WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT


Leaders Show the Way to A Strong, Motivated Workforce


By Sara Wildberger T


hese are stories of senior living com- munity employees who took a look at the challenges in attracting and


maintaining a high-quality workforce and decided to do something about it. There are many more like them in communities around the country. Some got where they are by opting into educational programs and benefi ts through provider companies, some are Argentum Senior Living Works Ambassadors, some had good mentors or encouragement, and some built their own programs from the ground up. All have some lessons learned to share. But the big takeaway: no one position or level has a mo- nopoly on great ideas—or on taking action.


Creating from scratch Sheila McArdle is the creator of a ground- breaking program. The senior executive director at the Hearth at Hendersonville, in Hendersonville, Tenn., she is continu- ously looking for ways to improve quality and effi ciency. Having more associates qualified to administer medications could help with both. In previous positions, she had seen that states used certifi ed medication aides. Could this work for Tennessee? The answer was yes, but: The Medication


Aide Certifi ed (MAC) position existed, but there was no one doing training at that time. While training had previously been allowed only at educational institutions, Tennessee had recently opened the door to allowing training at certifi ed sites. McArdle set out to make Hendersonville


one of those certifi ed sites. The community would off er the MAC credential training to interested CNAs as a way to benefit residents and help employees move up at the same time. “It turned out to be extremely compli- cated and complex,” she says. “We had no


manual, no textbook—all we had were the regulations we needed to meet.” Everything had to be created from


scratch, without even a recipe. For instance, not only did she have to create a curriculum, but it had to be approved. Determining eli- gibility, how long classes would be, creating quizzes and tests, creating an instructor’s manual—that took several months. “I got a lot of help from the state board of nursing,” she says. “They surveyed the curriculum, and we were invited to present it to the state board, and we were the fi rst assisted living community in the state to be approved to teach this class.” The hard part wasn’t over. The Hearth


team put a textbook together themselves and ordered a published textbook as a supplement. They paid associates for the time they spent in class. Each student had to be a CNA in good standing who had worked full-time for at least a year in long- term care or senior living setting. About two weeks into the class, she says, a few students came to her concerned they wouldn’t make it and wanting to quit. These were working adults who had been out of school for a long time. They had work and families and all the other concerns many other students don’t face. McArdle kept them going by reminding


them of how many skills they had learned over the years, and how many they used each day. “You know more than you think you do,” she told them. All graduated. The Hearth at Hender-


sonville held a formal graduation ceremony and presented the grads a gift: a stethoscope. “Two of them have come to me and


said, ‘I’m going to do this for a year, and then go to nursing school,’” McArdle said. “It’s great for our retention and to promote senior living as a career.”


18 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019


Sheila McArdle Senior executive director The Hearth at Hendersonville


Tips: • Know your state regulations and re- quirements. You can learn from other programs, but some models aren’t transferable.


• Be ready to provide a lot of support. That means creating an environment where peer support can happen as well as having instructors and others at the community “cheering them on.


• It helped that McArdle had longstanding relationships with experienced experts. For instance, she called on a longtime colleague who is a master nurse and skilled in teaching adult learners for advice. For those earlier in their careers who don’t have that advantage, good networking and collaboration today can build strength for an ambitious project like this in the future.


• Think about the future, and how your program might expand. Could what you’re doing become a model for other communities and other states? McArdle’s team will teach its curriculum to other groups, for instance.


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