long period of time. Each day is set a side for a new skill or process the caregiver must learn.
The second problem we often see is the lack of a mentor. Anybody in a new job position needs a mentor, someone who has been there longer and knows the ropes. Not having a mentor leads to them making mistakes that could easily have been avoided. The simple solution for this is to allow your new caregiver a day or two to “job shadow” an experienced caregiver.
The third issue is that we often get a new caregiver who just can’t quite get one area of their job right. As we already mentioned, caregivers have a lot of tasks that are expected of them. There might be one or two they are not proficient at. The way around this is to devote extra time for their training in that area, and have them train with one of your staff who are very good in the area.
The final common problem is lack of information reiteration. It is said that humans need to hear something at least 10 times til they understand it. If that is the case, then caregivers must be showed something multiple times. The best way to do this is ask them multiple questions on the same topic throughout their training.
Caregiver training can be a tough process. To get more tips on elderly care, be sure to visit Adult Family Home.
Thanks,
Daniel
