Amidst the staffing challenges that the industry faces today, training and professional development have become more critical to overall home care operations. However, according to the recent Home Care Staffing and Professional Development Survey 2022, only a little more than half of providers have established professional advancement programs for their staff.
Continued professional development plays a vital role not just in employee retention, but also in improving patient care. This contributes to the personal and ongoing relationship between the caregiver and the patient. Therefore, providers must take advantage of available support solutions and technology to help address staffing and professional development issues.
Key Takeaways
Only half of the respondents reported having a professional development strategy in their organization. Many still have not established a career path for their staff and lack education resources to support such.
The online survey provided insight into three valuable areas: leveraging technology to overcome staffing challenges, in-house training, and professional development, and prioritizing tools and tactics for recruitment and retention.
Findings of the Survey
Training and Professional Development
A little more than half (51%) of the survey participants have defined career paths and educational resources to support advancement through an established formal and internally developed program for their staff, as reported by 52% of the surveyed organizations. 28% indicated peer-to-peer on-the-job training as another effort. For those who do not provide training and professional development, 28% cited a lack of internal resources as the main reason, followed by cost, their health system driving all educational decision-making, and employees lacking the time to complete such training—all at 18% each.
Recruitment
34% reported that web ads are the top channel that organizations use for recruitment, followed by employee referrals and social media at 18% each. A staggering 69% said that online job sites are the most used digital tool in their staff recruitment strategy.
Staffing
When it comes to staffing, more than 45% of participants sought temporary caregiver staff support at least once within the last year. Nearly half of them cited “independent contractors who work for more than one organization” as the top consideration for hiring support. Moreover, providers are slowly getting more comfortable with tech solutions such as an Uber-like platform to source available nurses and caregivers. Employing nurses who just graduated from nursing school is also among the most preferred methods for addressing home care staffing challenges today.
Leveraging Clinician Education
The survey results underscore the need for professional development and more efficient staffing utilization. With the increasing complexity of documentation and compliance, such as in the Value-Based Purchasing and OASIS-E, clinician education becomes very crucial amidst the still ongoing staffing challenges. Taking advantage of tech solutions and back-office support to promote clinician education can significantly benefit your agency in accomplishing your patient care and business goals alike. Develop your strategies with the bigger picture in mind and work with partners who can provide sustainable solutions for ongoing process improvement and growth.
Access the full survey report here >
Home Health Care News conducted the survey on staffing and professional development in partnership with Dallas-based home care technology company Axxess from July 25, 2022 to August 22, 2022. The goal of the survey, which showed results from the views of 135 professionals from home health organizations, was to investigate how home health organizations are approaching training, professional development, and staffing in today’s landscape.
