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The online clinical training platform CareAcademy has developed a hospice care curriculum.
The new curriculum is designed to offer “foundational orientation training” for hospice aides, nurses, volunteers, social workers, chaplains and other spiritual care providers, as well as physicians. It covers the essentials of delivering end-of-life care in the home and compliance with regulatory requirements.
The new modules are a part of the company’s larger push into the post-acute space, including hospice, palliative care and home health, according to Helen Adeosun, CEO and Founder of CareAcademy
“At CareAcademy, our vision is to enable all members of the care delivery team in post-acute settings with the knowledge and skills they need to provide exceptional care,” Adeosun said in a statement. “We understand that the needs of direct care workers are broadly the same across different care settings, which propelled us to expand our offerings beyond home care to serve the entire post-acute care continuum.”
Amid staffing shortages, limited access to clinical training continues to place constraints on recruitment and retention for hospices. Few clinicians receive training on home-based care, hospice or palliative services during routine nursing and medical education. A 2018 study showed that most students in clinical disciplines do not feel prepared to provide family care at the end of life.
“All nurses need to know the basics of providing family care at end-of-life. This study supported that students prefer experiential learning methods, such as simulation and role playing,” the study indicated. “This [research] also demonstrates that nursing faculty should also be knowledgeable and comfortable with family care at end-of-life.”
Consequently, hospices are not only competing with other health care sectors for new hires, but the vast majority of clinicians entering the workforce are unprepared to provide those services.
To stave off attrition, many providers are developing in-house training programs, often with both hands-on and virtual elements to help bring new clinical employees up to speed.
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