The push to increase certified nursing assistant training and retention in long-term care got a boost this week in the form of a $5 million federal grant to Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University.
NYU Meyers plans to use the funding to give nursing students specialized knowledge in geriatric care, better knowledge as “age-friendly care,” and more on-the-ground training in skilled nursing facilities.
The grant is funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). That agency has invested more than $200 million in healthcare training initiatives across the country in recent years.
CNAs are vital contributors to any senior care setting, and so NYU Meyers has placed a significant emphasis on doing more than creating an initial worker pipeline. The HRSA funds will be invested in specialized training and career advancement opportunities, according to Tara Cortes, PhD, executive director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU Meyers.
“CNAs are the eyes and ears of long-term care, providing the most direct patient care in these settings,” Cortes said in a report on the program Tuesday. “Recent efforts to improve staffing in nursing homes … have called for a strategy to advance the role of nursing assistants. We look forward to working with New York State to develop a certification that empowers CNAs as leaders in age-friendly care, and can be replicated across the country.”
Cortes told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News that promoting career advancement opportunities for CNAs is a requirement for funding.
“We will be working with nursing homes participating in this initiative, the State Department of Health, the State Department of Labor and the unions to develop the plan, the curriculum and requirements for a new certification for CNAs as a geriatric specialist,” she explained Thursday. “We expect to roll out this program as a pilot to a small cohort of CNAs in the third year of the grant period and continue into years four and five.”
Experts agree that replicating programs like this will likely only become more vital as the long-term care sector is faced with the mounting “silver tsunami” of the aging US population.
“Caring for an 80-year-old is not the same as caring for a 40-year-old,” Cortes told McKnight’s. “We just don’t have a workforce that is adequately prepared with the knowledge and skills to care for older adults. The goal of caring for older adults to keep people functioning at their highest potential both physically and cognitively. This type of care requires a team that is composed of health care professionals, direct caregivers and community workers that understands age-friendly care and reflects its principles in practice.”
One key innovation of the NYU Meyers program is building in on-the-ground training for future nurses.
Beginning next year, registered nurses in-training will be placed into clinical rotations at two participating local nursing homes. That real-world clinical experience could help alleviate common sector complaints about needing to rapidly onboard inexperienced workers.
“This program, Teaching Nursing Homes, is intended to provide students with a positive and stimulating experience so that they are incentivized to work in long-term care communities upon graduation,” Cortes said.
