Still Losing Staff? Have You Seen What Beefing Up Your Educational Programming Can Do For Retention?

Clinical employee retention is such a loaded subject. There are so many facets to what makes a clinical employee stay or leave an agency. You have to consider everything important to the employee while realizing generational issues greatly changes the focus for each individual. So, in considering wage, benefits, vacation, family leave, onboarding and the generation of employee involved, have you thought about what robust educational programming brings to the table? Have you ever considered it as a retention measure?

It’s Not Just About The Onboarding:

We used to see so many agencies with high turnover rates related to the onboarding process. Employees consistently wrote in exit interviews that the orientation was inadequate and employees felt thrown out on their own before ready to safely provide care. While there are still agencies out there with poor education and training in the onboarding process, Kenyon Homecare Consulting would like to focus on what you do to keep the employees challenged and engaged through ongoing education. Let’s consider each clinical background for purposes of this article:

Home Health Aides: Aides are often our most underutilized resource with the highest turnover rate. Maybe this prevents you from investing training dollars because the overall lack of long term employment is a hindrance. So, look at things like pay increases attached to additional education. Our biggest cost in healthcare is related to chronic illness. Invest in chronic disease education programs for your aides. This way, the knowledge base is elevated as is the clinical capability of your staff. If you can reward staff with chronic disease certification with pay increases and a different level of engagement in the care plan, then you have potential for cost savings with other disciplines involved. Pull random care plans where chronic illness is the primary diagnosis. When reviewing documentation, are there visits made by a therapist or RN that could have potentially been made by the less costly home health aide? It isn’t about decreasing the nursing or therapist, but about maximizing the potential of the employees and determining service frequencies accordingly. If the home health aide is rewarded for advanced engagement and accountability in patient care, you greatly decrease the desire of the aide to jump ship.

Rehab Services: Regardless the therapy discipline, advancing clinical education is a win-win for the agencies. However, since so many agencies utilize contracted services, they don’t invest here. That is a mistake. How many agencies still have therapy providers unwilling to address any medication issues in the home? How many do not provide simple wound care? Do you miss out on vital communication? How many extra visits does nursing make into the home because of it? Providing training to the therapists allows them to improve competence in areas where they may not feel comfortable. Reality is that just because something is within scope of practice doesn’t mean the clinician has competence in the area. My nursing degree says treating pediatric patients in a NICU is within my scope of practice. However, spending the majority of my clinical career in home health and hospice tells me I am clearly not currently competent to do so. We can’t throw our clinicians into the deep end. How many therapists have refused or left your agency because they were uncomfortable or unwilling to complete something within scope of practice? How many would stay if you provided education and training that allowed them to become really good (and comfortable) at managing what you need them to address in patient homes?

Nursing: Now, let’s talk about education from the standpoint of mixing things up for your case managers here. Since all nurses provide case management for the patients, we don’t often evaluate how empowering those in the role can help retention. You may have the nurse that does an absolutely fantastic job in the home, but haven't trained these nurses on the meaning and scope of case management.  Did you just assume they are really good at the process? You need to also consider your client population in your education to nurses. What is missing that really improves patient care while getting the nurses excited about their mission in the homes? Have you asked them?

Ok, What’s Next?

If you would like to think differently about education and training as a retention measure, then figure out what your employees are missing. Whether it is chronic disease, specialty services, or improving competence in certain tasks, you need to invest in the right programming. And, you can’t determine what your agency needs here without talking to clinicians. So, include them in the strategic plan. At Kenyon Homecare Consulting, we assist agencies with education to include on-site and virtual training platforms, strategic planning with seasoned clinical consultants, and operational assessments to determine what your educational program needs. Call us  at 206-721-5091 or contact us online today!