Nurse Training and Development Helping Clients in Home Care

When a nurse joins Carefor, they rarely come with an understanding of the complexities of nursing in a home care setting. Many believe it to be simply check-ins ensuring doctor’s orders are being followed. Nurses quickly find the depth and breadth of conditions they are expected to treat require more training and education than they might have, as in a home care setting, there’s not a doctor or specialist down the hall that can come and take a look at a patient.

As an agency that provides home care nursing, among other services, our mandate is to care for people in their homes. The purpose of this isn’t only to provide care to those who are unable to leave their houses to get care in primary or acute care settings, it’s also to make sure that people to don’t have to. Without home care keeping seniors out of hospitals and long-term care, our already heavily stained system would break.

So, to ensure that our clients are getting more than just care, but exceptional care, there’s a process from day one throughout their time with Carefor to make sure our nurses can do just that.

About 60% of the care our nurses provide is complex wound care. The other 40% is complex palliative care. As with all conditions, nothing exists in isolation and numerous factors,such as significant frailty, need to be considered and confronted when dealing with a health issue. Nurses coming to Carefor may come with some experience in either or both, but not nearly enough.

From the beginning, nurses receive a month of training. This training consists of a combination of one-on-one and small groups and can involve such topics as medication management of opioids, high risk medication management, wound management and more. Nurses also require training in how to efficiently care plan in a home care setting, which requires training in supply management, visit scheduling and more.

The training is done by Carefor Nursing Supervisors as well as front line nurses. The latter are buddied with new staff in the first month and accompany them on visits before a nurse is ready to work independently. Once this happens a nurse isn’t on her own and can always call upon their “buddy” or a supervisor for assistance, which may require in person assistance.

This close relationship between the new nurse and supervisor and/or more senior nurse continues for about three to six months with regular check ins. Beyond that period, monthly “team time” among nurses is an excellent way for nurses of all levels of experience to connect and troubleshoot with their peers about complex situations.

Training and development isn’t just a priority for new staff but for all our nursing team as we aspire to create a continuous learning environment where courses are regularly offered to help nurses achieve further certification. This training is offered as part of their regular schedule and we incorporate it into nurses’ routines as best as possible with team times, as an example, being devoted to Skills Labs once per quarter.

Training can come from many sources and can either be to offer ongoing support or to achieve personal certification. Many of the courses we offer come from the College of Nurses of Ontario, Wound Canada and the de Souza Institute for palliative training. Those who express a particular interest in wound care can become Wound Care Champions through learning from NSWOC Canada; and once completed these staff become an excellent resource for their peers. 

Additionally, we have created a Professional Practice Lead for nursing to offer ongoing support and guidance to nurses on what might be considered soft skills and to ensure both client and nurse have the best care experience possible. Carefor also offers an annual bursary program to all staff who are keen to pursue education which supports their work but falls outside of our training programs.

One thing we have understood through our 126 years of providing care to the people of Eastern Ontario is that there is always a better way to offer care. Best practices in healthcare are always evolving and we must evolve with them, not in a passive way, but actively searching out new and better ways of providing exceptional home care to our clients.