Providers of skilled nursing and assisted living need to develop trust-building skills and practices to continue to increase vaccine uptake and staff member retention as well as improve infection prevention and control. That’s according to a new initiative from the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living.
The groups have launched a new, four-part education program aimed at improving quality care and outcomes in long-term care. Each virtual session in “Building Trust: A Strategy to Improve Patient Safety, Staff Wellbeing and Vaccine Uptake in Long-Term Care” lasts two to three hours and includes video lectures, readings and time for applying new knowledge and skills. At the end of the course, participants will receive a certificate of completion.
“Since the pandemic … there’s been a growing distrust with government, with each other, with all aspects of the care we have. And that’s really affected how we act with each other, with the families, with the residents, and it’s getting in the way of where we want to be,” David Gifford, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at AHCA/NCAL, said in an introductory video.
The thrust of the education program, he said, is to address the issue of trust as a foundational issue in long-term care.
The course, made possible through a grant by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, is designed for formal and informal leaders within long-term care in both clinical and non-clinical roles. Those roles include administrators, directors of nursing, medical directors, senior leaders and department heads as well as infection preventionists, quality improvement coordinators and influential staff, AHCA/NCAL said.
“Focusing on trust allows us to rebuild those relationships with our families, residents, staff and the people we work with and be able to really focus on being able to really focus on meeting the needs of the residents, which is why we all started this in the first place,” Gifford said.
