Matt Reiners is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Eversound, a hearing solution company dedicated to improving the quality of life for elders. Recently, he had a conversation with our own Laura Ellen Christian about the future of training and education for the senior living industry.
Laura Ellen has a marvelous way of boiling down complex issues to where the rubber meets the road! In her conversation with Matt Reiners, she relayed a concept that sets a profound new direction for care partner training and education, and it goes like this:
"We need to shift from talking to people to talking with people, and this includes the mentality that every meeting, quick team huddle or conversation is an opportunity for learning and sharing."
I come from the "in-service" format of training. Sign up, sign in, attend, and go back to work. It usually included a live presenter (sometimes in-house, sometimes hired-in) with a power point. Mostly, the training was compliance focused with an occasional personal enrichment topic. The benefit of this form of training was to check off the compliance box and load up on the free snacks. Sound familiar?
Nobody viewed this training from the lens of personal development/growth- absolutely nobody. Moans and groans from the gallery of attendees was commonplace. Everyone knew they had to do it, but very few wanted to.
As we have worked to refocus care delivery from institutional to person-first, the same is needed for the education and training of aging services employees.
So, continuing with the Laura Ellen Christian approach to get down to where the rubber meets the road, I pulled together this quick glance tips for person-first staff education and training:
Offer training that is connected to each person
Expand delivery methods that engage employees
Incorporate opportunities for just-in-time learning moments
Ensure that learners contribute to the training experience
Leverage training into practical skill building to turn knowledge into action
