Homecare Agency will ensure the continuing education of personnel through attendance of in-service programs. In-service education refers to ongoing training provided by the employer to develop and maintain skills necessary for all staff members to perform their current job responsibilities. This training may be provided directly or the Homecare Agency may arrange for staff to attend sessions offered by outside sources. The Homecare Agency will have a written education plan annually with tentative schedule of in-service offering. The plan must be based on reliable and valid assessment of needs relevant to individual job responsibilities.

 

Ongoing education activities include methods for obtaining information about staff learning needs, outcome data from competency assessments, and staff input about the effectiveness of the in-services provided. Education activities also include a variety of methods for providing staff with current relevant information to assist with their learning needs. These methods include provision of journals, reference materials, books, internet learning, in house lectures and demonstrations, and access to external learning opportunities. As applicable, education programs must be designed to assist staff with work related issues of grief, loss and change, and pain and symptom management.

 

The organization will comply with all professional or occupational licensure and Florida regulatory laws for continuing education requirements and organization policy requirements regarding continuing education.

 

1)                  The Director of Nursing or designee will conduct an assessment of needs relevant to individual job responsibilities annual prior to the start of the year.  Additional methods for determining in-service needs in outcome data from competency assessments, and staff input about the effectiveness of the in-services provided.

 

2)                  The Homecare Agency will utilize the assessment to develop a written education plan with tentative schedule of in-service offering for the coming year. 

 

3)                  Non direct care staff must have a minimum of 8 hours of in-service/continuing education per year. Direct care staff, including home health aides, must have a minimum of 12 hours of in-service/continuing education per year. In-service training for home health aides may be conducted while the aide is providing care to a patient. Supervisors are encouraged to attend in-service education programs to improve their supervisory skills.

 

4)                  Mandatory Annual Training will include, at minimum:

 

a)      Corporate Compliance

b)      Infection Control

c)      Blood borne Pathogens

d)      PPD

e)      Material Data Sheets

f)        Fire and Safety

g)      Emergency Plan

h)      OBQI/ OBQM / PI

i)        Safe Medical Device Act

j)        Ethical Issues

k)      Professional relationships

l)        Conflict of interest

m)    Professional boundaries.

 

5)      Staff Safety training activities include:

b)      body mechanics;

c)workplace fire safety management and evacuation plan;

d)      workplace or office security;

e)personal safety techniques;

f)        common environmental hazards, (i.e. icy parking areas and walkways, blocked exits, cluttered stairways, etc.);

g)office equipment safety; and

h)safety and compliance monitoring measures relating to the client/patient’s medication, when applicable.

i)        personal safety techniques relating to in home service/care;

j)        safety measures relating to oxygen use, if applicable;

k)      client/patient medical equipment safety; if applicable

l)        basic home safety measures including household chemicals, throw rugs, furniture layout, cluttered stairways, blocked exits, bathroom

m)    safety, electrical safety, etc.); and

n)      use of restraints, if applicable.

 

 

6)                  Florida Requirements for education/in-service for full and part time employees will be assured including:

 

a)      The Homecare Agency will assure that non-licensed direct care personnel will demonstrate that they received a continuing educational course biennially on HIV and AIDS. This educational course will include the modes of transmission, infection control procedures, clinical management, and prevention of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome with an emphasis on appropriate behavior and attitude change. Such instruction shall include information on current Florida law and its impact on testing, confidentiality of test results, and treatment of patients and any protocols and procedures applicable to human immunodeficiency counseling and testing, reporting, the offering of HIV testing to pregnant women, and partner notification issues. The non-licensed direct care personnel that are required to have HIV and AIDS training are home health aides and CNA’s

b)      Upon beginning employment with the agency, each employee must receive basic written information about interacting with participants who have Alzheimer's disease or dementia-related disorders. See Addendum for the education materials to be utilized.  

c)      In addition to this information required in b) which is provided in Addendum A, newly hired Homecare Agency personnel who will be providing direct care to patients must complete 2 hours of training in Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related disorders within 9 months after beginning employment with the agency by a training provider approved by Department of Elder Affairs. This training must include, but is not limited to, an overview of dementia, a demonstration of basic skills in communicating with persons who have dementia, the management of problem behaviors, information about promoting the client's independence in activities of daily living, and instruction in skills for working with families and caregivers. If the Homecare Agency unduplicated census during the most recent calendar year was comprised of at least 90 percent of individuals aged 21 years or younger at the date of admission is exempt from this requirement. Certificates of any ADRD training required by this rule shall be documented in the agency’s personnel files or in a separate filing system maintained for education/in-service records. The two-hour training shall address the following subject areas:

1. Understanding Alzheimer's disease and related disorders;

2. Communicating with patients with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders;

3. Behavior management;

4. Promoting independence through assistance with activities of daily living; and

5. Developing skills for working with families and caregivers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was first discovered in 1906 by a German doctor named Alois Alzheimer. It is a disorder of the brain, causing damage to brain tissue over a period of time. The disease can linger from 2 to 25 years before death results. AD is a progressive, debilitating and eventually fatal neurological illness affecting an estimated 4-5 million Americans. It is the most common form of dementing illness.

 

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized clinically by early memory impairment followed by language and perceptual problems. This disease can affect anyone - it has no economic, social, racial or national barriers.

 

There is no one cause for Alzheimer’s disease. AD may be sporadic or passed through the genetic make-up. The disease causes gradual death of brain tissue due to biochemical problems inside individual brain cells. The symptoms are progressive, but there is great variation in the rate of change from one person to another. Although in the early stages of Alzheimer’s the victim may appear completely healthy, the damage is slowly destroying the brain cells. The hidden process damages the brain in several ways:

 

•                                             Patches of brain cells degenerate (neuritic plaques)

•                                             Nerve endings that transmit messages become tangled (neurofibrillary tangles)

•                                             There is a reduction in acetylcholine, an important brain chemical (neurotransmitter)

•                                             Spaces in the brain (ventricles become larger and filled with granular fluid)

•                                             The size and shape of the brain alters - the cortex appears to shrink and decay

 

Understandably, as the brain continues to degenerate, there is a comparable loss in mental functioning. Since the brain controls all of our bodily functions, an Alzheimer victim in the later stages will have difficulty walking, talking, swallowing and controlling bladder and bowel functions. They become quite frail and prone to infections such as pneumonia.

 

As a person grows older, he/she worries that forgetting the phone number of a best friend must mean he/she is becoming demented or getting Alzheimer’s disease. Forgetfulness due to aging or increased stress is not normal aging and is not dementia.

“Dementia” is an encompassing term for numerous forms of memory loss. There are many types of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease, Multi-Infarct dementia or Parkinson’s disease. When a person has dementia, he/she will lose the ability to think, reason and remember and will inevitable need assistance with everyday activities such as dressing and bathing. Changes in personality, mood are also symptoms of dementia. Many dementias are treatable and reversible. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of untreatable, irreversible dementia.

 

Alzheimer’s Disease can be characterized as having early, middle, and late stages through which the patient gradually progresses, but not at a predictable rate. The range of the course of the disease is 2-25 years. NOTE: Stages very often overlap. Everyone progresses through these stages differently