Taking the message home to older adults: A home care chronic disease prevention education program for certified nursing assistants

The demand for home-based services like those provided by Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) will expand exponentially as the United States' population ages and rates of chronic illness increase. That said, CNAs usually are not required to receive training in chronic disease prevention. Thus, Duke University-University of SC partnership developed a curriculum and training program to build new skills for CNAs making them more useful to home-bound adults with chronic disease and the chronic disease care team. The pilot education program was intended to increase the CNA's chronic disease knowledge and skills, strengthen patient coaching skills, and decrease the patient's burden of chronic disease. The CNA training curriculum comprised of nine modules, each two hours in length. The results from the pilot program evaluation (N=76) suggest that the program has improved disease management knowledge, communication between CNAs and their patients, and CNAs' belief in the importance of self-care on the job and in their lives in general. Follow-up surveys administered 2-3 months post-training also revealed that CNAs now more frequently achieve the following: discuss healthy eating with patients; encourage patients to be compliant with their medication regimen; identify and respond to patient mood swings or failure to communicate; engage patients in a collaborative decision-making process; are more empathetic to patients; and share what they have learned from the training with colleagues. In summary, this type of CNA training curriculum is worth considering in order to improve the care provided to fragile chronically ill adults and seniors in their homes.