At the moment, our aging populations are requiring more intensive care, as there is a national nursing shortage. The tasks HR and facility managers are facing seem bleak. Finding the right candidate who can uphold the highest clinical standards can be a challenge, to say the least.
In the meantime, the long-term care industry is making do with 'warm body' hiring, which represents more than a management question. It begs the question – Is it a direct danger to the welfare of residents?
The field of nursing home employment needs a specialized approach that combines advanced technical expertise with a level of 'vigilance intelligence.' Often, the first casualty is proactive care when staffing levels decline or the quality of hires drops.
Here are some strategic hiring practices that you should consider to develop a team that safeguards both your residents and your facility's image and reputation.
Vetting for 'Vigilance Intelligence'
Technical certifications, a CNA or LPN license, for example, are only the start.
The most successful geriatric hires are those who have 'vigilance intelligence,' or the ability to enforce care protocols using active monitoring, analyzing, and acting upon any information that points to a threat. It also improves security and aids decision-making. In the interviewing process, move past basic behavioral questions and ask situational judgment tests.
For example, have candidates prioritize a list of tasks with administrative and direct patient care duties, such as 'repositioning' of a non-ambulatory resident.Repositioning is not a 'soft' thing; it is a clinical imperative that must be done. Failure to move a sedentary patient frequently is the cause of skin breakdown in clinical settings.
A quality hire knows this: these everyday moves are their initial line of defense against debilitating injuries.
Screening for Pressure Care Competency
Nursing home bed sores overview is one of the most accurate barometers of a nursing home's quality of care, as it relates to skin health.
Surveillance becomes the first thing to be neglected when a facility is understaffed or staffed by poorly trained employees. As a result, pressure ulcers develop, which can rapidly progress into infection. These situations can escalate to life-threatening conditions and lawsuits for the organizations involved.
Because skin neglect has such high legal and financial stakes, recruitment should favor candidates trained in pressure management.
Families who learn that a loved one has been hurt because the staff failed to monitor them properly frequently seek a nursing home bed sores overview to see if the facility met the standard of care necessary to keep residents healthy.
By hiring professionals who are already certified in wound care or specialized geriatric skin health, you greatly minimize the risk of avoidable crises and the liability that results from them.
Hiring for 'Emotional Durability' and Culture Fit
Burnout accounts for most turnover in nursing homes, while a high turnover rate is considered the best indicator of patient neglect.
To address this, recruiters need to look for 'emotional durability.' Recruit those with established longevity in past positions and the ability to provide truly genuine geriatric care.
Assess their empathy in the interview using role-playing scenarios.
A caregiver with high emotional intelligence is particularly astute in picking up on the subtleties of resident distress, a subtle change in the color of a resident's skin, a change in localized heat, or heightened agitation, long before these issues become acute emergency room issues.
Hiring for culture fit will help to make sure your team is supportive of one another and minimizes those 'fatigue errors' that result in safety checks not being completed.
When HR Practices Should Employ Recruitment Technology to Ensure Compliance
At a high-volume hiring shop, manual screening can even create 'compliance drift' with time.
It's no secret that AI and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are revolutionizing recruitment, and that these applications are paramount in healthcare, as Onrec has consistently featured how AI and ATS are revolutionizing recruitment. Use an ATS tool to automate license and background checks so that no candidate with bad behavior or license suspension slips through the cracks.
Also, try to hire 'tech-literate' employees. Nurses of today use Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to record the state of hydration, movement schedules, and more.
Hiring staff members capable of reliably and continuously using these digital tools establishes a 'paper trail of care' that safeguards the facility for audits and ensures that every resident's needs are being addressed immediately.
Using a 'Quality-First' Onboarding Process
You don't terminate the hiring process when the document is signed. The first 90 days of a nursing home staff member's career are the most critical for establishing safety expectations.
There are lots of things that should go into a solid onboarding process:
➔ Shadowing with Senior Mentors-Match new employees with 'safety champions' with a zero-incident history in skin care and fall prevention.
➔ Practical Competency Check-offs-In advance of working at the front line, a new hire should be able to show they can perform high-risk tasks, such as using a Hoyer lift or recognizing Stage 1 pressure markers.
➔ All new hires need to know in writing what should be reported and how to file a report.
Conclusion
There's so much more to hiring nursing home staff than looking at a resume and matching the job description.
You need to look further into valid skills to ensure the right people can do the job. Emotional resilience, intelligence, common sense, and vigilance – all these will help you in having a team that's ready to deliver the level of care each and every one of your residents deserves (and needs).
The most expensive hire – as it turns out – is the one that's left unqualified. And this has to do with the fact that the cost of clinical neglect always trumps the costs you pay in the recruitment process.
