iCareHealth Business Resources MAINTAINING COMPETENCIES WITHIN THE CARE SECTOR

A Guide for Care Home Managers

iCareHealth Your Social Care Business Resource www.icarehealth.co.uk [email protected] 01440 766400

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iCareHealth Business Resources within Maintaining Competencies

the Care Sector A GUIDE FOR CARE HOME MANAGERS

Our software applications are already in place in many care homes and facilities across the UK. Why not call us today on 01440 766400 for more information on how our range of Care Home Management and Meds software solutions can help your business?

Visit our Resource Centre at icarehealth.co.uk for more videos, demos and downloadable guides.

Table of Contents 1

Three Main Challenges to Sustaining Competencies in your Business

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How to Address the Challenges

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How We Learn

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iCareHealth Competency Management Solution

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www.icarehealth.co.uk [email protected] 01440 766400

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iCareHealth Business Resources Sustaining Skills and Competencies in your Care Business THE THREE MAIN CHALLENGES

1 STAFF TURNOVER

Staff Turnover In 2014 the staff turnover rate in social care was 25.4% (about 300,000 workers). When the 2016 figures are published that figure will be higher. Training and re-training employees in a highly regulated sector that already suffers from high staff turnover, is a significant cost that will only increase. The average across all sectors of recruitment per nurse is now between £2,000 - £5,000, increasing the cost of recruitment.

2 INCREASED AGENCY USE

3 COSTS OF RE-TRAINING

Increased Agency Use Another challenge is increased agency use. The nursing shortage crisis has led to the use of agency staff in care homes rising by over 55% in just two years, according to a recent report from property specialist advisers Christie & Co. This growing ‘agency culture’ puts financial and operational pressure on care homes. The cost of agency staff typically exceeds the cost of regular staff by over 100% on a per hour basis.

Costs of Retraining In reality, every time a new process is put in place or changed, training needs to happen. Yet upskilling staff in new processes, policies and technologies is difficult and hard to manage. It’s also almost impossible to include everyone in the process.

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iCareHealth Business Resources Addressing The Challenges COMPETENCY MANAGEMENT A number of care providers are looking to solve the issue of staff recruitment and agency use by creating a program for senior care workers, to assist nursing staff. Potential nursing assistants demonstrate a strong commitment to learning, have completed their required competency training including medication administration and are happy to go through additional training to reach their career goals. With a tactical program like this, a career path is evident and staff are more involved and accountable for the care of residents. Over the long term, this type of strategic program requires the implementation of the appropriate technology. Competency management systems can be inbuilt into software as part of an overall strategy to manage and combat competency deficiencies in the workforce and they can also be used to encourage skill development and career advancement. Apart from obvious benefits in training staff and ensuring compliance, competency-based learning systems can directly influence the overall strengths of, and help overcome weaknesses, within an organisation.

www.icarehealth.co.uk [email protected] 01440 766400

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iCareHealth Business Resources Addressing The Challenges HOW WE LEARN There have been a number of studies on how people learn and it’s been shown that emulation – learning by doing – is by far the best approach. By emulating real-life situations the user can execute cases and tasks in a controlled and measured environment without having to interact with live, real-world data. This is the concept of learning in context – using real-life tasks to mirror working situations. Extending learning gradually over time, at leisure and away from the workplace, results in better skill retention and reduced stress for the trainee, and may even improve their morale.

Emulation

Technology Enables Sustained Competency Levels

Repetition

Absorption

www.icarehealth.co.uk [email protected] 01440 766400

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iCareHealth Business Resources iCareHealth Competency Management Solutions THE IDEAL WAY TO LEARN AND MAINTAIN COMPETENCIES The iCareHealth eLearning solution uses a role based competency framework that ensures each user of the Medication Management systems only learns the functions that are applicable to their day-to-day duties. Users have continual access to resources and can consume these to further develop and practice the skills that are needed to confidently use Medication Management. It is also:

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flexible, and designed to easily fit into staff schedules;

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both cost and time-efficient; and

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designed to prepare staff for live practical situations.

Simple, intuitive workflows are also included to allow managers to monitor and assess the progress each individual or team is making towards training compliance. The system’s ease of use encourages staff to repeat courses as and when they want. Users can access the eLearning at any point. If they are struggling with a particular process or part of an application, they refer back to the relevant eLearning lesson instead of waiting for classroom training or interrupting another member of the team. At iCareHealth we appreciate the time that training in new technologies places on front line staff and management. That’s why we offer our unique eLearning training and staff development module as part of our software. www.icarehealth.co.uk [email protected] 01440 766400

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iCareHealth Business Resources

About us iCareHealth is a leading provider of clinical, medication and business management software solutions in the UK. We are dedicated to providing software solutions to the Care Industry in order to maximise efficiencies and make businesses more profitable. Our Sector Experts have years of experience working with Social Care businesses like yours. If you’d like to speak to one of our Experts, or if you’d like a demo of our software, Just Ask!

icarehealth.co.uk/contact 01440 766 400 iCareHealth Weavers Mill High Street Haverhill Suffolk CB9 8DD

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