All posts by Julie Boggess

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute and provides education and training to private and professional caregivers through her company Enlighten Eldercare. She lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburbs of Mount Prospect, IL.
Compassionate Touch®, Dementia Live, Senior Care Professionals

Specialized Dementia Training and Employee Turnover

Leave a comment

 

Specialized Dementia Training can have a positive impact on reducing employee turnover.

The AGE-u-cate Training Institute received encouraging feedback from a client, and it is worthy of a share. A home health agency that utilizes Dementia Live for staff training reported that their employee turnover is decreasing. Furthermore, the turnover correlates with their implementation of  Dementia Live, a simulation training experience of what it might be like to have dementia.

This news made us curious about the connection between specialized dementia training and employee turnover.

PHI is an organization with a mission to promote quality care through quality jobs. PHI identifies staffing in long term care a national crisis and reports conservative estimates of turnover across the long-term care sector ranging from 45 to at least 66 percent. In addition, one in four nursing assistants and one in five home health aides report that they are actively looking for another job.

The Dementia Care Foundation (DCF), based in Darwin, MN, studied staff retention and turnover in those working with persons with dementia. The research premise is based on findings by Brodaty et al., 2003 that turnover is particularly challenging in dementia care.

Effectiveness of Specialized Training

Researchers with the DCF also cited findings from Chrzescijanksi, et al., 2007; Coogle et al., 2007 that specialized training has been shown to reduce staff turnover while simultaneously improving the quality of care.

Relationships with co-workers was the most significant factor contributing to employment exodus.  However,  findings also reveal a connection in turnover and the lack of specialized training.

The DCF also uncovered a relationship between dissatisfaction with training about managing dementia behaviors and how likely respondents were to leave their job within the year.

Specialized is the keyword. Training for staff working with persons with dementia needs to heighten understanding and empathy. In addition, it should equip staff with knowledge and skills to respond to and reduce difficult behavioral expressions.

Something else to ponder is if and how employee relationships improve with specialized dementia training.

The training philosophy behind  Dementia Live is that it is hard to care for someone that you don’t understand.  Lack of understanding leads to stress, burnout, and ultimately turnover.

In conclusion, consider investing in specialized dementia training as a strategy to reduce employee turnover.  In addition, the impact on employee relationships following specialized training would also be an interesting aspect to explore.

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving for family and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

Compassionate Touch®, Hospital Professionals, Senior Care Professionals

Find Time for Compassion

Leave a comment
Care of frail elders is often reduced to the completion of tasks. Caregivers caught in the frenzy of tasks should make time to provide the compassionate part of care- expressive touch.

I’ve been contemplating the chronic state of lack of time that so many feel these days.   We allow ourselves to think that more time will permit exercise or completing that project.

Lack of time is   a reason given for the inability to incorporate expressive touch into the care we provide our frail elderly residents.  Rachelle  Blough Kowalczyk,  Memory Care & Life Enrichment Consultant touched on the need for care workers to slow down.

Nursing assistants don’t have time to sit with a resident because they are always called away.  Nurses  have too much paperwork and medications to pass, and Social Workers have too many meetings.

These are the reasons expressive touch is mostly absent from the care we provide to our residents, yet it is such a necessary component of quality of life.   Making time is a big culprit.

Making Compassion a Priority

Many seasoned nurses state that at one time, back and foot rubs were a part of the care protocols.  One such nurse challenged her nurse colleagues during training to find the time to offer expressive touch to their residents.

This  nurse shared her experience  working in a large ward in England where she cared for over 50 patients.   Paper charts and hand-counted pills didn’t stop her from offering back rubs.  It was good medicine,  and would help her patients heal and feel better.

There are eye-opening moments in most Compassionate Touch training sessions when the learners realize how little time it takes to offer expressive touch!

Finding time is possible.   Consider a pocket of time 10-20  minutes before the end of a shift (when the cell phones usually come out). Think about the rest time after lunch and offer a back rub prior to assisting a resident to bed.

Ancillary personnel can also engage in expressive touch with residents if trained properly.   To that end, work together as a multi-disciplinary team to find time to improve the quality of life for your residents,  and your staff.

