Why Educational Seminars are Important at Senior Care Communities

Posted on: November 17, 2017

It goes without saying that most senior-care communities focus on ensuring their patients’ and residents’ health, comfort, and safety. After all, one of their main vocations is to help residents be as happy and comfortable as they can be. However, this doesn’t mean that caring for residents and patients is all that happens in an elder-care community. Many senior-care communities and their staff also invest their time and effort in providing educational events and seminars, not only for in-house teams but also for the families of residents under their care.

How Do Educational Seminars Benefit Employees?

Knowledge is power. For senior-care facilities, empowering staff through knowledge is a very important advantage when it comes to the overall health and well-being of a community.  By providing nurses and professional senior-care providers with various learning opportunities, no matter how big or small these opportunities may be, they become equipped with the skills and knowledge that allows team members to perform their jobs in a more effective and efficient manner.

This becomes a win-win scenario for both staff and residents. By having a team of very skilled and knowledgeable care providers, you are able to raise the competitiveness of your offerings. At the same time, you can provide senior residents with better quality services. This is why it’s a must to provide educational seminars into the overall environment of a senior-care community.

Aside from empowering you to help your employees become better and more capable senior-care providers, educational seminars also help you establish better relationships with your staff. Investing in your employees’ development shows that you care about their growth as individuals. This helps build employee trust and loyalty and encourages them to become better and more responsible members of your organization.

A great example of this is the training program provided by CareOne’s Bergen County facility under the direction of President and CEO Daniel E. Straus. Clinical and administrative employees, which include nurses, therapists, social workers, administrators, and directors of nursing, as well as regional team members from CareOne’s operations, compliance, education, clinical reimbursement and integrated care coordination departments participated in transitional care simulation scenarios at the Holy Name Institute for Simulation Learning.

As part of their learning experience, the participants interacted with actors and served on a team that debriefed every possible scenario that may occur within a senior care facility. This training program enabled them to improve their confidence and ability to respond to difficult situations.

According to the participants, the detailed instruction and post-training debriefing they received helped to improve the way they assist patients and their respective families when transitioning to the next level of care. In addition, it made them feel more empowered and confident in their abilities.

How Do Educational Seminars Benefit the Patients and Their Families?

As many of us know, caring for family members with Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, and other memory-related medical conditions is a very daunting task. Not only is it physically challenging, it can be emotionally draining, as well.

Providing caregivers with support and knowledge can go a long way.  This is why CareOne provides learning opportunities to help those who are caring for their family.  As an example of these ongoing efforts, CareOne at Teaneck is currently running a caregiver support group for family members who are involved with the direct care of the patients or are overseeing their care. Led by Vivian Green Korner, a dementia care specialist, the support group started in the summer of 2016.

Ms. Korner is very knowledgeable in all aspects of the caregiving process. Despite having her own private practice, she shares her time and knowledge to answer questions that arise among many home caregivers. Apart from consultations with Ms. Korner, the members of the support group are provided with informative handouts with phone numbers of agencies that can assist them, as well as other learning resources about the caregiving process and other topics related to aging.  This is a tremendous help for those who are caring for or overseeing the care of aging relatives.

While the Internet is sometimes the go-to for questions and information, not all information is accurate or up-to-date. By organizing educational events at senior-care facilities and including certified experts in your event series, you can give caregivers, family members and residents peace of mind by knowing that they won’t fall prey to misinformation or inaccurate data.

While organizing educational seminars for both staff members and patients and their family members requires time, and investment of this ilk is well worth it because you are able to enrich the lives of your employees and patients, as well as their families.