Pathway Perspectives: Competency-Based Training
Designing a Competency-Based Training Program
The complexity of the health care environment requires staff to participate in educational programs that ensure they have the knowledge, skills and abilities to provide individualized care.
Recently, we connected with Lisa Thomson and Sue LaGrange to discuss the importance of competency-based training to support clinical outcomes. Below is a highlight from our conversation:
Q: Lisa, what is competency-based training?
A: Training that is focused on specific competencies for a single key skill. Multiple skills are combined into modules. This type of training may also be called outcome-based learning/training or skills-based learning/training. This structured approach to training and assessment is directed toward achieving specific outcomes. With competency-based training, the learner knows exactly what is expected and trainers know the precise training and learning that is required to achieve the expected level of competency.
Q: Sue, why is competency-based training important for LTC leaders?
A: As we all know, there are competencies required by federal and state regulations and other governing organizations for health care employees. There are also other entities or organizations that may impact our decision as leaders when determining the competency needs for your team. These other organizations may include, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA), Medicare and Medicaid integrity programs, state and federal labor laws and building codes, and practice rules for licensed, certified and registered professionals. Simply put, competency-based training is essential in order to maintain regulatory compliance and meet facility and individual licensing requirements.
Q: Lisa, where is the best place to start when developing a competency-based program?
A: Start with a comprehensive organizational assessment. It is important to gather all of the facts and gain a further understanding of the education and competency needs of your organization before developing a plan. This begins by identifying the core elements or determining factors that impact staff competency needs and what is needed to include in your training program.
Q: Lisa, from a market positioning view, what are a few of the core elements?
A: The first element includes strategic initiatives and priorities, which encompasses the overall strategic initiatives or priorities for your organization. This may include priorities such as, implementing a respiratory recovery care program taking COVID-19 patients, providing services for higher acuity individuals, specialty programs such as cardiac rehabilitation, or memory or dementia care that require additional clinical stabilization prior to going home with their loved ones. Another core element is marketplace trends and initiatives. This focuses on the expectations of the local marketplace or impactful market shifts, such as partnerships, new networks, payment models. As leaders, it is imperative to understand what is happening outside of our organization’s “walls,” not only for sustainability, but also for determining the skill level expectations of staff in order to achieve those outcomes.
Q: Sue, what are a few of the important core elements from a clinical perspective?
A: It is important to understand all of the regulatory requirements. There are a number of F-Tags related to competency expectations including:
F725 – Sufficient Nursing Staff
F726 – Competent Nursing Staff
F727 – RN 8hrs, 7 days/week, Full-Time DON
F728 – Facility Hiring & Use of Nurse Aide
F729 – Nurse Aide Registry Verification, Retraining
F730 – Nurse Aide Performance Review – 12 hours/year In-service
It is vital to have a pulse on how your team is meeting the regulatory requirements.
Speaking of team, workforce trends are also key. When designing a competency-based training program, it is important to assess the skill level requirements and needs of the current staff along with how skills align with their job descriptions or specific responsibilities. Another part of this equation is identifying future needs based upon the marketplace needs as well as the types of care and services your organization provides today and in the near future. It is important to look beyond what has always been done in as it relates to who does the training, what training is conducted and how to engage more people to conduct training and complete competency verification for the team. Facility-specific training program objectives play a foundational role. It is important to identify any other specific training program objectives that need to be considered for your overall master plan.
Five Strategies for Creating Meaningful and Competency-Based Training
Both Lisa and Sue mentioned that once the education and competency needs assessment is complete, leaders should map their organizations’s overall education journey by addressing five key steps.
Step 1: Understand the overall needs and requirements which includes your resident population which means identifying your overall population demographics and needs.
Step 2: Identify the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that your team members need in order to care for your residents/patients.
Step 3: Prioritize the specific competencies that are needed and determine how to verify that your staff can move their knowledge into action.
Step 4: Develop your overall training plan. Step 5: Evaluate the outcomes of the journey.
The overall process for the determination of competencies and training needs cannot rely on one individual within an organization. Utilizing a team approach to evaluate and determine the competency and training needs will engage team members in the process and will provide additional insight for successful outcomes.
Contact us to discuss how Pathway Health can support your staff competency training needs.