For more information about spreading the power of compassionate touch to your community, visit http://www.ageucate.com.

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving for family and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

Compassionate Touch®, Faith Community, Family Caregiver, Hospital Professionals, Senior Care Professionals, The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver

A Special Grandparent’s Day

1 Comment
Lessons from an old tree.

You might be wondering why a picture of an old tree? This tree caught my attention while on a walk through a nearby forest preserve. I studied its shape, holes, splinters, and ragged edges. I didn’t know then why it captivated me so, but it did.

This tree, such as it is, a shell of itself from long ago still stands. How miraculous is this? Despite the trauma over the years, damaging winds, hail, heavy snow and ice, it still stands. Indeed, time is stamped on this tree, and its roots are weaker and deteriorated.  But it stands proudly, majestically demonstrating its resilience and strength.

I’ll call her Matilda (my grandmother’s name). Imagine the experiences she lived through and the stories she could tell. If only we had the opportunity to learn from this wise old oak. I would love to know what this forest preserve was like 50 or maybe even 100 years ago.

I speculate that sometimes Matilda had to dig deep for water and call on strength to brace against the hard times. But, she also got to bask in the glory of the nourishing sun and gentle rains and was probably thankful for the good times.  Her wisdom is unmatched in the forest, I am sure.

Matilda likely housed many critters over the years and created a safe space for them to call home. How many different species did she encounter over time? Insects, rodents, mammals, birds, canines felines, all in various sizes, shapes, and colors. Some may have taken advantage of her, but hopefully, most treated her with kindness and respect.

A Little Extra for Grandparents Day

This tree personifies grandparents for me, and that’s why I admire it so much.  I think it is true that you don’t know what you had until it is gone.  Three of my grandparents didn’t see me graduate from high school, and the last, my grandfather, died when my daughter was six years old.  She has only a faint memory of him.

It’s not too late to extend Grandparent’s day.   I know I would if I could.

I attribute my love for working with and advocating for the welfare of older adults to the loving relationship I had with both sets of grandparents. The memories I have of them all fill my heart with that longing to have just one more conversation.

Grandparents deserve to be celebrated! Congress had this right in 1978 when Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation.

If you have the good fortune to have a living grandparent, learn all you can from your beautiful, wise tree.

 

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving for family and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

Aging in the Workplace, Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver

Sandwich Generation Realities

Leave a comment
The sandwich generation reality is in full force as more men and women are caught in the middle of work, raising a family, and caring for their parents.

My friends and I often contemplate how we got to this point in life so fast. It wasn’t that long ago that we talked about babies, toddlers, and teenagers. Now, we find ourselves in that sandwich generation place. Our kids are older, and so are our parents. Caught in the middle of work, young adult children’s life events, and aging parents.

The aging-brain is complex, and my friends scramble to keep ahead of the curve-ball.  There are good days, and then the bad days for no apparent reason. A solution that works one day doesn’t work the next. They work hard to anticipate and prevent the next crisis.

I am often baffled to find the right words to help my friends. It is not easy to explain-away their parent’s irrational behaviors and illogical thoughts. The guilt that my friends experience as they try and make things OK for their parents is so hard to see.  My heart aches for them because they feel like they should be doing more despite the fact that they are extraordinary caregivers.

Always Parent and Child

I know from my own experience that parents don’t wish this for their children.   Parents who once provided the caregiving are now the care-receiver, however, the roles are not reversed.  My friends know that they will always be their parent’s child, and their parent isn’t a child.

Anger can also be a factor in this turbulent time. My friend shared today that her mother yelled at her for not understanding what she is going through.  That doesn’t feel good, for sure.

The remarkable thing is the resilience that my friends demonstrate. They are grateful to still have a parent in their life.  Frustration and exacerbation are factors, but bitterness and anger are not.

So what can we do for the friends among us who are in this role of elder-caregiver?  The Alzheimer’s Association has a long list of suggestions, and here are mine.

    • Listen. Let them tell you their stories- sometimes venting is just what they need
    • Avoid issuing unsolicited advice
    • Support with words of affirmation that they are doing a good job
    • Be a friend, not an expert (my lesson)
    • A brownie delivery every once in a while doesn’t hurt!

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving to private and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.