Insight is evaluating The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA)'s training program for health care providers in the long-term care (LTC) setting who work with younger adult residents. LTC providers face unique challenges in caring for younger adults, who have different clinical, financial, and regulatory needs from the geriatric (65 and older) population and who make up an increasing proportion of LTC residents.
The training program, funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, aims to (1) increase LTC clinical practitioner and staff competency to improve quality of care and quality of life measures for younger adult residents and (2) enable staff to apply their increased competency to offer younger adult residents the care necessary to maintain their mental and physical health across potentially long nursing home stays.
This training—which can be administered in person or through an online training platform—targets LTC professionals and paraprofessionals, including certified nursing assistants and geriatric nursing assistants. The training is being piloted in seven states in the Southeastern United States through 2017.
For this study, Insight will evaluate outcomes from two training platforms on improving quality of life and quality of care for younger adult residents in LTC, as well as supplemental material on staff knowledge, knowledge utilization, and attitudes toward caring for younger adult residents. Insight is also examining frequency and scalability options for this training and its potential for further dissemination in other regions.