Shared learning environments for unregulated care provider education in long-term care: Innovative approaches and key considerations.

Long-term care (LTC) or nursing homes often experience difficulty recruiting passionate, competent and confident graduates to add to their teams. Few graduates are well-prepared for working in LTC environments and they do not often stay long. In an effort to strengthen the LTC workforce, we established a collaboration with a LTC and retirement living organization and a community college to develop a Living Classroom. In this novel approach, college students attend an accredited LTC home for all learning. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Living Classroom program, with unregulated care provider education as the specific application, so that others can also explore the possibility of developing a Living Classroom with their partners. This paper also describes the importance of changing the way we currently understand workforce education and graduation challenges and see these as opportunities to take action and share innovation and development. Investing in applied and meaningful education with immediate knowledge transfer to the future work setting will help to enhance the future workforce required for seniors care.

Neighbourhood Team Development to promote resident centred approaches in nursing homes: a protocol for a multi component intervention.

BACKGROUND: As the demand for nursing home (NH) services increases, older adults and their families expect exceptional services. Neighbourhood Team Development (NTD) is a multi-component intervention designed to train team members (staff) in the implementation of resident-centered care in NH settings. A neighbourhood is a 32-resident home area within a NH. This paper presents the protocol used to implement and evaluate NTD. The evaluation aimed to 1) examine fidelity with which the NTD was implemented across NHs; 2) explore contextual factors associated with implementation and outcomes of the NTD; and 3) examine effects of NTD on residents, team members, family, and organizational outcomes, and the association between level of implementation fidelity and outcomes. METHODS: The study employed a repeated measure, mixed method design. NTD consisted of a 30-month standardised training and implementation plan to modify the physical environment, organize delivery and services and align staff members to promote inter-professional team collaboration and enhanced resident centeredness. Training was centred in each 32-resident neighbourhood or home area. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected with reliable and valid measures over the course of 3 years from residents (clinical outcomes, quality of life, satisfaction with care, perception of person centeredness, opportunities for social engagement), families (satisfaction with care for relative, person centeredness, relationship opportunities), team members (satisfaction with job, ability to provide person centered care, team relationships) and organizations (retention, turnover, staffing, events) in 6 NHs. Mixed models were used for the analysis. DISCUSSION: The advantages and limitations of the NTD intervention are described. The challenges in implementing and evaluating this multi-component intervention are discussed as related to the complexity of the NH environment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03415217 (January 30, 2018 - Retrospectively registered).

The associations between staffing hours and quality of care indicators in long-term care.

BACKGROUND: Long-term care (LTC) staffing practices are poorly understood as is their influence on quality of care. We examined the relationship between staffing characteristics and residents' quality of care indicators at the unit level in LTC homes. METHODS: This cross-sectional study collected data from administrative records and resident assessments from July 2014 to June 2015 at 11 LTC homes in Ontario, Canada comprising of 55 units and 32 residents in each unit. The sample included 69 registered nurses, 183 licensed/registered practical nurses, 858 nursing assistants, and 2173 residents. Practice sensitive, risk-adjusted quality indicators were described individually, then combined to create a quality of care composite ranking per unit. A multilevel regression model was used to estimate the association between staffing characteristics and quality of care composite ranking scores. RESULTS: Nursing assistants provided the majority of direct care hours in LTC homes (76.5%). The delivery of nursing assistant care hours per resident per day was significantly associated with higher quality of resident care (p = < 0.01). There were small but significant associations with quality of care for nursing assistants with seven or more years of experience (p = 0.02), nursing assistants late to shift (p = < 0.01) and licensed/registered practical nurses late to shift (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The number of care hours per resident per day delivered by NAs is an important contributor to residents' quality of care in LTC homes. These findings can inform hiring and retention strategies for NAs in LTC, as well as examine opportunities to optimize the NA role in these settings.

Using powerful data from the interRAI MDS to support care and a learning health system: A case study from long-term care.

interRAI is a non-profit international consortium of clinicians and scientists who have developed the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 assessment to systematically identify the health status and care plan of residents in Long-Term Care (LTC). However, LTC staff often fail to realize the clinical utility of this information, viewing it as "data collection for funding purposes" and an administrative task adding to the daily workload. This article reports how one research institute and senior living organization work together to use MDS 2.0 and other information to support better care for residents, plan resource allocation and staffing models, and conduct applied research for older Canadians. A multi-level approach is described on how MDS 2.0 provides a robust infrastructure at the individual, team, organizational, and system levels. Long-term care stakeholders can do much more to unleash the full potential of this powerful tool, and other healthcare sectors can take advantage of this approach.

Changing the Impact of Nursing Assistants' Education in Seniors' Care: the Living Classroom in Long-Term Care.

BACKGROUND: Evidence-informed care to support seniors is based on strong knowledge and skills of nursing assistants (NAs). Currently, there are insufficient NAs in the workforce, and new graduates are not always attracted to nursing home (NH) sectors because of limited exposure and lack of confidence. Innovative collaborative approaches are required to prepare NAs to care for seniors. METHODS: A 2009 collaboration between a NH group and a community college resulted in the Living Classroom (LC), a collaborative approach to integrated learning where NA students, college faculty, NH teams, residents, and families engage in a culture of learning. This approach situates the learner within the NH where knowledge, team dynamics, relationships, behaviours, and inter-professional (IP) practice are modelled. RESULTS: As of today, over 300 NA students have successfully completed this program. NA students indicate high satisfaction with the LC and have an increased intention to seek employment in NHs. Faculty, NH teams, residents, and families have increased positive beliefs towards educating students in a NH. CONCLUSION: The LC is an effective learning approach with a positive and high impact learning experience for all. The LC is instrumental in contributing to a capable workforce caring for seniors.

People and money matter: investment lessons from the Ontario Heart Health Program, Canada.

Resource allocation is a critical issue for public health decision-makers. Yet little is known about the level and type of resources needed to build capacity to plan and implement comprehensive programs. This paper examines the relationships between investments and changes in organizational capacity and program implementation in the first phase (1998-2003) of the Ontario Heart Health Program (OHHP)--a province-wide, comprehensive public health program that involved 40 community partnerships. The study represents a subset of findings from a provincial evaluation. Investments, organizational capacity of public health units and implementation of heart health activities were measured longitudinally. Investment information was gathered annually from the provincial government, local public health units and community partners using standard reports, and was available from 1998 to 2002. Organizational capacity and program implementation were measured using a written survey, completed by all health units at five measurement times from 1994 to 2002. Combining provincial and local sources, the average total investment by year five was $1.66 per capita. Organizational capacity of public health units and implementation of heart health activities increased both before and during the first 2 years of the OHHP, and then plateaued at a modest level for capacity and a low level for implementation after that. Amount of funding was positively associated with organizational capacity, yet this association was overpowered by the negative influence of turnover of a key staff position. Regression analysis indicated that staff turnover explained 23% of local variability in organizational capacity. Findings reinforce the need for adequate investment and retention of key staff positions in complex partnership programs. Better accounting of public health investments, including monetary and in-kind investments, is needed to inform decisions about the amount and duration of public health investments that will lead to effective program implementation.