Is Home Health Aide Training An Issue? Have You Considered What Hybrid Options Are Available?

Home health aide training is time consuming, expensive, and labor intensive. There is no question that our aides need a good training program that covers the 75 hour requirement. Larger agencies often have someone or multiple people designated to complete that training. Are you paying a nurse to complete training for one or two aides at a time? If you can’t afford to do that, then you lose staff because you hold off on providing training until you have an adequate number in class. Home health aide staff can’t afford to wait a month to get into classes. Do you still count on that nurse trainer to make routine visits? Is it time to examine the way you do training and initiate a hybrid? Let’s consider what that may mean for your agency.

What Does Hybrid Home Health Aide Training Look Like?

In the past, agencies either trained their own staff or contracted with someone else to provide the training. If there is anything the last couple years has taught us, it is the need to pivot from “business as usual”. More and more people are now permanently working from home. Who doesn’t at least have a couple meetings or more each week on Zoom? So, as we look at the federal requirements for home health aide training, it shows 16 hours of the classroom training have to be done in a live format. So, have you looked at online programs that do this? Here are a couple different hybrid programs to consider:

1. Online prerequisites, online live classes, supervision hours by your agency: This allows your agency to greatly decrease the amount of hours required for a nurse to complete the training. The trainees are given online modules that total up to 43 hours of training. Then, they are present for a scheduled class with an experienced nurse trainer for the 16 hours online. Then, you finish with the required final hours of supervision in homes or with any additional training you wish to provide. The online teaching component provides you with a written competency test as well as the competency check-offs for on site supervision.
2. Online prerequisites, live classroom training and supervision hours with your agency: This allows your agency to have new employees completing the online modules and you can schedule the live classroom training once that is complete. Then, you decide what compiles that 16 hours of live training above and beyond what the online modules cover. You develop the competency test and check-offs.

What Doesn’t Change:

You have to complete the competency check-offs in the home with staff for the hours required by the federal government. You also have to complete any training required by your state. This comes into play for those states with licensure in place. The state normally follows the federal guidelines when licensure is not a factor. If you would like to discuss a hybrid alternative, please call Peek Consulting at 419-790-4454 or contact us online. The Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice offers a complete hybrid program for Ohio. Contact Peek Consulting or OCHCH to inquire.