The Arizona Health Care Association created a workforce development program that was not only successful but blew past its goal by nearly 50%, recruiting and training more than 2,000 certified nursing assistants and long-term care caregivers.
The association received a one-time grant of $6.5 million through the Arizona governor’s office, which created the funding from America Rescue Plan dollars.
Based on a report the association released Tuesday on its AHCA WORKS (Workforce, Outreach & Retention are Keys to Success) project, it was money well spent.
The association partnered with 159 long-term care providers and 25 healthcare educational partners to recruit 2,217 students. The original goal was to recruit and train 1,500 CNAs.
Perhaps even more impressive, some 89%, or nearly 2,000, stayed on the job after completing initial training.
Providers were surveyed throughout the program and reported that retention rates remained high for new workers after 30, 60, 90 and 120 days on the job. More than two-thirds of students remained in their positions six months after starting, per the report.
“Better retention was linked to organizational practices such as career advancement opportunities, benefits and training, with key factors including career paths and management training for frontline workers,” report authors noted.
Seeds planted for more success
Association CEO David Voepel told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Tuesday that the original plan was for some partner SNFs to conduct in-house training, but that didn’t materialize. Instead, they worked with schools and other organizations to develop a training program that could be used statewide.
“Leadership development will be continued through the association’s programming,” he said. “The cool part of this whole thing is the relationships that were developed — they will be utilized in ways that we can’t even envision at this point.”
The program report was based on surveys completed by 113 SNFs and 68 assisted living facilities. The providers said they needed an average of nine CNAs or caregivers in their facilities with most of the vacancies – more than 43% – on evening shifts.
The average starting pay offered was $16.41 per hour; the highest offered rate was $20.46 per hour, and 60% of facilities offered hiring bonuses ranging from $100 to $5,000, with most requiring employees to remain on the job for at least 90 days to earn the bonus.
Providers reported that the most successful way to find workers was the commercial job platform Indeed. Just more than 54% of providers said that was the best recruitment tool while only 2.2% said they found success with vocational schools. Voepel explained that could be due to Indeed’s flexibility with real-time job postings whereas a school’s calendar may not align with a facility’s needs.
He cautioned that the program should be one of many approaches used to address staffing challenges.
“There’s no silver bullet with workforce, so we all have to use the ‘silver shotgun’ approach,” he noted.
Other program components and successes include:
· 98% of providers gave CNAs and caregivers different methods to deliver feedback, with the most popular being townhall-like meetings.
· 96% of providers offered benefits such as paid time off/vacation time and health, dental, or vision insurance.
· 92% of providers offered training opportunities to their CNAs and caregivers, such as continuing education or specialty skills courses.
· 60% of providers offered opportunities for socializing to their CNAs and caregivers, such as on-site social gatherings.
Successful immigrant CNA program
Another focus of the workforce development program was a Refugee CNA Training Pilot, which was developed with the Arizona Refugee Resettlement Program, Arizona State University’s Arizona Refugee Career Pathways Program, Covenant Health Network, Maricopa County Public Health, and the Maricopa County Workforce Development Board.
Nursing homes have long relied on immigrants to be nursing staff, and in March 2023, McKnight’s reported on research that showed better federal immigration policies could help improve staffing. Immigrant groups make up a “disproportionate share” of workers at nursing homes, about 1 in 5 at the direct care level. A backlog of processing immigrants’ work permits, however, is adding to the sector’s nationwide labor shortage, according to the research.
The Arizona Health Care Association’s report noted that refugees from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Syria participated in the program. Voepel said work with refugee programs will continue.
“When interviewed, many students saw CNA training as a first step in entering the healthcare workforce in the United States; many had goals of going to nursing school or working in the nursing field,” report authors noted. “Students also saw CNA training as an opportunity to learn skills that they could use within their own homes and communities, such as to care for elderly family members or neighbors.”
