Choosing a Senior Care Home- Staffing Considerations
As an administrator in long term care we have to ensure that our frail elderly residents are being care for as directed by their physician, our company directives, and our own vision of how we think care should be provided.
The care givers that provide the daily hands on care are at the same time the most problematic area to manage and the area that brings the most pride in providing care compassion to our residents.
The ability to recruit and retain the type staff that is capable of providing quality care in an assisted living or skilled nursing environment is key to the success of the home. The work that care givers and nurse’s aids provide is challenging on a good day. It takes a very special kind of person to provide quality care to seniors consistenly.
As you evaluate assisted living or skilled nursing homes you should evaluate how the administrator is personally involved in staffing his or her community. One way of doing this is to ask questions. I would ask- “what criteria do you use when hiring staff?” The vast majority of long term care administrators will speak to the regulatory requirements for hiring, and their company policies for hiring employees. However, just as important but very seldom heard is what are the administrators’ personal requirements or expectations for hiring new team members. My personal philosophy goes something like this, I can train for technical skills but I can’t teach anyone how to be caring and compassionate, they have to have those qualities internally. As an administrator in senior care I have developed my own way of not only screening people for being caring and compassionate, but it is important that I teach it and preach it regularly.
There are other ways to probe and monitor how any senior living community ensures a balance between hiring for technical skills and hiring for a good heart. For more information please subscribe to my Blog and you will receive my monthly newsletter filled with more great advice on senior living topics from my perspective as an administrator.
Vernon Roberson, LNHA, MA
