280086
Promoting better health care: Best practices in staff development for direct-care workers who support adults aging with disabilities
Significance: The Direct-Care Worker (DCW) shortage challenges care quality for older adults, including those aging with developmental disabilities. Retention measures remain a large part of the strategy to close the care gap. Since DCW cite lack of quality training as a reason for leaving (Ejaz et al., 2008), best-practices in training becomes pertinent to stakeholders and policy-makers. Little is known about how the varying structural and cultural characteristics of service provider organizations, such as their size, population, funding sources, and the value and place of DCWs within them, relate to training practices. This study examines how structural and cultural characteristics of service provider organizations (SPO) relate to best-practices in DCW training. Method: A survey of 328 organizations included questions about training practices, structural indicators, and cultural variables. Factor analysis revealed three best-practice content areas (aging, disability, universal). OLS and Logistic Regression analyses were used to understand how training content areas varied with the structural and cultural aspects. Findings: The null hypotheses were rejected regarding the influence of evaluation practices, type of facility, organization size, intensity of care, and DCW integration on best-practices in training. The level of evaluation practices predicted best-practices in all three content areas. However, the influence of structural/cultural variables differed based on content. Implications: organizations can improve by implementing a comprehensive evaluation, shorter-more-frequent sessions, on-the job mentoring, and cross-training on aging and disability content. Rather than rely on regulations, future policy-makers can prioritize best-practices through collaborative efforts that bridge aging and disability networks.
Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Provision of health care to the public
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
List at least five structural or cultural variables that influence best practices in training direct care workers who serve adults aging with disabilities
Explain the implication of evaluation practices for best-practices in staff development
Identify improvements on the organizational and public policy level for more effective training and retention of direct care workers
Keyword(s): Aging, Disability
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was the principal investigator for this study which was the subject of my dissertation research. I have more than 20 years experience in long term care as a practioner. I have six years experience with disability policymaking on the local level and serve on the university wellness committee. I have authored four publications on specific personnel preparation/staff development initiatives in the field of aging or developmental disabilities.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
